A humble Jack Tretton has opened the Sony E3 press conference with apologies to retail, third-party partners and consumers for the downtime that crippled the PlayStation Network for six weeks.

He said that network levels were now back to around 90 per cent of what they were before the service was hacked and user data was compromised.

"To our partners... I know the network outage was costly to you," he told the audience. "What's been incredibly inspiring is your support and offers to help us get back up to speed."

Addressing gamers he said: "You are the lifeblood of the company. Without you there is no PlayStation. I want to apologise personally and on behalf of the company for any anxiety we've caused you."

Chancing a light-hearted note, he commented that journalists are known for relishing bad news, and for that he offered "you're welcome."

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