In the wee hours of my New York morning, several Sony Computer Entertainment big wigs held a press conference on the other side of the world, discussing the well documented troubles with PlayStation Network. Security, free content, and Anonymous, oh my!
I hear you guys. What do we get for our hours of lost online play? It's a perfectly fair question, but let's start with something a little more pertinent: when will the system be back online? Sony is calling it a phased restoration, with some of PSN's features returning sometime this week. Which features exactly, I'm not sure, but some is better than none I suppose. Sony states PSN should be fully operation by the end of May. You might be thinking that's a hell of a long time, an you're absolutely correct, it is. However it's unavoidable as Sony makes the proper upgrades (see: measures that should have been put in place years ago) to assure a fiasco like this will never occur again. To that end, a new Chief Information Security Officer position has been created, which coincidentally, sounds something like the type of job GeoHot was pining for when he opened the PS3 hacking floodgates.
Now the good stuff. What's in it for us, the near 100 million users who are affected by Sony's ludicrous debacle? All PSN users who are not currently subscribed to PlayStation Plus will receive a free month of the premium service. Current PlayStation Plus subscribers will receive one free month of service. PlayStation Plus allows PSN users early access to demos and beta tests, as well as certain free downloadable games and downloadable content. Needless to say, I'm sure PlayStation Plus will not see any free game releases during this time, as Sony surely wants to lose as little money as possible.
The PSN faithful will be rewarded with some free content, which values at a couple thousand yen ($20 - $40, most likely), which could end up being Warhawk, a few premium themes, and some PlayStation Home content. Don't be surprised. In addition to the above, existing Qriocity users - anyone out there? - will get a month for free.
Sony execs and press threw around the name Anonymous a few times at the conference, and though no fingers were pointed, Kaz Hirai didn't rule the Hacktivist group out, especially considering that Sony has found Anonymous' ire as of late. Stop snitching, Kaz.
Hopefully, the end is in sight for Sony's nightmare and our deprivation of fulfilling online interaction. What say you about the whole ordeal? Is the security of your information worth an addition month of service downtime? Is 30 days of complimentary PS Plus access reparation or a marketing ploy? Does $20 worth of content right countless lost hours of online playtime?