Sony Giving PS Plus Extension as Holiday Outage Apology

Now that the PSN and Xbox Live have seemingly bounced back from their Christmas Day DDoS attacks gamers can finally resume their regularly scheduled online gaming and movie streaming sessions. While members of the hacker group Lizard Squad should think twice about beating their own drum, as the FBI turns focus their way.

However for Sony, who was hit much harder during the Holidays, the outages have been a trying time for the PSN staff and subsequently for their fans. That's why they are saying thank you to any who were affected by the outage with a goodwill gesture.

For starters, Sony will instantly credit any PS Plus subscribers whose accounts were active on December 25 with a 5-day extension. The extension will automatically go into effect on all PS Plus accounts and does not require any form of redemption.

In addition to that, Sony is giving all PSN users a 10% off discount coupon to be used with any online purchase. The publisher currently doesn't have a release date for the “coupon,” but they say it will work on bulk PSN purchases not just single games.

Hi Everyone,

Happy New Year! Since access to PlayStation Network was impacted during the holidays, we wanted to show our appreciation for your patience by offering all PlayStation Plus members that had an active membership or free trial on December 25th a membership extension of five days. The extension will be automatically applied, so no action is necessary to receive the extension. We will post additional information here on PlayStation.Blog when the extension becomes available. If your membership or trial ends before the extension is available, you will receive five days of Plus to enjoy once the extension becomes available (we will notify you when).

In addition, sometime this month we will announce that for a limited time, we will be offering a 10 percent discount code good for a one-time discount off a total cart purchase in the PlayStation Store as a thank you to all PSN members.

This discount can be used toward content available on PS Store including blockbuster new releases, award winning indie games, game add-ons and season passes, and an enormous selection of TV and Movies.

That's hardly a bad deal for a few days of inconvenience. It basically gives PS Plus subscribers the days they lost back, while also giving everyone a little something extra. Granted, it also influences some Sony patronage, but no one has to use the discount.

Now, as we mentioned in a previous post, Sony's culpability in these outages was up for debate and therefore not necessarily cause for any goodwill gesture. Yes, they were aware that Lizard Squad had threatened online attacks, but this was much bigger than one single organization. This also wasn't a situation where thousands of people's credit card and social security information was accessed; just a prank to make a point to Sony.

That being said, we bet PSN users are glad to hear Sony is offering an olive branch, no matter how small. As was mentioned, the PS Plus extension was already added to current accounts, but we'll keep you posted with regards to the 10% off discount as soon as we know more.

How do you feel about Sony's thank you message and offer for players' patience? Will you use the 10% off discount?

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Source: PlayStation Blog

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