Though Sony’s been quite consistent with its PSN-related updates to the PlayStation Blog, we haven’t seen nearly as many updates for SOE users. The company recently detailed compensation packages for users and revealed that it would offer 12 months of AllClear ID PLUS at no cost to PlayStation Network and Qriocity account holders. At the time, there was said to be something similar in the works for SOE users. This week, SOE detailed what it’s doing to ensure users are protected and compensated for the outage.
Sony Online Entertainment yesterday announced that Station Account holders based in the United States would be offered coverage with the same identity theft protection program as PSN users. Enrollment in Debix’s AllClear ID PLUS program includes cyber monitoring and surveillance to detect the exposure of your personal information, including the monitoring of criminal websites and data recovered by law enforcement agencies. If your data is discovered by Debix, they’ll contact you by phone and email to advise you on what steps to take. You’ll also gain access to the licensed private investigators and identity restoration specialists Debix has on staff and be covered by a $1 million identity theft insurance policy. Sony is offering users 12 months of this service for free.
The company also talked a little bit about how it plans to compensate users for the downtime. First of all, each impacted player will receive 30 days of free game time added to the end of the current billing cycle in addition to one free day for each day the system remains down. Lifetime subscribers will get 20,000 coins for Free Realms, 7,500 Galactic Credits for Clone Wars Adventures and 10 Marks of Distinction for DC Universe Online. Station Access subscribers will also receive 500 Station Cash.
There’s also game-specific bonuses to ‘welcome players back,’ and these apply for both PC and PS3 games. Check them out below:
- DC Universe™ Online: Batman™ and Two-Face™ Inspired Masks and 30 Marks of Distinction
- Free Realms®: Free daily items (7 to collect)
- Clone Wars Adventures™: Count Dooku v2 Outfit
- EverQuest®: A series of events, including Double XP, Double Rare Mob Spawns and Double Faction Gains
- EverQuest II and EverQuest II Extended: A series of events, including Double XP, Double Guild XP, Loot Bonanza, and City Festivals
- Vanguard: Saga of Heroes®: A series of Double XP events
- Star Wars Galaxies™: Bounty Hunter Statue, a miniature model of Boba Fett's ship, the Slave I™
- Magic: The Gathering - Tactics™: Four of each of these spells: "Ivory Mask", "Duress" and "Angelheart Vial", plus 500 Station Cash
- PoxNora®: Limited edition Carrionling, Welcome Back 5K Gold Award Tournaments and two Draft Tournaments, plus 500 Station Cash
As for when PSN and SOE will actually be back online? Sony still has nothing to tell us other than it’ll be “at least a few more days.” We’ll keep you posted.
Further Reading
SOE: May 12 Update
