Sony Agrees to Settle for "Hack Gate 2011"

[FyreeTSG]

A SUBTLE SETTLEMENT

Remember 2011's PSN Hacking that disabled millions of Playstation Gamers accounts for over a month? Well, I'm sure some of you would like to keep forgetting, but there's a bit of good news all these years later as SONY is looking to finally settle, and will be losing $15 Million--if the judge agrees--in FREE games and more to those who may have had their Account Info and ID stolen or at-risk.

NOTE: This hasn't gone into effect yet, and the website you'd go to FILE a claim hasn't been finished yet (PSN Settlement site).

Here's what YOU can(or can't) get:

Claimants in the case who didn't get anything from the Welcome Back campaign Sony ran back in 2011 (but who were active PSN account holders at the time) are able to choose two of the following three freebies: a free PS3 or PSP game (from an as-yet unseen list), some PS3 themes or three free months of PlayStation Plus.

These claims are only on a first-come, first-served basis. Once Sony has given out $6,000,000 of games/themes/subs to those folks, the deal is off, and anyone still after something will get one month's free PS Plus.

If you did get a free game from the Welcome Back campaign, you can choose one of the above options (game, themes or 3 months of PS Plus) instead of two. That offer is also capped, this time at $4,000,000, with the same one-month PS Plus deal available to anyone who misses out.

Anyone with an active account who lost unused PlayStation Store credits will, if their balance was above $2, get that money back.
If you were a Netflix or Hulu Plus subscriber who couldn't access their account, you're eligible for three free months of PlayStation Plus.

Anyone able to prove they had their identity stolen as a result of the hacks that caused the downtime is eligible for up to $2500.

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Additional--this is ONLY for US gamers, and NONE of this is final. So don't get your hopes up, basically.

Here's the LEGAL documents:
Read me!!


More will be known soon, and I hope this can prove to be a positive for such a negative.


---FyreeTSG


Source

[Frostbyte]

That's really cool that they're doing this even if it's 3 years later. I'm sure the legal matters took a lot of time to set up as well though!

[FyreeTSG]

Well, it wasn't Sony's decision--as you read they're SETTLING, meaning they could've been in even bigger trouble.
I remember back in 2011 that they were looking at a MUCH larger lawsuit on behalf of the MILLIONS of PSN users(77 Million), and I'm sure the reason this took so long was due to them trying to work out a settlement--WHICH doesn't even include those who have long-since sold their PS systems that were tied to a PSN account that may/may not have been hacked.

It IS nice to see them addressing it(not sure really why it takes 3 years, especially when at that time they were probably the worst Gaming company(1st party) in terms of Consumer/Customer Relations, and so on)--and they DID have a 2 1/2 year financial deficit overall as a company, which they have to dig themselves out of.

I remember the Hacking WELL(not personally), but the ONLY reason that it was known was due to a LEAK--as Sony waited a week to tell the public/it's "faithful" customers:

At the time of the outage, with a count of 77 million registered PlayStation Network accounts,[7] it was one of the largest data security breaches in history.[8][9] It surpassed the 2007 TJX hack which affected 45 million customers.[10] Government officials in various countries voiced concern over the theft and Sony's one-week delay before warning its users.

Read the WHOLE Article

I'm GLAD there's something happening, yes, but there are those listed limitations that are going to leave a LOT of those at-one-time 77 MILLION PSN users without something. And I'm sure MOST have already moved WAY past this whole thing, so in all bitter honesty, what's the point really?

[Frostbyte]

Well, I would think that the majority of PS customers 3 years ago are still in the PS gaming world. As for what the point is doing it now. I'd probably say, as you had mentioned, they are settling from a lawsuit to save themselves, but if I was one of those PSN users I wouldn't be complaining that they're finally doing something.

[FyreeTSG]

yeah, I'd enjoy a freebie if I managed to stay loyal to Sony after THIS long--but overall, I just don't think Sony really cares, otherwise they'd have FULLY resolved the issue(LEGAL issue) themselves, and not settle for such a seemingly small amount 3 years later.