PlayStation Network was not the only Sony service affected by the recent hacker intrusion; Sony Online Entertainment's games and Station network went down for the count, too. It's now coming back up. As with PSN, the restoration of SOE's games and services is happening in staggered phases.

"Restoration of SOE's game services will begin today," said the company in a statement. "This phased restoration will include the return of nearly all of our portfolio of online games, the reinstatement of our game forums and websites, and added functionality to require players to reset their passwords."

Both Sony and SOE are rolling out a "Welcome Back" program to earn goodwill from the community. While Sony remains mum about what PlayStation 3 and PSP players will gain access to, in addition to a free 30 days of service on top outage time, SOE has outlined the rather long list of in-game rewards.

I'm not going to publish the whole list here, but if you play any SOE games, you'll want to read this.

PlayStation Network was not the only Sony service affected by the recent hacker intrusion; Sony Online Entertainment's games and Station network went down for the count, too. It's now coming back up. As with PSN, the restoration of SOE's games and services is happening in staggered phases.

"Restoration of SOE's game services will begin today," said the company in a statement. "This phased restoration will include the return of nearly all of our portfolio of online games, the reinstatement of our game forums and websites, and added functionality to require players to reset their passwords."

Both Sony and SOE are rolling out a "Welcome Back" program to earn goodwill from the community. While Sony remains mum about what PlayStation 3 and PSP players will gain access to, in addition to a free 30 days of service on top outage time, SOE has outlined the rather long list of in-game rewards.

I'm not going to publish the whole list here, but if you play any SOE games, you'll want to read this.

I wonder how long the UK will have to wait cus I need a hit of UC2. Also what about people who were paying for the subscription during the downtime?

Guess I could go and see what's going on with DC Universe Online.

Ah everything is coming back online. Hopefully nothing goes wrong at this point.

You're a BEAST Patrick!

I liked that video they posted.

Respect for Sony for doing all they can.

I need a beer now guyz

Looks like the predictions were right for DCU, a batman inspired mask for the players.

I hope that when I wake up tomorrow, PSN will be online and functional so I can enjoy all the lag that 360 users are experiencing in MK9.

4 Sony news in a row. It's madness!

Well, I think I have been thoroughly updated. You're a good lad Klepek, and thorough.

Huh? Sorry I was too busy playing Portal 2 coop on Steam.

I hope that when I wake up tomorrow, PSN will be online and functional so I can enjoy all the lag that 360 users are experiencing in MK9.

Meh... too tired... I can wait until the morning to figure this out.

@Crono said:

I hope that when I wake up tomorrow, PSN will be online and functional so I can enjoy all the lag that 360 users are experiencing in MK9.

You really want lag and broken player matching that badly?

So what went on behind the scenes? they changed stuff, right?

I wonder how long the UK will have to wait cus I need a hit of UC2. Also what about people who were paying for the subscription during the downtime?

I am glad Patrick joined the GB crew he is a awesome duder and keeps the news on this site fresh and DOESN'T look like something that was copied and pasted from joystiq or kotaku. 

yaaaaaay. I like kaz hirai. 

im a little confused. so for those of us that arent playing any of the games they are giving in game upgrades to... what do we get?

Very glad to hear that PSN and SOE are now back up and running.  Sony may have done some things wrong during this downtime, but they seemed to do many more good things than bad things.  Big props to them for keeping everyone informed for most of the downtime even though it was sparse at the beginning.

Great!!!!

I can play DCUO again? Yay! 

I was surprised to see that my account had 45 days of playtime for EQ on the PC and PS2. I haven't had an active subscription in years. I wonder if my EQOA toons are still there after 4 years... 

Woot 45 free days game time for SOE MMOs...time to reinstall EQ2!

I need a beer now guyz

Kind of unrelated, but if I could join the Green Lantern Corps I would have bought DCU Online.

Time to update my firmware for 3 hours......

I guess I can go back and play SWG and PlanetSide for a month and half now. Yay?

I guess I can go back and play SWG and PlanetSide for a month and half now. Yay?

@DougQuaid said:

I guess I can go back and play SWG and PlanetSide for a month and half now. Yay?

I totally just played Planetside for like 3 hours... fucking awesome!

If GB did a QL of Planetside that would just about make my year

Just hope that the rewards aren't changing passwords again after they get it all back & working because some other stupid hackers decide to test the new PSN/SOE.

Now you can all go back to thinking multiplayer makes a game better.

Finally B4TMAN can have his Batman inspired mask.

Oh really? guess i will reinstlal SWG again

What's in the ' Welcome Back' package? I need to know, now! 

now I can get back to administering justice with my super powerful hero, Captain Clerical!

So if I log into my Star Wars Galaxies account, I get 45 days of game time + a bunch of stuff for my house? I think I may be okay with these terms. 

@jkuc316: What, I have to download all the DLC again?

Tried logging into Pirates of the Burning Sea (I won it in a competition a few years back, installed it and played it once for about an hour) and it's telling me that I'm an underage user? Strange.

I tried to fire up DCUO and was told my account was for an underage user?!?!  Is the game now rated over 30 or something?  This is crazy lol, ticket raised but i doubt anyones going to come back to me.

Now I can still not play Star Wars Galaxies.

Finally i can bust open my copy of DCU for ps3 and play

free swg time yes.

Finally, I can link my Portal 2 to my Steam account now!