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SOE games down Monday for 24-hour maintenance
We imagine that the word downtime makes Sony Online Entertainment employees cringe, convulse, and eye-twitch for hours on end after last summer's disastrous hacker-induced service outage. Happily, though, the next service interruption is planned, and we've got plenty of notice. SOE will be performing maintenance this Monday, April 23rd, and the firm says that all of its game services will be unavailable for approximately 24 hours. The downtime starts at 3:01 a.m. EDT. Commerce transactions and account management functionality will also be affected, so you might as well cross all of your SOE-related plans off Monday's calendar.
The Tattered Notebook: Back in Norrath
What a happy surprise it was to be able to log back in to EverQuest II after the extended downtime! I honestly didn't expect to see services up and running this soon, and I was even speculating with a few friends on the prospect of a Fan Faire with no gaming. I popped on shortly after news broke that services were restored, and it was nice to see familiar names start to appear. I realized that I missed my guildmates, and I was even happy to see the names of players who tend to get a little nudgy in open chat. It was like one big happy reunion party, but at the same time, there's a dark cloud still hovering over things. Sure, many of the loyal regulars returned, but did enough of them come back? And what about the more casual gamers -- the ones who play multiple games and tend to come and go? More importantly, is the downtime really over? As of Sunday morning when this article was posted, it seemed that services were down again. Read on for a look at some possible answers to these questions.
SOE begins restoring game services
Sony Online Entertainment has good news for fans of its dormant MMORPGs. Service restoration has officially begun for all of the company's online games, forums, and related websites as of May 14th. Earlier today, the company issued a press release with the details as well as a statement from Sony executive Kazuo Hirai. "Our main priority is the safety and security of our customers' personal information. We are making consumer data protection a full-time, company-wide commitment, and have applied enhanced security technologies so that our customers can feel protected and confident about playing our games," Hirai said. SOE provided details on its Welcome Back promotion earlier this week, and today's release provides links to a handy chart covering promotions for all of the company's games as well as a summary of the initial customer service notice and contact information. The promotions include free play time for former (not just active) subscribers to SOE's MMOs, making it a great time to return to an old favorite.
