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Xbox LIVE And PlayStation Network Go Down Christmas Day, Attack Or Flood Of New Users?

By Scott Grill
Published on: 05:20 PST, Dec 25, 2014

People around the globe are opening their brand new Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles Christmas morning only to discover that they aren’t able to connect to Xbox LIVE or the PlayStation Network. Is this part of a promised Christmas day attack on the console networks or just the usual outages suffered from a flood of new console owners?

Both Xbox LIVE and PlayStation Network were functional early this morning when first checked. Xbox LIVE apparently began experiencing issues around noon ET, though. PlayStation 4 owners began experiencing issues earlier.

Sony acknowledged the issues via the official PlayStation twitter account. Meanwhile, Microsoft’s Xbox Twitter account has not made an announcement yet (Update: Xbox has acknowledged the connection issues). The Xbox Support page also does not show problems with Xbox LIVE at the time of this article.

PlayStation owners on NeoGAF and Reddit are reporting outages as are Xbox owners on both forums. Some users are able to get online while others are locked out completely. This is part of the reason behind the Christmas tip article to download all console and game updates prior to placing them under the Christmas tree. The usual suspects have not taken credit yet if this is indeed an attack on Xbox LIVE and the PlayStation Network. There was much noise being made about an impending attack on the networks. A rival group of hackers exposed members of the group responsible for the DDOS attack, but they came back with another Twitter account and more threats.

Update: There will not be any linking or naming the group because of their desire for attention, but they have taken credit for the Xbox LIVE and PlayStation Network going down. However, their claims of taking both console networks down came long after the outages. So, it’s not certain they are responsible or are merely taking credit for the services going down.

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It’s also entirely plausible that the surge of new Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles trying to get online and download updates is the cause instead of the hackers. This wouldn’t be the first time that either network went down from too many new users. There’s no telling when PlayStation Network and Xbox LIVE will be back up. A holiday is not always the best time for support with so many employees out. Until then, you can commiserate with various Twitter users.

What has your Christmas Day experience been like with either the PS4 or Xbox One? Sound off in the comments below.

[Images via Xbox, PlayStation]

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