PSN hack: Sony gives free membership and discounts to make up for network outage

The PlayStation Network went down at Christmas and didn’t come back up for days

PlayStation logo (Reuters)

Sony is to offer discounts on games and extend memberships to its online service to make up for it going offline over Christmas.

The PlayStation Network was taken down on Christmas day by a group calling themselves Lizard Squad, leaving many players unable to access the service for days.

At some point in January the free gifts will be automatically given to players, Eric Lempel, vice president, Sony Network Entertainment, said in a blog post.

Anyone who had a membership or free trial on December 25th will have it extended for five days. That’s roughly the length of time the service was having problems — though Lizard Squad called off the attack a couple of days after it began, the rush to get back onto the service meant that the problems carried on for a few more days.

The extension will be applied automatically, Sony said, and is not yet available.

Sony will also offer a 10% discount on its PlayStation Store in January, it said. That will be available to all using the service, whether or not they were hit by the Christmas day hack.

Lizard Squad began its takedown of the PlayStation Network on Christmas day, and stopped after making a deal with internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom.

Xbox Live also went down at Christmas, but recovered more quickly.