It's a week late, but Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai has come out overnight in a pre-recorded video to announce that Sony has indeed started bringing back Playstation Network and Qriocity services worldwide. Phase 1 has already commenced, which brings back a number of services including:

• The ability for users to sign in to PSN and Qriocity
• Return of online gaming for both PS3 and PSP users
• Music Unlimited for PS3 and PC
• Access to friends lists and Trophies
• Playstation Home

During his talk, Hirai outlined that Sony is making the protection of consumer data "A full time, company wide commitment" from now on, but acknowledged that even "loyal customers were tested" during the extended downtime. When he shifted to discuss why the restoration took so long, Hirai highlighted that the "attacks were serious and sophisticated", adding that Sony took time to install new measures and verify the networks before restoring them. One of these new measures Sony have put in place is a mandatory firmware update and password change when you log back into the PSN for the first time. This password change can only be done from the PS3 you activated the account from or from the registered email address associated with it.

Whilst Hirai only briefly touched on details of the welcome back package, he confirmed that the regional Playstation sites will be carrying what will be offered in the next few days. The package is designed to get people back to using the Playstation Network and content services "that you've missed".

I'm yet to go fire up my Playstation 3 to test it out, has anyone else had a go this morning and noticed that they could access PSN again? promoted forum item