After outage, Sony makes peace offering to users of PlayStation Network
Sony is trying to make it up to gamers after an attack knocked the gaming network offline for several days over the holidays.
PlayStation Network gamers didn't have such a happy holiday thanks to the reported handiwork of some hackers, so Sony is hoping to appease users of its online gaming service with promises of deals and discounts.
For Playstation Plus subscribers, Sony is offering a 5-day membership extension, and for all members, a 10 percent discount at the PlayStation store, according to a blog post published Thursday.
The PlayStation Network is Sony's online service for its PlayStation game console. Both PSN and Microsoft's online gaming service, Xbox Live, were intermittently offline beginning on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Xbox Live came back online first, with PSN following Saturday night.
A group of hackers called Lizard Squad claimed responsibility via Twitter for the cyberattack, but it's involvement wasn't confirmed. Sony said on Saturday that PSN had been "attacked over the holidays with artificially high levels of traffic to disrupt connectivity and online gameplay."
Sony's blog post yesterday said that "since access to PlayStation Network was impacted during the holidays, we wanted to show our appreciation for your patience."
Sony hasn't released details on when the membership extension will go into effect, but subscribers won't have to do anything to receive the 5-day credit, according to the blog post. The extension applies only to subscribers who had an active membership or free trial on December 25. Sony will notify members when the extension becomes available.
As for the onetime 10 percent store discount, Sony said it will announce the deal "sometime this month for a limited time."
The company wasn't immediately available to provide more information.