Full PSN Restoration In Effect June 2

Sony Computer Entertainment and Sony Corp. said late Wednesday that Sony Network Entertainment International would begin full restoration of PlayStation Network on Thursday, June 2. The full restoration of PSN brings an end to a cyber attack-induced outage that lasted about six weeks. The complete relaunch will occur in the Americas, Europe/PAL territories and Asia, excluding Japan, Hong Kong, and South Korea, Sony said. Sony had partially restored some network functions on May 14, including multiplayer gaming on PlayStation 3 and PSP, chat, friends lists, trophy comparisons, nearly all Sony Online Entertainment Station.com PC games, and streaming entertainment services such as Hulu. Most notably, the full restoration means that users will be able to access the PlayStation Store digital storefront - and game companies will once again be able to sell games via the store, after enduring weeks of lost sales. Also returning is Sony's "Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity" for PS3, PSP and PCs. With a June 2 restoration, Sony missed by a couple days its original publicly-announced target of May 31, although Sony's PSN content manager Jack Osorno had told dev partners last month that the company was targeting a May 24 return. Sony revealed in April that hackers had intruded on PSN, breaching security measures and compromising about 77 million registered accounts, potentially exposing credit card numbers. The company responded by taking down the network on April 20. Days later, Sony announced that SOE accounts had also been compromised as part of the same attack, putting another 24.6 million accounts at risk. The return of the PlayStation Store also means that PS3 and PSP owners will be able to download select games that Sony is giving away for free in an attempt to make amends for the extended downtime. The company is also offering a year of free identity theft protection and 30 free days of PlayStation Plus membership. Sony said that it would announce details for PSN restoration for Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea as more information becomes available, along with details for Qriocity's return for those regions.