In a class action lawsuit over the 2011 hacking of the PlayStation Network, Sony has agreed to preliminary settlement of $15 million.
The hack saw the data of 77 million users of the online network become targets for criminals as their security defences were compromised. Polygon have reported that, should the settlement be approved by a judge, Sony will offer gamers choices between numerous compensation including free games for the PS3 and PSP, free months of PS+ subscription and themes for the PS3. A lot of the games on offer were already handed out via the Welcome Back Programme, which came into effect after the three week outage.
Among the titles on offer are inFAMOUS, LittleBigPlanet, Dead Nation and Super Stardust HD. Unfortunately, only US residents will be subject to receive the compensation, as other countries have taken payment in different methods – for instance, the UK forced Sony to pay £250,000 for a “serious breach of the Data Protection Act”.
Of course, Sony won’t be paying out $15 million. Instead, that will likely be the market value of the promotional items given away to consumers. The settlement won’t go to a judge until May 1st 2015.
Originally published July 25, 2014. Updated April 12, 2018.
