Between April and May of 2011, Sony's PlayStation Network was attacked by hackers who crippled the service for 23 days and stole personal information from some 77 million customers.
People were kind of upset.
Naturally, this being America, lawsuits were filed and eventually the plaintiffs were awarded a $15 million settlement, which Sony is now paying out. If you were a PSN member before May 15, 2011, then you probably qualify for your piece of the pie. But don't get your hopes up terribly high — it's not like you're getting a big pile of cash or anything.
Settlement benefits for qualifying PSN members consist of stuff like one free PSP or PS3 game, free PS3 themes, a free 3-month subscription to PlayStation Plus (if you're not currently a subscriber), or the cash payment equivalent of paid PSN wallet balances of $2 or more that have been inactive since the outage.
As for those free games, the PS3 selection includes Dead Nation, inFAMOUS, LittleBigPlanet, Super Stardust HD, Rain, Puppeteer, Invizimals: Lost Kingdom and God of War HD. PSP users can choose from LittleBigPlanet, ModNation Racers, Patapon 3, Killzone Liberation, Wipeout Pure or Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror.
Sony has set up a special website at psnsoesettlement.com where you can fill out the claim form if you're entitled to part of the settlement.
