Sony says PSN may stay partly down until May 31

Sony spokesman Shigenori Yoshida said Monday in Tokyo that the ongoing PlayStation Network outage wouldn't be resolved until May 31. While basic service didn't have a timetable for coming back, it wasn't expected to impact a more definitive plan to have everything back by the end of the month, he told Bloomberg. PSN is due to come back with a new security model and will require a password change along with new PS3 and possibly PSP firmware.

The newly available schedule, if unaffected, will have left gamers without full PSN access for a full six weeks from when the network was first shut down on April 20.

The breach compromised personal data for all 77 million PSN users as well as 24 million online RPG and web gamers on Sony Online Entertainment. Sony has repeatedly stressed that no credit card information was taken but has promised free identity theft protection to cover any potential fraud. Sony has promised a month of free PlayStation Plus access as part of a "welcome back" gesture to keep customers onboard.

No culprit has been identified, but it's suspected that a breakaway faction of Anonymous hackers went against the group's advice and planted code giving it administrator-level access to Sony's servers.

By Electronista Staff

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