PlayStation Network may be back online as soon as tomorrow

Speculation on when the PlayStation Network would come back online has run rampant in the two weeks since Sony took it down, and Sony hasn’t been terribly forthcoming about the state of repairs or re-engineering, and certainly not around when players can expect to use it again.

According to a previous statement posted to the Sony PSN blog on April 30th, they initially expected to “have some services up and running within a week from yesterday,” which would indicate a return to service as soon as tomorrow. Other statements however, said that some PSN services would be available as recently as last Tuesday, May 3rd, especially for PlayStation Plus members.

Clearly that hasn’t happened, and Sony hasn’t gone out of its way to confirm or deny that tomorrow, PlayStation owners will be able to play again. The company hasn’t indicated at all when SOE customers will be able to sign in to their favorite MMOs again. Sony’s silence on the matter, not to mention the conflicting speculation on when PSN will be back online, can’t be good for the company, or the gamers who desperately just want to go back to their favorite pastime.

We’ve already discussed some of the impact for Sony should PSN continue to remain offline, and we’re already seeing some of that fallout: Hulu Plus members are getting a week’s free service because of the PSN debacle, and if the outage continues, Hulu may be forced to extend that credit. Sony hasn’t stopped furiously marketing SOCOM 4 to gamers, even though online multiplayer is all but absent without PSN.

Also, in the early stages of the outage, Sony said that when PSN came back online, it would be “rebuilt from scratch.” It’s pretty difficult to believe that Sony could completely tear down and re-engineer PSN from the ground up using enhanced security techniques and new technologies in just under two weeks. Now, new information has come out that the server that hosted PSN were running an outdated version of Apache and wasn’t even protected by a firewall. Still, Sony’s previous statement that some services may be online as soon as tomorrow stands, and Sony hasn’t backed off of either statement.

Technology issues aside, Sony may be doing the most damage to its brand and its reputation with gamers just by failing to communicate effectively. It makes sense that they would want to be careful with their words while they work with law enforcement to find the people responsible for the attack.

Even so, it would make more sense to keep players more in the know than out in the cold. Most players are already angry and frustrated. Some are even ready to jump ship to the Xbox 360 and Xbox Live and cancel their SOE game subscriptions. More are willing to stick it out as long as there’s light at the end of the tunnel. Sony just has to provide that light before they give up and move on.