PlayStation Network Outage: Sony Makes Statement, Points Blame To Server Attack
As the PlayStation Network struggles for owners of the PS4, PS3, and PS Vita continue into Saturday night, Sony issued a statement via the PlayStation Blog. The recent DDoS attacks, plus a surge of new users on both PSN and Xbox LIVE have left both Sony and Microsoft scrambling during the Christmas holidays.
PlayStation Network has been down for a large number of users since Christmas day when a group that will not be named here launched an attack on both the PSN and Xbox LIVE. The reason for the attack is unknown, but a highly questionable move by Mega Privacy’s Kimdotcom to pay off the attackers hasn’t helped PSN much. Since the attacks ceased, PSN has largely been inaccessible.
Latest update on PlayStation Network: http://t.co/H1SoNpzYFR Engineers are working hard to restore online gameplay as quickly as possible
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) December 27, 2014
Sony Computer Entertainment of America Consumer Experience Vice President Catherine Jensen addressed these issues in a PlayStation Blog post.
The video game industry has been experiencing high levels of traffic designed to disrupt connectivity and online gameplay. Multiple networks, including PSN, have been affected over the last 48 hours. PSN engineers are working hard to restore full network access and online gameplay as quickly as possible.
From time to time there may be disruptions in service due to surges in traffic, but our engineers will be working to restore service as quickly as possible.
The “high levels of traffic designed to disrupt connectivity and online gameplay” is an interesting phrase for a DDoS attack. She also made sure to note that Xbox LIVE was attacked as well, without mentioning the competitor by name. That online console service is largely back up Saturday, though with intermittent problems. There were issues with social features such as friends and parties for a couple of hours that have been resolved.
Jensen also made sure to include a note that new PS4 owners should not think that there is a problem with their console. The problem is with PlayStation Network instead.
If you received a PlayStation console over the holidays and have been unable to log onto the network, know that this problem is temporary and is not caused by your game console. We’ll continue to keep you posted on Twitter at @AskPlayStation and we’ll update this post once the problems subside.
Meanwhile, PlayStation owners are still sporadically reporting that they either can or can’t get onto PSN as of 8 p.m. ET, Saturday night. Forum threads on NeoGAF and the PS4 sub-Reddit reveal a growing number of users losing their patience. While things have not reached the levels of 2011 when PSN was down for 23 days because of a hack on PSN servers, the holiday timing of this outage makes things worse.
What has your experience been with PSN and Xbox LIVE so far? Sound off in the comments below?
[Images via PlayStation]
