Certain services on the PlayStation network and on Qriocity are to be reopened, according to a press release from Sony. Kazuo Hirai, the head of the PlayStation department has made a statement apologising for the error that caused over 75 million PSN users to have their confidential details stolen by hackers. He has also announced that some services on PSN will resume

“The organisation has worked around the clock to bring these services back on line and are doing so only after we had verified increased levels of security across our networks. These illegal attacks obviously highlight the widespread problem with cyber-security” – Mr Hirai

Following on from the news that the Sony PlayStation Network (PSN) had been hacked and confidential user details had been stolen, including credit card data, the latest update is that the details that were stolen have now reportedly appeared for sale on the internet.

Sony Computer Entertainment said that the number of registered accounts on the PlayStation Network (PSN) has crossed the 50 million mark around the globe. These are latest figures as of 14^th June 2010.

The PSN has expanded globally since its launch in November 2006 and offers services in more than 58 countries worldwide. The first year saw less than 6 million users. It took a year and eight months to touch the 10 million mark. The third year saw rapid growth and the PSN had clocked 20 million users in two years and three months from its launch and this grew to 50 million in just three years and eight months.

The first Map Pack for Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 has finally been released on the PS3. The Map Pack was previously released on Xbox 360 and was a 360 exclusive for a couple of weeks but, now PS3 owners will get to experience the extended multiplayer as well.

The Stimulus Map pack brings you two maps from Call of Duty 4; Crash and Overgrown. There’s also three new maps to play on; Storm, Salvage and Bailout. To celebrate the release of the map pack, all players on all playlists will receive double XP. The map pack costs $14.99.

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. announced sales figures of their PlayStation 3 system during the holiday season. Accounting for holiday sales from the last week of November 2009 through December 2009, the PlayStation 3 system exceeded 3.8 million units sold worldwide.

Sony’s press release stated, “The PS3 platform experienced a 76% increase in hardware sales compared to the same period in the previous year, marking the highest record sales for PS3 hardware for a holiday period.”

Sony also noted that more than 38 million PlayStation Network accounts have been registered to date worldwide.