Sony: PSN Fully Online By May 31

Sony has said that it plans for PlayStation Network to be fully operational by May 31, according to media reports over the weekend. Talking to financial website Bloomberg, Sony spokesman Shigenori Yoshida said that the company is uncertain as to when individual services will be restored for the PlayStation 3 and PSP. He noted that the plan is for all services to be fully restored by May 31, nearly six weeks after the network was taken down. Sony originally planned to start relaunching individual network services over last weekend. Elsewhere, Nick Caplin, head of communications at SCEE, said that in light of the identity theft protection being offered to PSN users in North America, users in the SCEE region will also be provided with a similar service, although he noted that this is a "very complicated process." He revealed in a PlayStation Blog post that EU gamers will be offered four free games as part of the Welcome Back program. PS3 users will be able to choose two games from a list of five, while PSP users will be granted two games from a list of four.