PlayStation Network returns to parts of Asia including Japan
Sony has announced plans to rekindle Asian access to its PlayStation Network (PSN) service on Saturday, May 28th, more than a month after the service went offline due to a hacker attack that exposed personal information associated with millions of user accounts.
PSN has already gone online throughout the rest of the world, but Asia was the last major geographical segment to bring back online. Sony plans to restart PSN access in Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. Japan will get back access too, despite the initial reservations of the Japanese government, which sought further guarantees and consumer protections from Sony.
PS3 and PSP gamers in Hong Kong and South Korea will have to wait a bit longer, however - Sony isn't quite ready to pull the trigger in those markets yet.
In related news, gamers in North America are now starting to receive their activation code for Debix's AllClearID Plus service, an identity theft protection system contracted by Sony for PlayStation Network users in the wake of the PSN network break-in.
Sony sent e-mails to PSN subscribers on Wednesday with info on how to activate an account with Debix; users were encouraged to submit the e-mail address associated with their PSN account, and in return they'd get an activation code that would let them sign up for a year of free service through Debix. Debix and Sony advised that it could take up to 72 hours to receive the activation code, and the followup e-mail with the info is well within that time frame.
More:
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- Sony delays PlayStation Network restart, citing SOE break-in