As the disruption moves toward the sixth week, Sony announced that the PlayStation Network (PSN) service will be back online by the end of the week.

PSN has been down since mid April, when hackers stole the names, email addresses, log-in IDs and passwords from millions of PSN user accounts, marking one of the biggest data breaches in the history.

Sony has been working to ensure the security of the service.

Partially restored, but certain features such as the PlayStation Store remained offline.

In a blog post, Sony said the remaining services would be back online by June 5, except for those in Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea. The restoration in Japan previously expected at the end of May was delayed, according to Sony. The exact date of the return is unknown.

In Europe, the maintenance initially planned to take place on May 31 was postponed. The PSN will be offline for maintenance from 16:30 GMT June 1 until 07:01 June 2. During the period the users will have no access to the PSN account management or registration, or sign into PSN from eu.playstation.com. The PlayStation Store is speculated to be return on Thursday morning.

The services to be available by the end of this week include PlayStation Store and related services such as voucher redemption, in-game commerce, Media Go and?Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity for PS3, PSP, VAIO and?other PCs.

We have been conducting additional testing and further security verification of our commerce functions in order to bring the PlayStation Network completely back online so that our fans can again enjoy the first class entertainment experience they have come to love, said Kazuo Hirai, Executive Deputy President, Sony Corporation. We appreciate the patience and support shown during this time, said Hirai, reported on a blog post of PlayStation.

When the Store is online, PSN users will be granted their Welcome Back package that includes two free games, and a free 30-day access to the premium PlayStation Plus service.

According to Sony, the data breach will cost the company around $170 million.

South Korea Japan Japan South Korea