The Playstation Network

The PlayStation Network

Introduced the same time as the PlayStation 3 in November 2006, SCE also launched PlayStation Network (PSN) which now operates in 59 countries and regions around the world. This service supports free community-centric online gameplay, exclusive games from indie developers and major publishers, and a broad range of entertainment applications across movies, music, and sports. PS3 owners have access to 170,000 downloadable digital content, including 57,000 game content worldwide from PSN. In October 2012, SCE redesigned the PlayStation Store for PS3, offering a more streamlined and accessible store experience. The new store is now available in Europe, North America and Latin America, with more countries and regions to follow.

A little bit of sharing here is about the PSN outage during April 2011, this is were the PSN had been hacked and here's is some information about the event.

The PSN Outage

The PlayStation Network had an outage which began on April 20, 2011 and affected 77 million registered accounts, is the longest amount of time the PSN has been offline since its inception in 2006. Sony acknowledged that the outage prevented users from having the "ability to enjoy the services provided by PlayStation Network and Qriocity including online gaming and online access to music, movies, sports and TV shows", making it temporarily unavailable.

The PlayStation Network outage was the result of an "external intrusion" on Sony's PlayStation Network and Qriocity services, in which personal details from approximately 77 million accounts were stolen and prevented users of PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable consoles from playing online through the service.

The attack occurred between April 17 and April 19, 2011, forcing Sony to turn off the PlayStation Network on April 20. On May 4 Sony confirmed that personally identifiable information from each of the 77 million accounts appeared to have been stolen.

The outage lasted 24 days. At the time of the outage, with a count of 77 million registered PlayStation Network accounts, it was one of the largest data security breaches in history. On May 14, 2011, Sony began regionally restoring the PlayStation Network and released a mandatory security firmware update that required users to update their passwords. 

In June 2011, Sony launched a "Welcome Back" program following the outage, allowing all PSN subscribers who joined prior to April 20 to download two free PlayStation 3 titles and two free PlayStation portable games. Users also received 30 free days of PlayStation Plus, while users who were already subscribed before the outage got 60 free days.

Here is an interesting features of the PSN, the PlayStation Home

PlayStation Home is a place for gamers to explore a world packed with bunch of games, lots of exclusive content and millions of people globally.

Since its launch in 2008, PlayStation Home has evolved from a virtual environment to a dynamic social game platform. PlayStation Home is free-to-play on PlayStation Network with a Sony Entertainment Network account and delivers a rich and evolving experience for gamers to play games and interact with friends.

Every user will have their own avatar created in realistic 3D graphics and be able to communicate using text chat and voice chat as well as variety of gestures and dances.

“Home Square” is the heart of PlayStation Home where you can find the “Districts” which are places that will help you find games and people that fit your favorite game genre.

We can access to districts, such as “Action District”, “Sportwalk”, “Indie Park” and ““Adventure District, brought to you by UNCHARTED 3 directly from Home Square. We will also go the “Shopping Mall” directly where you can enjoy shopping and “Home Theatre” to watch the latest game trailers via relocator at Home Square. Also launching a PS3 games or join an online game with your friends is possible from PlayStation Home.