Sony Offers PSN Users ‘Welcome Back’ Offer After Hacking

Written by Ender on May 1, 2011 · Filed under Games 

Everyone is well aware of the recent PSN hack that has caused Sony no ends of problems, not to mention the 77 million PSN users whose details have been stolen. It’s been two weeks since the hack and still the PSN is down, infuriating gamers still. But Sony have released some details of their ‘Welcome Back’ offer to all registered PSN users.

Every user of PSN will get a free month subscription of Playstation Plus, including those who are already signed up to the service. On top of that, users will be receiving some free “entertainment content” which is going to be different for each region, but no details have emerged as yet as to what each region will get.

Hopefully the freebies won’t be a bunch of crap, but I wouldn’t expect any big titles for free either, but I suppose it goes some way to apologising to the Playstation 3 users.

When the PSN is back up and running, there will be a mandatory system update which will require all users to change their PSN passwords which has to be changed on the PS3 it was activated on (be a problem for me as I’m on my 2nd PS3) or through an e-mail.

Parts of the network should be up and running within a week, but services such as the Playstation Store won’t be back up until later in the month. Although Sony are willing to offer some free content to PSN users, a bigger question remains. How much has this damaged Sony’s reputation and will users be willing to use their cards over the PSN service?

Sony haven’t found any details “yet” to say that credit card details have been stolen but it’s still a possibility. Security has been updated, but surely it’s only a matter of time before some hacker with nothing better to do with their time hacks into it again? The FBI have been brought into the investigation to track down the hackers so they can hang them out to dry.

Sony’s shares have suffered from this hack, but will they be able to reassure fans that everything is back to normal and running better and more securely than before? I’m a bit of a Sony fanboy and this hack has even made me question Sony’s security.

Only time will tell to whether this will have a lasting affect on Sony and the PSN. How have you felt about all this? Have you not been too bothered about it? Have you been sat shaking in a corner from withdraw symptoms from being unable to play online games? Let us know in the comments below.