It's Back! PS3 Firmware 3.61 Means PSN And Online Gaming Being Back Up Is Imminent

Written by Matt Swider on May 14, 2011

News: Phased restoration of the hacker-hobbled Network begins in Americas, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Middle East.

Update: First Images Of PlayStation Network Back Online In California After 24-Day Outage

PlayStation Network coming back online this afternoon after the 24-day PSN outage stemming from what Sony calls a "criminal cyber attack" of its San Diego, California data center. The videogame publisher said that this phased restoration has begun in the Americas, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Middle East. While gamers in these countries will be back online by May 14, everyone is Asia may have to wait until the end of the month for the outage debacle to be over. That's when Sony claims that PSN will be fully restored.

Here in the United States, we can say for sure that firmware 3.61, the latest firmware for PS3, is available to download right now. Sadly, after downloading and installing this package for ten minutes, we weren't able to sign into PSN. This means that features such as online gaming on PS3 and PSP is still offline at this time. The error message of "PlayStation Network is currently undergoing maintenance" still shows up when trying to log into PSN.

This unfortunate fact is backed up by Patrick Seybold, Senior Director Corporate Communications & Social Media: "It will take several hours to restore PSN throughout the entire country, so please keep checking back for the latest updates." In addition to downloading and installing firmware 3.61, Seybold also suggested to use this time to change your PSN password as soon as possible.

While we can't access the inFamous 2 beta or play SOCOM 4 and CoD: Black Ops online just yet, this development is extremely encouraging news. PS3 firmware 3.61 should bring an end to the outage that began on April 20 and sent Sony's stock price tumbling along with its trust with many gamers.

Confidence in Sony has been at an all-time low with the gaming public, but the videogame publisher plans to amend that with a "Welcome Back" program. Gifts will include free DLC and a 30-day free subscription to both PlayStation Plus and Qriocity. In case you are wondering, the DLC hasn't been announced yet, but we know that it'll be region-specific.

Gaming Target will keep you up to date with this breaking news, so be sure to check back so that you know when PSN is back up and running pre-4/20 style. We'll also keep you informed as to what the free DLC will be when that's announced.