Looks like Sony’s PlayStation Network might be up and running in some form this week.

Gaming site VG247 is reporting that Sony will partially restore parts of the PlayStation Network this week and while  an exact day hasn’t been given for when partial services will be back up and running, the  EU PS Blog says services to return include titles requiring online verification and downloaded games, restoration of online game-play across the PS3 and PSP systems, access to Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity for PS3/PSP for existing subscribers,  access to account management and password reset, access to download un-expired Movie Rentals on PS3, PSP and MediaGo, PlayStation Home, Friends List and chat functionality.

So, there’s some form of normality returning to the service which Sony has been forced to rebuild from the ground up. No word on when the PlayStation Store will come back up but it’ll be sometime this month.

This isn’t a hack that’s affected a few users – it’s affected millions of PS3 users around the world: 31 million in the US, 9 milion in Britain, 7 million in Japan and, closer to home, more than 235,000 New Zealand PlayStation users.

Sony has a huge disaster on it’s hands and many a PS user  is demanding some form of compensation so Sony will give all PSN users a “Welcome Back” pack, which will include 30 day subs to PlayStation Plus for all users  (current PlayStation Plus subscribers will get an additional 30 days), region-specific selected content for free (no word from Sony NZ on what that will be) and Qriocity subscribers will receive additional 30 day subs.

Sony also confirmed that out of the 78 million-strong user-base for PSN, at least 10 million accounts had credit card information. It added that there was no evidence credit card information was stolen, but urged users to “stay vigilant,” change other passwords and keep an eye on credit card statements.

This has turned into a nightmare for Sony and it’s been handled badly by Sony executives, especially given how long it actually took for them to tell PS3 users about the breach. Who knows how many PS users have had their confidence in the company dented.