Sony Online Entertainment's broken its string of the now-standard "Our games won't be up today" message to deliver substantial news about the restoration of its services and how players will be compensated. "At least a few more days" is all the studio is willing to commit to a time frame before its MMOs come back online, but at least it provides hope to the anxious players waiting to click their Station Launcher icon.
More definite, however, is the plan for how SOE will make good with its playerbase. All current SOE players will receive 30 days of game time added to their accounts plus one day for every day the system's been down. Depending on the game to which players are subscribed, SOE has a list of specific in-game items, currency, Station Cash, events and bonuses ready. This applies to both the studio's PC and PS3 titles.
Finally, all Station Account holders will be enrolled in a complimentary identity theft protection program. U.S. players will be enrolled in Debix for a year, while residents in other countries will be set up with similar services. Codes will be sent out by email for these programs, and U.S. players will need to enroll by June 28th to get the coverage.
Reader Comments (50)
Posted: May 13th 2011 1:36PM placebonation said
@ElfLove Did you just say that it's not Sony's fault for getting hacked? Wow. Sympathy goes far to corporations with massive profit margins.
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Posted: May 13th 2011 7:04PM starbuck1771 said
@placebonation are you saying that if a hacker hacked into your pc it would be your fault? There is no 100% protection against hackers. If they want to hack you bad enough they will no matter how much security your system has. The pentagon is constantly getting hacked and they have the best security around. That says a lot when it comes to people like you guys who are blameing the victoms.
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Posted: May 12th 2011 11:57PM raykor said
Poor PlanetSide—SOE's red headed stepchild. All of their MMOG's are getting some sort of in-game bonus except for PS.
Posted: May 13th 2011 1:03AM Yellowdancer said
@raykor
PS really isn't built to receive items and stuff. Its a tech barrier.
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PS really isn't built to receive items and stuff. Its a tech barrier.
Posted: May 13th 2011 7:07PM starbuck1771 said
@Yellowdancer actualy they can add items to it. they just have ps running on a skeleton crew right now though.
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Posted: May 13th 2011 12:26AM chuckasucka said
I blame tall Yoda.
Posted: May 13th 2011 2:57PM Space Cobra said
@chuckasucka
Taller than Vader!
And a bit more round around the belly! ;P
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Taller than Vader!
And a bit more round around the belly! ;P
Posted: May 13th 2011 2:21AM Amusednow said
Would have been nice if they just threw some station cash into our accounts but who am I kidding. Can't wait for that count dooku v2 outfit in clone wars....instead of oh I don't know just letting people pick something.
Posted: May 13th 2011 4:55AM pcgneurotic said
All this must be costing them an arm and a leg, money which might even have gone back into development of the games we like. Seriously, I hope the hackers are caught and publicly thrashed to death with concrete whips. I'll be the first in line to stand on their necks whilst it's done.
Posted: May 13th 2011 10:08AM ElfLove said
@pcgneurotic
Same here! At first I was already to cancel my account but...now I don't know.
I miss EQ2 and it's wonderful community...I miss all the games that I could play on my Station Account.
Whatever these hackers had against Sony...they had no right to take it out on the customers. We are not to blame, and either is the company.
I want my SOE back.... :(
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Same here! At first I was already to cancel my account but...now I don't know.
I miss EQ2 and it's wonderful community...I miss all the games that I could play on my Station Account.
Whatever these hackers had against Sony...they had no right to take it out on the customers. We are not to blame, and either is the company.
I want my SOE back.... :(
Posted: May 13th 2011 12:11PM ElfLove said
@pcgneurotic
Hell yea!
I've had some very good (and fast) GM help from SOE games and before this mess...I was happy with Sony for the most part. I just have never seen the point in making 'us' pay for the PS3 hacking whatever...I had nothing to do with it. I didn't even know it existed until all this went down.>_<
LOL However when SOE comes back up I'm going to have to re-install everything...silly moments of panic. o_O
SOE please come back soon....I miss my Teir'Dal bachelor pad and my dancing Twi'lek male. ^_^
*sigh*
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Hell yea!
I've had some very good (and fast) GM help from SOE games and before this mess...I was happy with Sony for the most part. I just have never seen the point in making 'us' pay for the PS3 hacking whatever...I had nothing to do with it. I didn't even know it existed until all this went down.>_<
LOL However when SOE comes back up I'm going to have to re-install everything...silly moments of panic. o_O
SOE please come back soon....I miss my Teir'Dal bachelor pad and my dancing Twi'lek male. ^_^
*sigh*
Posted: May 13th 2011 1:38PM placebonation said
@pcgneurotic Or this just helped companies around the world learn to update, secure and protect their consumers private data. This is a win/lose situation.
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Posted: May 13th 2011 4:59AM pcgneurotic said
Wow, 80,000 registered Square-Eidos users have had their details stolen in a Deus Ex: Human Revolution website hack :O
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/05/13/deus-ex-3-hack/#more-59267
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/05/13/deus-ex-3-hack/#more-59267
Posted: May 13th 2011 8:28AM Yellowdancer said
@pcgneurotic
I thought this was a joke...I'm sure every publisher and developer is scrambling to lock their systems up...
Who are we kidding...they're not going to spend money to keep consumers safe. They won't even finish the games before they release them.
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I thought this was a joke...I'm sure every publisher and developer is scrambling to lock their systems up...
Who are we kidding...they're not going to spend money to keep consumers safe. They won't even finish the games before they release them.
Posted: May 13th 2011 10:16AM ElfLove said
@Yellowdancer
If someone really wants to get into a system they will find a way. There is no 100% safe network out there.
If anything these incident have proven to me just now naive, hacker-apologetic and assnine some of the gaming community can be.
I said it once I will say it again...we customers did not deserve this crime.
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If someone really wants to get into a system they will find a way. There is no 100% safe network out there.
If anything these incident have proven to me just now naive, hacker-apologetic and assnine some of the gaming community can be.
I said it once I will say it again...we customers did not deserve this crime.
Posted: May 13th 2011 10:32AM aurickle said
@Yellowdancer
You think companies don't spend money to keep data safe? For most of the smaller companies, the same server that holds customer data also holds a fair bit of internal data. A hack that successfully steals one can also steal the other. This tends to make them quite vested in keeping the servers as secure as they can.
The only problem is that the only thing that's 100% secure is something that's not connected to the internet. No matter how much money and effort are put into securing a machine that goes online, all it takes is one person to find one of the many holes that exists.
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You think companies don't spend money to keep data safe? For most of the smaller companies, the same server that holds customer data also holds a fair bit of internal data. A hack that successfully steals one can also steal the other. This tends to make them quite vested in keeping the servers as secure as they can.
The only problem is that the only thing that's 100% secure is something that's not connected to the internet. No matter how much money and effort are put into securing a machine that goes online, all it takes is one person to find one of the many holes that exists.
Posted: May 13th 2011 10:50AM pcgneurotic said
@aurickle
Spot on. But even before that, it takes motivation. Or in other words, a motive. From what I've read (which isn't much tbh), the big SOE attack was a kind of revenge for the GeoHotz PS3 thing. So in theory, most of the time you're 'safe' if there's no one with a grudge against your information-holders (who isn't also able to hack them etc).
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Spot on. But even before that, it takes motivation. Or in other words, a motive. From what I've read (which isn't much tbh), the big SOE attack was a kind of revenge for the GeoHotz PS3 thing. So in theory, most of the time you're 'safe' if there's no one with a grudge against your information-holders (who isn't also able to hack them etc).
Posted: May 13th 2011 5:33AM ShivanSwordsman said
Is it strange when I first saw this article, I immediately looked away from Yoda and Darth, just to notice Frog/Glenn from Chrono Trigger on the right hand side? I was like "Oh hey there's Frog...". Completely missed the article itself. I derped.
Posted: May 13th 2011 8:05AM DeadDreamer said
Credit card has been advised and only waiting on Sony services to get back up to cancel EQ/EQ2 and Vanguard accounts. End of the road with them on for me. Most of their products went downhill since years anyway.
Steam did not want to refund my recent Vanguard purchase on my side, glad they did for those who asked for DCUO, oh well it was only 10$.
Steam did not want to refund my recent Vanguard purchase on my side, glad they did for those who asked for DCUO, oh well it was only 10$.








