Sony answers your questions about PSN restoration, trophies, profiles

In an ongoing effort to reassure gamers affected by the PSN outage, Sony has taken to answering questions in an evolving FAQ. Aside from concerns about protecting identity, many of the issues surrounding the PSN blackout (which began on April 20) revolve around what will happen when the PSN is restored. How are trophies and user profiles affected? What about Playstation Plus members? Will there be compensation for gamers who pay monthly subscriptions for PS3 MMO DC Universe Online?

Trophies, Friends Lists, Settings: All safe and sound

Thankfully, Sony seems to be making a genuine effort to be honest and direct in tackling these questions, and Patrick Seybold, the company’s Senior Director of Corporate Communications, just posted answers to several burning questions submitted by the Playstation community at large.

Q: Will trophies that were earned in single-player offline games during the outage be intact when the service resumes?
A: These trophies are intact and will be re-synched when the network is once again operational.

Q: Will our download history/friends list/settings be affected by the PSN downtime?
A: No, they will not.

Q: Will my PS+ cloud saves be retrievable?
A: Yes, once PSN is restored.

What about gamers who have been simply inconvenienced by the extended downtime? Sony is “currently evaluating ways to show appreciation for your extraordinary patience as we work to get these services back online.” Whether this is a free downloadable title, free access to Playstation Plus, or some other gesture, we won’t know until Sony makes an announcement.

Sony Online Entertainment (technically a separate division) has told their customers who subscribe to the PS3 versions of DC Universe Online and Free Realms that they will be hosting special events across their stable of games, and are devising a “make good” plan to somehow compensate players for the increased downtime. (DC Universe Online costs $14.99 per month to play.) Look for those announcements individually on the DC Universe Online and Free Realms website.

Though not specifically addressed in this update, Sony is also working with developers who have recently published downloadable games and minis. Though gamers have been seriously inconvenienced by the PSN outage, some indie developers rely on sales from the Playstation Store to literally put food on their table. Sony has pledged to extend their marketing campaigns by several weeks, giving their games visibility and high-profile placement in the Playstation Store.

All told, we can breathe a collective sigh of relief that our profile data will return intact, and that Sony is at least working toward a peace offering when the PSN finally comes back online.

Written by Jason Evangelho  (406 Posts)

Jason is VGW’s founder, Executive Editor, and a longtime podcaster, writer, and “solopreneur” who is driven by the classic Jello Biafra quote “Don’t hate the media. Become the media.” His singular mission is to develop VideoGameWriters into a gaming site known for its intelligence, timeliness, originality and integrity. You can hear him leading the VGW Collective in the site’s official podcast, “Unlimited Ammo.”