UPDATE: This was just posted to the official PlayStation blog:
I know you all want to know exactly when the services will be restored. At this time, I can’t give you an exact date, as it will likely be at least a few more days. We’re terribly sorry for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience as we work through this process.

Last time Sony said that it would be rolling out “some services” of the PSN following April’s massive attack and outage, it was last week and their timeline of “the next couple of days” proved to be inaccurate.

The latest news does not come directly from Sony, however, as their latest official blog post came May 6th. Eurogamer is reporting that a “trusted source” confirmed that Sony plans to restore matchmaking on the PSN within the next couple of days.

Yesterday we learned that a Tokyo-based spokesperson warned that full PSN and Qriocity services may not be restored until May 31st, a timeline than devastated many PS3 owners. The key word in that announcement is “full,” however, as some services will most likely begin popping back online before others. May 31st is simply the likely “full reboot” day.

European Playstation community manager @MusterBuster seems to think that online gaming function will be restored before other services as he tweeted this after the May 31st announcement:

Sony said in its latest update that they were still “verifying the system security.” The above “phasing” remarks suggest it’s possible that they will feel confident enough to begin restoring some services before the end of the month.

If online multiplayer comes back relatively soon – say within the week – how will that affect your attitude towards Sony? Have they already done too much damage to their reputation in your eyes?

Over the weeks that this has been playing out, I’ve written quite a bit on the subject. Most of the time I’ve received hundreds of comments, most of them passionate to say the least. I’ve noticed the common threads running through the comments, such as paid Xbox Live vs. Free PSN, whether to blame Sony or the hackers for the intrusion and debate over how Sony has handled the outage.

Here’s the question I want to ask PS3 owners: If online gameplay comes back within the next couple of days, will you go back to gaming and be content? If not, what exactly will you expect from Sony?

Also, out of personal curiosity, how many have actually switched to Xbox due to this outage?