14 DAY TRIAL // Video game hardware maker and publisher Sony announces that the PlayStation Network maintenance, which was initially set to take place on Monday, has been re-scheduled and will begin at 16 PM Greenwich Mean Time on Thursday, August 28. The maintenance period will last until 5 AM GMT on August 29.
The official announcement says that during the period all those who use the service will be unable to login into the Account Management, the official PlayStation Store, and the PS Home area.
Sony adds, "If you have successfully signed in to your account on a device before the maintenance on a PS4 or within the past 5 days on any other PlayStation device, you should be able to stay connected and not lose your online session."
Apparently, some more time after the actual maintenance period might be required in order to allow Sony to test some of the changes that it is planning to introduce to the PlayStation Network.
Unfortunately, the company is unwilling to offer a clear rundown of how the service will be changed for the better and how it plans to beef up security in the coming maintenance period.
PlayStation Network was the victim of a DDoS attack late on Sunday, which brought down the entire experience, but Sony says that no personal information has been retrieved by the attackers and that users should not fear for their back accounts.
If the PSN does not get an upgrade in terms of protection, some users might abandon the service or simply pull their credit card data in order to just use it for multiplayer purposes.
The security concerns are even more problematic given that on September 9 the PlayStation 4 and the PS3 are getting access to the full launch of Destiny, the new first-person shooter from Bungie, which has exclusive content for the two hardware platforms created by Sony.
PlayStation Network needs to be ready to deal with the extra load that the game will introduce, and Sony needs to reassure users about its service.
A start would be to offer all those who have an account a free game or to deliver some credit that they can use on other entertainment products.
At the moment, Sony says that the PlayStation 4 has sold more than 10 million devices all over the world, and the features included in the PSN probably played an important part in the solid performance.