Sony promises dev compensation amid PSN limbo

Sony has pledged to help developers who have lost business due to the ongoing PSN outage.

The PlayStation Network had been inaccessible to customers over the Easter period. Sony’s digital portal – which provides an online games store as well as multiplayer features – was blocked from users due to an “external intrusion”.

The block has stung studios that have released their digital games during this period.

News site IGN reports “at least one developer has confirmed Sony will be doing all it can to help out the developers affected by the PSN outage”.

Irish games studio Open Emotion was scheduled to launch its new digital game, Mad Blocker Alpha, on Friday – the third day of the PSN block.

But Open Emotion CEO Paddy Murphy said Sony has pledged to “help us retain [prominent placement on the PSN Store] for an extra few weeks.”

“Sony understands how something like this can affect a small dev studio like ours," Murphy added.

"As it’s our first week in the US, I’m sure it will affect sales, but we have to understand that Sony wouldn’t take down the entire PSN on a whim.

“As long as they can give us some marketing assistance when the PSN is back up, we are sure we will be able to recoup our potential losses."