Sony to Offer 15 Million Worth of Compensation for 2011 PSN Blackout

Way back in ancient history, the long-forgotten era of 2011, the PlayStation Network was brought down for several days by a series of hackers who claimed to be cyber-activist group Anonymous.  It proved to be quite the controversy for Sony, who had a hard time getting the servers back, wasn’t forthcoming with the fact that people’s private data had been stolen, and offered very little in the form of compensation after their online services returned.   Following the crash, several lawsuits were filed against Sony, most without avail, but there was one that had been quietly persisting all this time… and now, it’s finally paid dividends.

In court earlier this week, Sony offered to settle a court case against it by offering 15 million dollars worth of free goods and money to affected customers.  Specifically:

• If you didn’t claim a gift from Sony’s original ‘welcome back’ offer, you can pick two of the following three gifts: One free PS3 game from a list of games not yet made available, some PS3 themes, or 3 months of PlayStation Plus membership.  Sony will offer these on a first come first serve basis, so after six million dollars worth of games and themes and stuff have been given away, subsequent people will only get a free month of PlayStation plus.
• If you DID claim a gift from Sony’s original ‘welcome back’ offer, you get to pick one of the above freebees instead of two.  It’s also capped at 4 million dollars, and people who come forward after that mark will only get one month of free PlayStation Plus.
• If you had money on your PlayStation account, you’ll get it all back, as long as it was more than two dollars.
• If you were a Netflix or Hulu Plus subscriber and you couldn’t access your accounts, you’ll get three free months of
• PlayStation Plus
• And finally, if you’re able to prove you had your identity stolen during the hacks, you’re entitled to $2,500

Two caveats to this before you get excited: for one, the judge hasn’t yet agreed that this is an acceptable settlement, so it’s not official yet.  Secondly, this will only affect gamers in the US—international players won’t be able to take advantage of this offer.

Additionally, if the Judge does accept the offer, it’ll take some time to set everything up.  If this does become official I’ll be sure to keep ya’ll informed.