Sony to restart PSN by May 31st

A spokesperson for Sony Japan has warned that PlayStation Network may not be fully operational again until 31st May.

Sony aimed to re-launch some services during last week, but delayed its plans in order to finalize testing of what it claims is a reconstructed and more secure network. For the time being, Sony will likely focus on gettingnew PS3 firmware out to allow users to update their usernames and passwords.

PSN reactivation delayed for further testing, likely not back until next week

On Sunday, Sony announced that "some" PSN services, including online play, would come back this week. With very little of this week remaining, you might be wondering if it's still going to happen. Well, it isn't.

In an update on the PlayStation Blog, Sony's Patrick Seybold passes along the bad news that service renewal has been delayed to an unspecified time. "When we held the press conference in Japan last week," Seybold said, "based on what we knew, we expected to have the services online within a week. We were unaware of the extent of the attack on Sony Online Entertainment servers, and we are taking this opportunity to conduct further testing of the incredibly complex system." He didn't flat out say this week is out of the question, but that's definitely the implication.

Seybold apologized for the delay. To those of us (all of us) waiting to get back to our online services, he said "trust me when I say we're doing everything we can to make it happen."