Sony Agrees to $15 Million PSN Hack Settlement

StewShearerOld

Geekdad News Writer
Jan 5, 2013
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Sony Agrees to $15 Million PSN Hack Settlement



As long as a judge approves, Sony will be dishing out millions of dollars worth of free games and PSN content to customers affected by the 2011 PSN outage.

So you remember that time in 2011 when some kooky kids <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/109568-Sony-Admits-Private-PSN-Info-Has-Been-Stolen-All-Of-It>broke into the PlayStation Network, stole a whole bunch of user data and then took the whole thing down for a month? We feel safe in assuming that Sony would probably prefer that people forget that ever happened. That in mind, it doesn't surprise us that the company just agreed to a $15 million settlement aimed at bringing that dark chapter of the PlayStation brand's life to a close.

The deal, which was revealed in <a href=http://www.scribd.com/doc/234917930/Sony-agrees-to-15M-settlement>released court documents would see Sony paying for a variety of reparations to PSN users including free PS3 and PSP games, free PS3 themes, free subscriptions to PlayStation plus, free access to Music Unlimited and SOE Station cash. Individual gamers will be offered different benefits from settlement based primarily on whether or not they took advantage of Sony's Welcome Back program after the PSN was brought back online.

Claimants who participated in the program, which <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/110635-Sonys-Free-Welcome-Back-Game-Downloads-Go-Live>offered free games as an apology for the breach will be eligible to receive a one additional free game, theme or a PS Plus benefit. These will be distributed on a first-come, first-serve basis and will be capped at $4 million. Those who didn't enter into the Welcome Back program meanwhile, will be able to claim two of the aforementioned options or two PSN benefits. These individuals will also be served based on who gets in line first and will have their rewards capped at $6 million total. Qriocity subscribers will also receive a free month of Music Unlimited while SOE users will be given $4.50 worth of station cash which will be credited to their accounts.

It's important to note, of course, that while Sony has agreed to this deal has yet to be approved by a judge. The hearing to determine whether or not this deal is fair, in turn, has been scheduled for May 1st, 2015. In other words, way past the point when people are really going to be interested in free PS3 and PSP games.

Source: <a href=http://www.polygon.com/2014/7/23/5931793/sony-2011-data-breach-class-action-lawsuit>Polygon


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RazgrizRex

New member
Jul 3, 2014
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I think you might be overestimating the PS4 - it doesn't seem to have that many exclusives just yet (a lot of games are rehashes/remastered versions of what the previous gen had).
Even by May next year there's going to be a lot of people who still own PS3s and PSPs (it's not like you have to trade your old console to get a new one) and free stuff is always welcome :)
 

Micah Weil

New member
Mar 16, 2009
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Past the point when people are going to be interested in free PS3 games?
Personally, I'm hanging onto the PS3 well past that point, so long as certain games I'm looking forward to do not appear on the PS4 only. Such a thing's gonna be fantastic.
 

Dominic Crossman

New member
Apr 15, 2013
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The playstation store has stopped working on my ps3 (been saying it's undergoing maintenance for a week now) and I broke my PSP a long time ago, so long story short this won't effect me (unfortunately) in the slightest.
 

LostCrusader

Lurker in the shadows
Feb 3, 2011
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Sadly, the PSN outage killed me using my PS3 completely. The only game that I really used my PS3 for then was Demon's Souls and when the service went out I didn't touch it for a year at least. When I finally came back to give it another try, the console decided that my internet connection was delicious and would knock out my house's connection for about 30 minutes after boot up. And on top of that all my calls to their support line ended with nothing. So free games or PS plus stuff for the largest paper weight I own means pretty much nothing to me.
 

Strazdas

Robots will replace your job
May 28, 2011
8,407
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so a compensation of having your info on this insecure server is more info on same insecure server? what the hell happened to actual monetary settlements, you know, when you actually got real money and not this "x worth of games that you dont want" thing? Oh and Sony isnt the only one, Microsoft did similar recently, giving "refunds" in form of xbox live money. thats not a refund. a refund is when you give me my money back.
 

Revolutionary

Pub Club Am Broken
May 30, 2009
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Free PSP games? Sick I'll just go excavate mine from it's crypt. Wait I just realised I can play digital copies of PSP games on my Vita so that actually is useful.