Sony: "PSN Restoration Begins Now"

Sony has posted an update on its PlayStation Blog this evening, stating that the restoration process of the PlayStation Network, which has been down for nearly a month now, has begun. The initial attack on Sony's PSN servers took place on April 21, 2011, where users' personal information had been exposed. Since then, Sony has been working on improving the security of the PlayStation Network, as well as fighting off more attacks centered around the it.

According to Sony, the restoration process will take a while. However, according to a map that shows the states in the U.S. where PSN services have been restored (or are beginning to be restored), much of the east coast and California is now back online (as of writing this article).

Please note that these services will take a bit of time to be turned on and rolled out to the whole country. The process has begun and some states are being turned on now, so please be patient as we reach your city and state. We'll be updating the map below as service comes online in individual states. It will take several hours to restore PSN throughout the entire country, so please keep checking back for the latest updates. In the meantime, now's a great time to get your PS3's firmware updated, which is required to get online.

The firmware update Sony is referring to was released earlier in the day and is required if gamers would like to gain access to the PSN once it is fully back up and running. The update requires users change their PSN account password.

Finally, Sony is telling users that, even if your state has been turned back on, you in specific might not be able to access PSN services for at least a few hours.

Can you access the PlayStation Network yet? Let us know in the comments below!