No hard deadline for the return of Sony's online service.
UPDATE: Sony has informed us that Bloomberg's wording, which was the foundation of this story, is inaccurate and the May 31 "deadline" does not exist. There does not appear to be any hard deadline established, only to return services as Sony determines the appropriate security measures are in place.
Venture Beat first broke the dispute, which we separately confirmed with Sony. It's suspected the confusion may have come from this line in the recent press conference: "We are aiming to restore full services including PlayStation Store and purchasing features for Qriocity services within May 2011."
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Hey, remember last week, when Sony said that it planned to get the ball rolling with restoring its PlayStation Network services starting last week? Right, just a quick reminder that it's not last week anymore. It's this week now. So, to be clear, last week came and went, and now this is this week, and yes your PSN services still aren't up. I know, I was confused, too. Just trust me on this one.
So, uh... how's that SOCOM single-player, eh? Now, on the subject of the PSN and when-ish you might actually be able to get back online, the answer currently is: "Dunno?"
As of this morning, Sony does not have a firm timetable for getting PSN all the way back online, and is currently only stating that everything should be restored by the end of this month. This info comes from company spokesman Shigenori Yoshida, who told Bloomberg this morning that the company is currently uncertain exactly when everything will return to a live state, and that Sony has set a deadline of May 31 for all services to be restored.
Last week's plan to restore partial services fell by the wayside when Sony decided it needed to finalize testing to make sure its newly constructed system was operating correctly. So, until we get another projected time line from Sony, all we can do is sit, wait, and wonder which other version of Splash Damage's multiplayer shooter, Brink, to pick up tomorrow.
The only thing worse than it not being back up is if it was back and had some undetect flaw in it. So I'm cool with this. I never actually believed the previous estimate either.
" Dang. This spells trouble considering people are going to be out of classes starting as early as next week. "
I can't help but keep thinking it could've been worse. Imagine if this happened early November instead of now. Being down for the holiday season, especially this holiday season, would be disastrous.
" Oh thank god for Giant Bomb. Only version of this story so far which hasn't been about the shock and awe but about what is actually going on.Was going crazy here with all the reports making out the whole thing will go online at once on the 31st. "
Yeah there's been a lot of false reporting on this. This story and Game Informer are the only ones that have put it into the right perspective.
so it's still the playstation NOT work. and will be for sometime..... hmm, maybe sony shouldn't have pissed off those hackers. nothing good ever happens when you piss off hackers, just saying.
They say "all services will return by May 31st," meaning gaming will likely be one of the first things to come back whereas qriocity, home and the like will be much later.
" Oh thank god for Giant Bomb. Only version of this story so far which hasn't been about the shock and awe but about what is actually going on.Was going crazy here with all the reports making out the whole thing will go online at once on the 31st. "
Yeah there's been a lot of false reporting on this. This story and Game Informer are the only ones that have put it into the right perspective. "
The article on Gamasutra is perfectly fine, and the one on Ars Technica is factually accurate, if not a bit loaded. But why shouldn't it be? This is ridiculous!
It's okay you guys, 30 free days of PlayStation Plus! Download these free games, have them taken from your console as soon as you refuse to give Sony more money!
" Oh thank god for Giant Bomb. Only version of this story so far which hasn't been about the shock and awe but about what is actually going on.Was going crazy here with all the reports making out the whole thing will go online at once on the 31st. "
Yeah there's been a lot of false reporting on this. This story and Game Informer are the only ones that have put it into the right perspective. "
The article on Gamasutra is perfectly fine, and the one on Ars Technica is factually accurate, if not a bit loaded. But why shouldn't it be? This is ridiculous! "
Oh of course, sir, it most certainly is. Whole situation is.
I'm just a touch facepalming over some websites originally reporting the "end of may" comment by Sony last week as part of "PSN back online starting this week" and only just making it a big thing now because someone reminded them of it.
Loving all the news articles from Alex recently, really is a refreshing style to see written. And then there's Patrick too, awesome time for Giant Bomb.
" @Nadril: I believe MK requires you to download an online pass, right? If so, these used to be handled by the PS Store. If this is true, you may need to wait for the STORE to come back and won't be able to play MK online even if online multiplayer is restored right now.
(unless, of course, you have already downloaded the online pass on launch day. I guess sometimes it's good to be an early customer...)
"
The PS Blog posted that you can redeem Online Pass Codes even when the PS Store is not live. Here is the direct quote
"Restoration of Online game-play across the PlayStation®3 (PS3) and PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) systems. This includes titles requiring online verification"
" This must really suck for them. They had a killer lineup of games this spring and all has been fucked because of the crash. Bet you guys don't know this but 3 weeks is a looooooong time to wait for gamers, Microsoft should make a "free month of live" deal for new users, it would kill the PSN (but not really) "
Unless something has changed since I first signed up, you have always been able to get a free month of XBL with a new gamertag. When you go to sign up for gold for the first time one of the options is the free month. "
They changed that when they renamed Silver Free. They don't give you anything now "
You get a free month for 3 gamertags per 360. That's how it's always been, that's how it still is.
@tightestjeans: Doesn't that mean that SP games that require a connection can be played online (ie the DRM infested CapCom titles)? The whole Online Pass thing requires players to download a file directly from the PS Store, so if that isn't up yet, you can't redeem your code.
" Kind of puts a damper on the PS3 versions of Brink and LA Noire this month. "
I'm still buying LA Noire for the PS3, because I don't want to deal with three discs. Since I can't imagine it has multiplayer (or if it does, it's nothing more than just another version of GTAIV multiplayer), I don't see that the PSN outage is going to impact me.
And since I'm buying Brink for the 360 (because, you know, it's a multiplayer game), that doesn't concern me either.
Only thing I'm really waiting on at this point is a chance to finally play Killzone 3 and Portal co-op (or at least tie it to my Steam account finally, so I can play there).
" Look on the bright side: We'll get more awesome news coverage from Patrick during the Happy Hour. "
Exactly! There's clearly nothing to complain about here.
I'm also super looking forward to Sony's E3 conference if it really does take that long to get games back online (which it probably won't) 'cause that will just be so awkward.
"Restoration of Online game-play across the PlayStation®3 (PS3) and PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) systems -This includes titles requiring online verification and downloaded games."
I guess we will see if online verification and downloaded games mean two different things. I agree that Capcom verification games are so dumb.
Sigh..... So im going to have to wait a while longer to shoot people in the head online, It seems so long ago!
On a more serious note Sony need to sort this out soon or so much consumer damage will be caused that PS3 owners will seriously consider dumping Sony, and will buy a Xbox720 come their next console purchase.
I could honestly care less when it comes back up. Sure I want to play MK online, but I'm not a big online gamer. I prefer the well crafted campaign modes over deep multiplayer experiences. The PS3 has so many great exclusives that are superb single player experiences.
That being said after you finish LBP2's story mode it really only is a online game...though I hadn't played it for a while since it's release and kinda wish I could right now!
And to all of those complaining and saying "MAN THIS IS BS I'M GOING TO SWITCH OVER TO XBOX ONLY NOW!!" Have fun never playing quality titles like Uncharted, Infamous, or Little Big Planet again. The 360 has nothing like them.
"I am on the verge of selling my PS3 and getting a 360. This is complete horse shit. "
I'd rather them take their time to ensure it stays secure this time then having it up early with only half of its shit working, you know. Common sense.
Damn. Things must be really messed up for this to have been taking so long. No doubt they have their TOP MEN on it. Lotta cash being left on the table.
" UPDATE: Sony has informed us that Bloomberg's wording, which was the foundation of this story, is inaccurate and the May 31 "deadline" does not exist. There does not appear to be any hard deadline established, only to return services as Sony determines the appropriate security measures are in place.
Yeah, I kinda thought that sounded funny, Sony's never really been into dates.
Hopefully Sony's "appropriate security measures are in place" isn't anything like Polyphony's "until the game is perfect".
This is disappointing but for me at least this has benefited my gaming time. I had a shit ton of games in my back log so now that the PSN has been down I have been playing them. I finished off the rest of Sam and Max season 3, almost done Prince of Persia 2008, playing God of War 3 after months of being on the shelf, playing some Persona 4 every day and catching up on some movies and books. Should Sony be off the hook? Well I didn't have a credit card on my PSN so I'm ok but if I did and had to go through the hassle of getting a new card and monitoring statements I'd be pretty mad.
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