Welcome Back Package now live!

Ohhh yeaaa finally! It is up. Free 30day trial for PS+ and other goodies that comes with it. Activate your PS+ now I don't know what to say. I already downloaded a bunch of free stuff that you can keep even after your free PS+ subscription is done.

Your chance to get your PS+ package is only available until July 3rd!

If you have 2 or more accounts, you can download pretty much all the games for both PS3 and PSN. However, those accounts should be registered prior to April 20 2011.

Game list vanished from PS Store? Don't worry! It is still there! Go to your "Account Management" then hit "Transaction Management" then to "Services List" and finally to "SCEA Promotion".

PS Store to be Restored

Hello, there is a press release that was just posted by Sony. All PSN (including PS Store) will be back online worldwide with the exception of Japan, Hong Kong, and South Korea. It will resume all services on June 2, 2011 which is tomorrow.

Update(1): Welcome Back package will not be available until sometime later. Expect some delays and errors when you try to access PS Store as many will be trying to access it at the same time.

To see the press release yourself click : Sony Press Release PSN Restoration"


"Tokyo, June 2, 2011– Sony Corporation and Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) announced today that Sony Network Entertainment International (SNEI, the company) will fully restore all PlayStation®Network services today June 2, 2011, in the Americas, Europe/PAL territories and Asia, excluding Japan, Hong Kong, and South Korea. The company will also resume Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity™ for PlayStation®3 (PS3®), PSP® (PlayStation®Portable), VAIO and other PCs."
- Sony Press Release

Sony Online Entertainment: PC gamers are not left out from PSN hacking.

"Surprise! The hackers did not forget about you PC gamers!"

Another service from Sony has gone down for maintenance. Station.com serves online Sony PC games like Everquest and DC Universe. Apparently, Sony thinks that SOE is also affected by the PSN hack incident more than a week ago.The servers are located separately from each other but in the same geographical location. So they shut it down to have an investigation.

An announcement from SOE facebook page few minutes ago was made stating:

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"Dear valued SOE customers:
We had temporarily taken down SOE services during the night. In the course of our investigation into the intrusion of our systems, we have discovered an issue that warrants enough concern. We will provide an update later today."

- SOE Facebook

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SOE already announced that they will provide in-game bonuses for the loss of service. Let's hope that the PC gamer's personal information has not been taken too just like the PSN. It will be much much bigger than we thought if both numbers of affected players are combined.

Update(1): Sony has officially announced that the same thing happened across the SOE network. All personal information of paying customers for MMORPG and other games offered by SOE are in the exact same position as the PSN users. They have also identified that credit card information were also taken.

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"This information, which was discovered by engineers and security consultants reviewing SOE systems, showed that personal information from approximately 24.6 million SOE accounts may have been stolen, as well as certain information from an outdated database from 2007.  The information from the outdated database that may have been stolen includes approximately 12,700 non-U.S. credit or debit card numbers and expiration dates (but not credit card security codes), and about 10,700 direct debit records of certain customers in Austria, Germany, Netherlands and Spain."

- Sony Online Entertainment.
http://www.soe.com/securityupdate/pressrelease.vm

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Actually, it turns out to be much worse than PSN. As the information taken form the servers were much more such as bank account numbers, customer name, account name, and address of over 10,000 people.

No doubt. this is the biggest criminal hacking incident yet.