After many, many weeks of troubles, attacks and extended downtime, Sony has finally announced that the full restoration of the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services has begun in the Americas, Europe/PAL regions and Asia (excluding Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea). The PlayStation Store should be available right now, with a huge line-up of new content available from releases throughout the downtime period (full list available via the PlayStation Blog). PlayStation Plus has also been updated with a selection of new content.
Despite the re-opening of the Store, many users including those in our forums are experiencing issues with the service, such as code 80710D36 errors, signing in errors or no content errors. This is most likely due to the large influx of users try to access the recently restored services, and should be back up to a full working standard soon.
For all those wondering how they are going to receive the promised compensation for the PSN downtime, Sony has not yet begun the Welcome Back program; however the company said in their press release that details of how to access the program would be announced from each region.
Previously it was revealed that this Welcome Back program would include a 30-day free PlayStation Plus subscription (60-days free for existing subscribers), free movie rentals over one weekend, plus two games from the following five for PS3 users: Dead Nation, infamous, LittleBigPlanet, Super Stardust HD or Wipeout HD + Fury expansion. Additionally, you can pick two games from the following four if you are a PSP user: LittleBigPlanet (PSP), ModNation Racers (PSP), Pursuit Force or Killzione Liberation.