The dark times are nearly over. Sony is still working to win back the trust of its customers following the April hacking that left PlayStation Network, Qriocity and Sony Online Entertainment services shut down for a month and more than 100 million users with exposed personal information. The switch was flipped back to “ON” roughly two weeks ago, with limited service being restored across the company’s online networks. Today brings the news that all will be back to normal sometime this week.
Yes, we’ve hummed along to a similar tune from Sony a couple of times now, and been disappointed each time, but things have remained relatively stable these past two weeks and there’s no reason to believe that the company won’t be able to keep its promise this time. The news comes from a press release posted on the PlayStation Blog, which states that full PSN service will be restored for all regions — excluding Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea — by the end of this week.
Some amount of Qriocity service will be returning as well, with Music Unlimited coming back to PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable and PCs. More importantly for gamers, the restoration of service will also bring back access to the PlayStation Store, in-game purchases and code redemption.
“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,” Sony boss Kaz Hirai said in the press release. “We appreciate the patience and support shown during this time.”