Sony to resumes Japan PSN services

Sony will resume full PlayStation Network (PSN) services in Japan this week, completing the final stretch of the company's two-and-half-month restoration of its online operations after they were attacked by hackers, writes Bloomberg.

The maker of the PlayStation 3 game consoles will bring back online purchases of game content and video on demand from the PlayStation Network and Qriocity in Japan starting today, the Tokyo-based company said in a statement.

According to The Inquirer, the services that Sony will restore include the full functionality of the PlayStation Store, restoration of in-game commerce, the ability to redeem vouchers and codes, and the video on demand and Media Go functionalities.

Sony will offer a 'welcome back', or 'sorry we screwed up so bad' package for returning customers. This will include between 30 and 60 days free subscriptions and two free game titles from a somewhat limited selection, which some customers haven't found all that appealing.

ComputerWorld reports that an investigation established that attackers had managed to bypass three firewalls to steal data on all 77 million registered accounts.

The stolen data included user names, e-mail addresses, login IDs and passwords. It was originally feared that millions of credit card numbers had also been leaked, but Sony later said it was unable to find any evidence that the credit card database was accessed.