About a month and a half after it first pulled the plug on the Playstation Network, Sony says all services will finally be back online.
That is, at least in the US, Europe, and most of Asia. Services in Japan, Hong Kong, and South Korea remain suspended with no word on when they may be back up and running.
For everyone else, though, Sony promises the PS3 and PSP online capabilities will finally return to the same state they were before April 20.
The company had previously restored some functionality, including online multiplayer features, earlier this month. However, the digital download platform the Playstation Store, continued to be shut down because of the additional security concerns with credit card and other personal information involved therein.
Just last week, Sony assured gamers the Playstation Store would be back up online by the end of May, but today, the final day of the month, the company issued a press release saying that will not happen until the end of the week, setting a new deadline of June 4.
In addition to the online store, other services that have been disabled include the console’s Music Unlimited and Media Go services. Those will be restored simultaneously this week as well.
“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. We appreciate the patience and support shown during this time,” said Sony executive deputy president Kaz Hirai.
When the Playstation Store does come back online, users will be able to download a variety of free content, and will receive a free month of the premium Playstation Plus service, as Sony’s way of apologizing for the six weeks of no service.
