It’s been a long road to recovery, but Sony has announced that the PlayStation Network and PlayStation store will be returning and fully operational in America, Europe and parts of Asia this week.
In an announcement posted on the official PlayStation blog Monday night, Sony said it had “implemented considerable security enhancements to the network infrastructure, as well as conducted testing of the payment process and commerce functions.”
“We have been conducting additional testing and further security verification of our commerce functions in order to bring the PlayStation Network completely back online so that our fans can again enjoy the first class entertainment experience they have come to love,” Executive Deputy President, Kazuo Hirai said in the press release. “We appreciate the patience and support shown during this time.”
Sony has been struggling to bring its online gaming, music and video services back online after hackers breached their network in April and pilfered the personal information of millions of customer. Sony began bringing services partially back online as of May 15.
Meanwhile, just as Sony was making this announcement Monday night, a hacker group going by the name LulzSec tweeted: "Hey @Sony, you know we're making off with a bunch of your internal stuff right now and you haven't even noticed? Slow and steady, guys."
As game blog Kotaku reports, LulzSec has claimed responsiblity for the recent hacking of PBS's online site.
Sony has not commented on whether the group's threats are real. And it's just the latest hacking threat designed to kick Sony while it's down.
Meanwhile, it’s still unclear when Sony will fully restore its PlayStation Network services to Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea or when it will fire up its remaining Qriocity servies. According to the press release, those details “will be announced as they become available.”
In the meantime, the full restoration of the PlayStation Network as well as part of the Qriocity services coming this week will include:
- Full functionality on PlayStation Store
- In-game commerce
- Ability to redeem vouchers and codes
- Full functionality on Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity for PS3, PSP, VAIO and
other PCs - Full functionality on Media Go
For more information about the Sony PlayStation Network outage, be sure to read:
- Free iPhone app checks PlayStation Network status
- Japan says 'Not so fast' to Sony PlayStation Network
- Sony begins restoration of the PlayStation Network
- Sony blames hacker group Anonymous
Winda Benedetti writes about games for msnbc.com. You can follow her tweets about games and other things right here on Twitter.
