PSN outage woe enters seventh day

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 26 April, 2011

No explanation - or end - in sight.

The PlayStation Network outage currently preventing PlayStation 3 owners from gaming online has entered its seventh day.

Sony is yet to fully reveal the exact cause of the outage that rendered the PlayStation Network unusable over the Easter weekend – or hazard a guess at when it will be resolved.

Current speculation suggests Sony turned its system off to thwart hackers who had found a way to steal content using faked credit card numbers.

Sony is yet to address this concern.

The Japanese company is rebuilding the network to provide it with "additional security" after what it described as an "external intrusion". Hacker group Anonymous has denied responsibility.

"We sincerely regret that PlayStation Network and Qriocity services have been suspended, and we are working around the clock to bring them both back online," Sony said in a statement issued yesterday.

"Our efforts to resolve this matter involve re-building our system to further strengthen our network infrastructure. Though this task is time-consuming, we decided it was worth the time necessary to provide the system with additional security.

"We thank you for your patience to date and ask for a little more while we move towards completion of this project. We will continue to give you updates as they become available."

European PS3 owners first found they were unable to log in to PSN last Thursday morning – but the service has been down since Wednesday evening for US gamers.

At the time Sony said PSN was "down for maintenance", before changing its mind to describe the problem as an "outage".

Later that day Sony revealed it was investigating the possibility of "targeted behaviour by an outside party", suggesting hackers might have been responsible.

The outage is poorly timed – particularly for PS3 gamers.

Last Thursday saw the launch of superb first-person puzzle game Portal 2 – one of the most anticipated games of the year.

The PS3 version features Steamworks integration – a first for Sony and maker Valve – that allows cross-platform co-op play between the PS3 and the PC and Mac.

This feature remains unavailable.

Now, as the PSN enters its seventh day of outage, questions remain unanswered – over the future of the free online service, and the security of gamers' credit card information.

Eurogamer has once again contacted Sony Computer Entertainment Europe for comment.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (135) Latest comment 10 months ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • telboy007 #1 10 months ago

    PSNGate!

  • captain_Carl #2 10 months ago

    It's been down since last thursday, how the flying fuck do you work out to be day 7?

  • RedPanda #3 10 months ago

    Post deleted at 14:31:59 28-01-2012

  • Raz76 #4 10 months ago

    "European PS3 owners first found they were unable to log in to PSN last Thursday morning – but the service has been down since Wednesday"

    Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday = 7

  • BartonFink #5 10 months ago

    Eurogamer has once again contacted Sony Computer Entertainment Europe for comment.

    Good luck with that.

  • captain_Carl #6 10 months ago

    It wasn't down last wednesday. I was playing Portal 2 til 3am thursday morning, whilst connected to PSN
    Edited by 1 at 26/04/11 @ 09:32

  • Jimster71 #7 10 months ago

    It's been down since wednesday evening for the US, so is now in it's 7th day. I'd call it 6, but 7 sounds more dramatic in a headline.

  • Eraysor #8 10 months ago

    Even if it's been down since Wednesday evening in America, it's still not even going to be Tuesday evening there for another 15 hours or so, so it's not really day 7 yet.

  • Murton #9 10 months ago

    @captain_carl - I think they're counting from when it was first noticed in the US on Wednesday night, making this day 7, or at least it will be when the clocks catch up. Yet more over-statement and sensationalism from Wesley, that's all.

    The outage is a shame as I have today and tomorrow off and my brother pulled the "11 days off for 3 days leave" trick so we could be playing co-op right now if things were running. I'm also planning to upgrade my PS3 HDD tomorrow and I'm slightly worried that I might not be able to successfully do this if the PSN is down. Does anyone know if firmware is stored on the HDD and if so is it included by the backup and restore utility?

  • Beano #10 10 months ago

    I blame Robert Kotick.

  • Mentat_Idaho #11 10 months ago

    It's been down since Wednesday in Asia too - which makes it 7 days for me...

  • BigDannyH #12 10 months ago

    Is there a link between the Steamworks integration? God I hope not as it would be a welcome inclusion on my PS3.

  • RodHull #13 10 months ago

    The comments on the Playstation Blog regarding this are rather amusing. Everyone is fawning to Sony and thanking them for shutting down the service and ensuring their safety. It's quite sweet how some peoples love for a particular brand makes them so blind. Sweet, but really stupid.

  • eltonpr0n #14 10 months ago

    @captain_carl The problems started on Wednesday so yes it is the 7th day.

    The whole situation has become yet another Sony farce. The lack of information is ridiculous. It isn't that difficult to inform the customer base why they are unable to access the full feature set of the console, or give an indication of the time scale needed to resolve the issue.

    While I appreciate that Sony needs to minimise piracy on the system if a decision was taken to take PSN offline 2 days prior to a holiday to do so is madness.

    @Rodhull what is even more amusing is that you can't actually log into the blog or forums to post a message. Therefore the majority of users who weren't logged in prior to Wednesday can't comment.
    Edited by 1 at 26/04/11 @ 09:38

  • Beano #15 10 months ago

    @Raz76 : It was shut down wednesday night - so it's less than 6 days and not 7 (= week).

    Still 6 days to many...

  • DirectAim #16 10 months ago

    Why are Sony not releasing anything? I think its bang out of order that they are keeping everyone so quiet. Also the fact that the PS3's security was blown wide open and now their online service. Do they have any idea what security is?

    This is what happens when you piss hackers off.

  • MaxiSleep #17 10 months ago

    Really poor show by sony. There must be some awful security design on the background, or the hackers have really run merry havoc and they cant find the backup (and yes kiddies that really does happen)

  • WiZZyWiGG #18 10 months ago

    Are people really moaning about it being 6 or 7 days? Either of those numbers is still bad for a service like this.

  • rotmm #19 10 months ago

    While the lack of connectivity doesn't really concern me as I'm living with a dead PS3, I would like to know if my CC details stored on the Sony servers are safe or not. It doesn't matter if it's 7 days, or 6 or 5 or even 4 days, it's been far too long to not be given a definitive statement on that particular area of concern.

  • berelain #20 10 months ago

    Thing is, people don't mind an outage so much if there's an actual reason being given. In this case, there isn't - Sony has been characteristically closed-lipped on the subject, and its that which ticks people off. Communication, Sony. Communication. We know you're not that good at it, but here's a good time to start learning.

  • streetmagix #21 10 months ago

    You DO realise that it's standard practice to NOT tell the public *why* a service is down until it's fixed? It's a standard operating procedure. Yes it's infuriating but shit happens.

  • arcam #22 10 months ago

    It isn't that difficult to inform the customer base why they are unable to access the full feature set of the console

    If there's anything the recent lawsuits show, it's that Sony would prefer it if security flaws are kept quiet. It seems unlikely Sony would tell people about flaws in their credit card system unless they had to.

  • Raz76 #23 10 months ago

    @Beano

    6, 7, it's not that important, it's just that the rather strongly worded first comment make it seem like its a completely ludicrous statement.

  • RexRunti #24 10 months ago

    Sony claim to be rebuilding the entire network, only this time with security, this either means the networks going to be down for a month or will be up and running pretty soon but full of bugs because they haven't had time to test it.

  • Captain_Jono #25 10 months ago

    I'm a PS3 owner. As weird as it sounds, were it not for the coverage in the games media, I genuinely wouldn't have noticed the service was down! Not being flippant, I've just not touched the console in about two weeks.

    Mind you, I'm bricking myself about the potential leak of credit card details.

  • TheEarlOfZinger #26 10 months ago

    This is crazy. I want some answers now, especially regarding potential fraud issues.
    Edited by 1 at 26/04/11 @ 09:47

  • Murton #27 10 months ago

    "The comments on the Playstation Blog regarding this are rather amusing. Everyone is fawning to Sony and thanking them for shutting down the service and ensuring their safety. It's quite sweet how some peoples love for a particular brand makes them so blind. Sweet, but really stupid."

    You're too quick to jump to conclusions. A few of us on EG may understand the basics of network and computer security but a large portion of the regular posters on PS Blog are relatively low tech and there's been so much coverage on hackers stealing information in the media recently that they probably do view this is a measure in their favour. Is it so hard to believe that they may be genuine in their feelings of relief rather than being "blind followers"? Yes their reaction is born more out of ignorance than of understanding, but that doesn't make their relief any less genuine and it's a little unfair to deride them for it in my opinion

  • DozyKipper #28 10 months ago

    Brink is out in two weeks! If it's not fixed by then, there'll be hell to pay. :(

  • StolenGlory #29 10 months ago

    This is what happens when there’s no monetary cost to online play. No money available to upgrade security and no monetary punishment when a user name is lost. You get what you pay for.

  • Bigmac1910 #30 10 months ago

    I just don't understand why Sony can't be honest about this.

  • rotmm #31 10 months ago

    @Capitan_Jono,"Min d you, I'm bricking myself about the potential leak of credit card details."

    The rational part of me says, "If there was a risk of CC details being in the hands of nefarious-types, Sony would surely have informed us early on." I can't see an organisation the size of Sony risking not making such a statement.

  • nobloodyname #32 10 months ago

    Only thing that's bugging me is that I bought Portal 2 on the PS3 simply so I could activate it on my PC for free while still being able to enjoy split-screen with my girlfriend at some point in the future. Very frustrating that I can't play it on the PC - really don't want to play single player on the PS3.

    I should add that as a fairly responsible 38 year old male, I really do think the way Sony is treating its customers here is beyond the pale. I shudder to think what would happen if I treated my customer in this way.
    Edited by 1 at 26/04/11 @ 09:53

  • captain_Carl #33 10 months ago

    yes, it doesn't really matter if it's 6 or 7 days, i know. I'm tired, give me a break ;)

    Totally agreed that it's unacceptable either way.

  • Architect_z #34 10 months ago

    Lucky Demons Souls can be played offline, normally I don't play single player games. I hope this gets resolved soon. Considering some big games have come out recently, this situation couldn't come at a worse time.

    It'd be nice if we could atleast get an ETA as to when its resolved.

  • dammskog #35 10 months ago

    #22 because they have a legal obligation to inform their customers if this intrusion have gained access to their personal information, especially information concerning credit card numbers. This is so that the customers can take precautionary steps to avoid having their money being stolen and change passwords to protect mail accounts or other sites linked to their username as well as prepare for spam.

  • rotmm #36 10 months ago

    @StolenGlory,"This is what happens when there’s no monetary cost to online play"

    No it's not. Eejit.

  • drumbaby #37 10 months ago

    Sony day 1: Still working on it, not sure when it'll be up again.
    Sony day 2: Still working on it, not sure when it'll be up again.
    Sony day 3: Still working on it, not sure when it'll be up again.
    Sony day 4: Still working on it, not sure when it'll be up again.
    Sony day 5: Still working on it, not sure when it'll be up again.
    Sony day 6: Still working on it, not sure when it'll be up again.
    Sony day 7: Still working on it, not sure when it'll be up again.

    This is what we need to hear, I guess.....

  • optimusprym8 #38 10 months ago

    I only realised coz I can't use the film & TV streaming features nor link PSN to Steam account to get the free PC version before trading Portal2 on PS3 back in.

  • Murton #39 10 months ago

    "I just don't understand why Sony can't be honest about this."

    Share price. A general malfunction will drop share price but a quick resolve will see it bounce back with no loss of investor confidence, take a service down yourself however investors will wonder if their money is safe and start pulling out and investing elsewhere, potentially in your competitors. The secrecy is a major downer for us consumers, but from a business sense it's absolutely essential.

  • SeesThroughAll #40 10 months ago

    I haven't been using my PS3 lately. Sunny days and all that.

    I would appreciate SCE to make sure PSN gets back up ASAP though. And any information on whether sensitive information has been violated is imperative too.

    I don't care if you fucked up on your network implementation as long as you own up and fix it, but not informing your costumers really is irresponsible.

  • onyxbox #41 10 months ago

    I think Sony should invite the press to sit with their engineers while they sort tge problem out, giving them every bit of information about the breach.. how it happened and how they're fixing it. I think this because the press have acted so responsibly over the whole hacking issue.

    You know, when XBL went offline for two weeks a couple years ago the same complains were made... MS aren't saying enough... lack of info... what's happening... The world is ending...are they going to compensate etc..

    This is how companies like MS & Sony handle these things.
    They may be facing a problem that they can't put a time frame on.

    I dunno' it's obviously a massive deal.. and Sony are losing a load of money, credibility over this so I'm sure they're going full pelt.

  • jellyBelly #42 10 months ago

    I like the word outage. Sounds like something that might be whispered in a debutante ball

  • VP1398 #43 10 months ago

    Six, seven or eight days, that doesn't matter. The thing that matters is that those who say that act to protect the customers, i.e. the hackers are those to blame for this outage. They did irreparable damage to Sony and after all this who is suffering the most, us the gamers.

  • Stoatboy #44 10 months ago

    Whilst I'm not particularly bothered by the outage, I do kinda resent being thanked for my patience when they can't possibly know if I am being patient or not. I could be an impatient fuck-monkey ranting all over the internet for all they know. The fact that I'm not only makes this kind of blanket approach to gratitude worse. Impatient fuck-monkeys ranting all over the internet just got thanked for their non-existent patience to exactly the same degree that I did, and I'm being a model - nay, a god-damned paragon - of calm and restraint here.

  • GamesConnoisseur #45 10 months ago

    When Live was swamped in 2008, I still had partial access to the marketplace though intermittingly as well as on and off online connection, but important thing was the clarity of information from MS but it wasnt day one though.

    I would have hoped for similar transparency from Sony but with sinking feeling that this may be very slow in coming, people complains about speculations of credit cards scam via dev network, but Sony is allowing this vacuum.

    Understood not seen by some as on same merit due to paid vs free, but Sony do sells PS3 and the Publishers on back of network/online elements of PS3 Games.

    The losers are the gamers who missed opportunity especially during paid absences from work during Easter holidays, and hoping for a kind token even though free, from Sony to sweeten the pains. As it stands, only Sony looks after themselves rather than consumers if the speculations are correct about the dev network scam.

  • rotmm #46 10 months ago

    @charliechan, ".... thanks for, etc ...."

    Off Topic, but I'll just regale a little story from a few years back when I bought a Sony MP3 player. There was an iTunes-like program that came with it (Sonicstage or its Connect or something) where you could manage playlists, sync with the MP3 player and all the usual stuff you'd expect.

    Now, I already had some CD's ripped onto my HD, but with the enhanced storage of my new MP3 player I decided to use the Sony software to rip a whole bunch of CD's. Everything was fine (except that the software itself was slow and unintuitive) until a couple of years later when I decided to pick up a new MP3 player from Creative (dropped Sony one and it didn't survive).

    So I tried to populate my new Zen and found that most of my music wouldn't copy across to it. After a lot of investigation I discovered that Sony were installing their DRM onto my MP3's as I ripped them.

    Abso-fucking-lutely disgusting!

    So you can add, "Thanks for putting your DRM onto my legally ripped MP3's to improve my experience"

  • Murton #47 10 months ago

    @ charliechan - not sure how come by that list of alleged Sony activities, but it's quite inaccurate. Lik Sang wasn't shut down for piracy it was shut down because it didn't have a license to produce or market the things that it was selling. They were given several chances to purchase a license to become an official third party peripheral provider and refused, thus placing them in breach of their court order making them an illegal operation. I'm also not aware of any Sony published PC game with SecuROM nor were Sony the first company to offer online play only to those who bought valid keys, that's something that's been happening in PC games since before Sony even entered the games industry. Better luck next time.

    "The rational part of me says, "If there was a risk of CC details being in the hands of nefarious-types, Sony would surely have informed us early on." I can't see an organisation the size of Sony risking not making such a statement."

    The thing is, with the PSN down there'd be nothing anyone can do other than cancel their cards, which I'm sure you'll agree is far from a rational response. I agree that it's odd that Sony haven't confirmed or denied a risk to CC details, but if they did confirm a risk there would be widespread panic. Under the data protection act they're only obligated to inform of a definite risk to personal data, and Sony always follow the legal minimums so they can keep quiet on this but under other legislation they (and the banks) are obligated to comply with consumers who seek reimbursement for loss of funds as a result of fraud. So yes, a less than ideal situation, but Sony haven't technically done anything wrong - yet.

  • EvilSpaceMonkey #48 10 months ago

    From what I've heard it's due to some custom firmware hack that enabled consoles set to QA mode being able to download DRM'd DLC from the PSN for free (including renewing licenses).

    Odd because I thought Hotz and Anonymous were fighting for OtherOS... However all we hear from CFW is piracy, piracy, piracy...

  • StolenGlory #49 10 months ago

    @rotmm

    Yes it is.

    Prick.

  • EMULOUS #50 10 months ago

    WOW 53 comments in an hour, am I the only one working today? ;)

  • randompanda #51 10 months ago

    Was too sunny to be stuck indoors! Will miss it now the weather has gone shite though :(

  • BartonFink #52 10 months ago

    @onyxbox

    The XBL and PSN outages are hardly comparable. PSN is due to a breach of security where they just pulled the plug, the XBL outage was not a complete network shut down and it was also planned from what I recall. Also MS kept people informed.

  • scoop #53 10 months ago

    All Your Base Are Belong To Me
    - SkyNet

  • trjp #54 10 months ago

    If EG wants to be taken seriously it really does need to learn to COUNT (or hire an editor who can check stuff and slap lazy writers).

    If this problem first arose somewhere in the early morning of Thursday (UK - Weds Evening US) and it's now Tuesday Morning (UK) then it's been 5 days + a bit.

    In no way can you construe or adjust that to 7 - at best it's 'entering day 6' surely?
    Edited by 1 at 26/04/11 @ 10:26

  • Murbal #55 10 months ago

    Somebody please think of the PSP owners!

  • Widge #56 10 months ago

    SonicStage was terrible by all reports. Then again, I don't like requiring any software to transfer to what is in effect removable media drives. iTunes is bliss compared to some I've come into contact with but I still fucking hate it.

  • handsonhips101 #57 10 months ago

    To be honest I haven't missed it. It's quite nice not to have peoples names popping up or game updates everytime you put a disc in.

  • lancashirered #58 10 months ago

    "Custom firmware is not for stealing, piracy or fraud..." "We're just hobbyists who want Linux back on the machine..." "I do not condone piracy" Is anyone else sick of these liars bulls**t? When I bought my PS3 I knew its primary function was to play games; its a games console. I mean if you want to create media centre or learn how to program buy a f**king PC. Now some elitist teenage t**t has blown the security open on PS3 for his own questionable sense of achievement and spoiled it for us normal punters.
    Edited by 1 at 26/04/11 @ 10:27

  • onyxbox #59 10 months ago

    @BartonFink

    Yeah right. I'm sure MS planned to have XBL offline for 2 weeks over the Christmas

  • lucky_jim #60 10 months ago

    Sony had better chuck me a nice freebie for wasting a week or more of my Plus subscription.

  • atomised #61 10 months ago

    wow, it must have really been broken.
    interesting to think how much microsoft + nintendo would be searching for how it was broken worried it may happen to them also...ah the internet.

  • sega #62 10 months ago

    I have a question that none of the articles seem to mention - are any games unplayable offline or is it just online gaming that's affected? Granted it is still an annoyance if only online games can't be played, but with the current trent of requiring updates and net connections for modern gaming, I'm wondering if this stops any single player games too? I'm a PC gamer and lack of internet has affected me on more than one occasion so I'm wondering if console gaming is now suffering this fate.

  • Murton #63 10 months ago

    "To be honest I haven't missed it. It's quite nice not to have peoples names popping up or game updates everytime you put a disc in."

    Game updates are still functioning, or at least updates published before the outage can still be detected and downloaded. No way of really knowing for certain if devs can publish new updates during the outage.

    EDIT: @ sega - the number of PS3 games which require an active online connection to play are few and far between. In my collection of 120+ retail games only 1 genuinely requires an active connection and that's MAG. Aside from that the only other games I have that I can't enjoy during the outage are LBP and MNR because I'm done with the developer content and largely play user-created stuff now.
    Edited by 1 at 26/04/11 @ 10:38

  • BritishBlue1 #64 10 months ago

    I've been patiently waiting for PSN to come back up and I absolutely refuse to start playing Portal 2 until it does. I wish they'd just hurry up already, at first it didn't bother me because I had Dragon Age 2 and a few other games to finish off but now they're completed the temptation to lash Portal 2 on is annoying...I think I'm going to have to hide it in my bedside table or something, keep it out of sight till PSN is back up.

  • Bigglesworth #65 10 months ago

    @sega
    No, this doesn't affect single player games.

  • Murton #66 10 months ago

    " (my post was deliberately inaccurate in places, but you didn't get it)"

    Ah right. So you were being wrong on purpose and I was just too stupid to realise that. That makes perfect sense, I guess you win that little debate then.

    (sarcasm, in case you're wondering)

  • menage #67 10 months ago

    Unbelievable.

  • Fork_Handles #68 10 months ago

    Wednesday night in America = Thursday morning in Europe. Who knew?

  • Rodster #69 10 months ago

    Blame Mr. Bean

  • rotmm #70 10 months ago

    This Penny Arcade front-page sums up the situation perfectly:

    "They have a serious problem here, and as serious as their technology problem might be, it’s not the biggest one they have. Their problem is that they don’t know how to communicate about anything but their legendary prowess. They simply don’t have it. I mean, genetically. They need to find a human being, or hire one, and start an actual dialogue with users.

    They need to do this last Friday.

    [link url=http://www.penny-arcade. com/
    ]http://www.penny-arcade. com/
    [/link]

  • rotmm #71 10 months ago

    @charliechan,

    In the hope that it cheers you up and that you don't feel forced to write another gramatically shocking post such as the last one, I got it.

  • PixelPirate #72 10 months ago

    The PS3 version features Steamworks integration – a first for Sony and maker Valve – that allows cross-platform co-op play between the PS3 and the PC and Mac.

    This feature remains unavailable.

    For some of us, even the single player is "unavailable" due to a crappy game breaking bug. That has rendered it completely unplayable.

    With the PSN down indefinitely the chance is zero of a patch coming out anytime soon, which means my copy has a very high probability of being returned.

    EDIT: Nice to see this post getting negged, for no reason: Heres the bug thats causing the issue
    Edited by 2 at 26/04/11 @ 13:52

  • PrivateJoker #73 10 months ago

    Thought it came back on last night. Clicked on the blog and the network light was green. Tried to log in to my account and was greeted with the maintenance message. Gutted! Stayed green for 10 mins though until going back to the omnipresent red that's the norm.

    Actually just checking it now and it's green again!

    http://blog.eu.playst ation.com/

  • RevanNL #74 10 months ago

    I can understand that Sony doesn't say when PSN will be back online if they're not sure themselves. However, it's unacceptable to leave custumors in the dark about their creditcardinfo. Sony stated that they don't know if personal information was safe, but they have said nothing since. Logic would suggest that the first thing a company has to do in that situation is to either reassure custumors or at the very least keeping them informed. The way they handle it now is just going to create class-action lawsuits in the US

  • hippyjump #75 10 months ago

    I got a VISA last month, thank god i spent all my money on portal 2 instead of PSN :o :p

  • TheEarlOfZinger #76 10 months ago

    Hopefully my fonances abd identity haven't been compromised either. We can only hope.

  • rotmm #77 10 months ago

    @charliechan, I stand corrected :)

  • Murton #78 10 months ago

    "Logic would suggest that the first thing a company has to do in that situation is to either reassure custumors or at the very least keeping them informed."

    Logic would suggest that yes, but the data protection act doesn't obligate them unless there's a identified risk, so unfortunately they can keep quiet for now. Though as soon as they have just cause to believe that personal data of any kind has been compromised they have to take action on that or be heavily fined.

    It could also be argued that taking the system offline means that those with the desire to try are simply unable to get at our personal data, so Sony could argue that taking the system down in fact satisfies their requirements as stated in the DPA.

    Everything is a little too grey right now. Probably best not to speculate and worry further and wait for the official statement to come out.

  • shen #79 10 months ago

    You are lucky it was so sunny this weekend Sony. I had a lovely time. You better sort this out before the missus has finished watching the multiple climax of Masterchef (three nights in a row for chrissakes) and I get the telly back though.

  • Goffee #80 10 months ago

    Having followed the Amazon outage as well, it is a shame Sony doesn't have a service page explaining what is happening and what is being done.

    Okay, they two companies have had problems with very different products and user bases, but the customer's right to be kept informed and updated is a part of the "online deal." Users who play with PlayStations are more likely to understand and appreciate feedback from the people who are fixing the problems rather than detail-free missives from faceless PR drones.

  • mingster #81 10 months ago

    The Sony Playstation Notwork
    Edited by 1 at 26/04/11 @ 11:45

  • Mydoom #82 10 months ago

    i'd just like to point out hat it did'nt go offline in oz well at least in the part i'm in till friday morning so that makes it 4-5 days

  • rotmm #83 10 months ago

    @shen, "...watching the multiple climax of Masterchef (three nights in a row for chrissakes)..."

    Give her a break. When was the last time she had multiple climaxes three nights in a row? ;)

  • chrisola #84 10 months ago

    Give home brewers an inch (OtherOS) and eventually they will take a mile.

    Or destroy the PSN network in this case.

    Edited by 1 at 26/04/11 @ 12:10

  • shen #85 10 months ago

    @rotmm Mrs Shen is difficult to please.

  • Caimbeul #86 10 months ago

    i thought it was out because of some credit card fraud/ vulnerability?

  • Kain201 #87 10 months ago

    Handy: http://isthepsndown.com/

  • eltonpr0n #88 10 months ago

    Don't worry lads... Sony just managed to make an announcement. About a pointless "me too" entry into the tablet market.

  • ronuds #89 10 months ago

    Is this 'ok' because XBL had problems once? I don't understand the logic in people constantly mentioning that.

  • eltonpr0n #90 10 months ago

    @ronuds Just some form of justification some fanboys are using I think.

  • glaeken #91 10 months ago

    I would guess from the lack of statement from Sony they clearly don't want something getting out about whatever the cause of this is. It's so bad from a PR perspective I would guess they would have to have a good reason for the silence. No company makes themselve look this bad to its customers unless it has a good reason too. If I had my credit card details on PSN I would certainly be pretty worried at the moment as really all I can think of thats worse than how they are currently making themselves look is someone has nabbed all of the PSN users credit card details. I would guess if it was something like that with the scale of it they may well be working with the various credit card companies.
    Edited by 1 at 26/04/11 @ 13:50

  • coolbritannia #92 10 months ago

    Been predicting this for years. I know I'll be negged for being correct. This pleases me.

  • SeesThroughAll #93 10 months ago

    I know I'll be negged for being correct. This pleases me.

    Thank you for being honest about how you rejoice your trolling as an exercise of onanism.

  • coolbritannia #94 10 months ago

    Thank you for caring enough to comment. In other news, I was right.

  • minimong #95 10 months ago

    coolbritannia = Troll Prick.

  • coolbritannia #96 10 months ago

    Yes, because I actually think Sony's lack of investment is to blame for the fact that PSN has been cracked wide open and as of right now, everyone's cc details on PSN could be out in the public domain as Sony just don't know the extent of the damage done.

    Sony are not the victims, you are. It's called negligence.

  • TrevSkyline #97 10 months ago

    Shocking.

    The lack of explanation smacks of desperation of some sorts from Sony.....as a life long Playstation user, I am saddened to say I really think Sony dropped the ball slightly with the PS3 - lack of PS2 compatibility and now the PSN network is going tits up :-(

    I hope they turn this around asap.

  • m0thr4 #98 10 months ago

    @ronuds "Is this 'ok' because XBL had problems once? I don't understand the logic in people constantly mentioning that."

    No, it's absolutely not ok, but with Microsoft being Sony's obvious competitor, recalling XBL's "two week maintenance outage" serves as a useful benchmark, enabling us to compare each company's competence, efficiency and, above all, transparency when it comes to the provisioning of secure network services.

    EDIT: changed quoting around XBL outage to reflect some uncertainty on the facts.
    Edited by 2 at 26/04/11 @ 15:07

  • coolbritannia #99 10 months ago

    Except Live never had an outage, it was shot to hell but you could get online if you were lucky.

    Also, didn't last 2 weeks, unless you go by Engadget who were reporting it was 'up and down' on day 13. By that definition PSN has had a lot more downtime than we give it credit for.

  • m0thr4 #100 10 months ago

    @coolbritannia

    Fixed it above.

  • hulkamania78 #101 10 months ago

    Lucky I play my 360 more and gears 3 beta is outstanding. Don't tout out my card details Sony - that is all.

  • m0thr4 #102 10 months ago

    @coolbritannia "Been predicting this for years. I know I'll be negged for being correct. This pleases me."

    Anyone who has ever worked in securing large-scale, publicly-accessible network systems will tell you that a secure network costs serious money. I used to tire of telling budget approvers "cheap, fast and secure - pick any two". So Sony's strategy of "cheap and fast" was certainly a gamble, and it has now come back to haunt them.

    So, +1 for stating the obvious, but -12 (and counting) for stating it with such blatant schadenfreude. We're all gamers at the end of the day, and I would take no pleasure in seeing Xbox, PC or Wii gamers suffering similar problems.

  • Mattattattatt #103 10 months ago

    It's possible someone's found a way to hack the requests sent to PSN in a way that allows spoofing attacks on other users. That would create the question mark over the danger to details. There may be no evidence of an actual breach, but rather a threat which is (naturally) not there while the network's switched off. They'd probably need a rebuilt PSN, new PS3 firmware and a lot of of testing...

    I'll be very interested to see what has actually gone wrong... and very sad if it is a database breach.

  • KH07DD #104 10 months ago

    Why has no one been frisked @ Microsoft??
    #justsaying

  • coolbritannia #105 10 months ago

    What does Jaffe make of all this? MOAR Jaffe plz

  • rob_messed_up #106 10 months ago

    does it really matter how many days its been the truth is we are all fuming that this has happened and we want it back online nowwwwwww bloody hackers i will string them up if i get my hands on them grrrrrrrrrrr

  • natureboy #107 10 months ago

    The real cause is not the MOD but a break away disgruntled group from anonymous hell bent on revenge. I think the ti,e has come we take up arms against these scums

  • m0thr4 #108 10 months ago

    @Mattattattatt

    It's equally possible that an exterior firewall has been breached, and no one has had access to any private data.

  • funkateer #109 10 months ago

    "Why has no one been frisked @ Microsoft??"

    Or better yet, why has coolbritannia not been frisked? After all he's "been predicting this for years" so he's obviously suspect ;-)

  • m0thr4 #110 10 months ago

    If you throw enough time, money and effort at finding the perpetrator of a network security breach, believe me, you will find them... eventually.

    If you do find them though, bringing a prosecution, no matter how desirable, may not be financially practical... or even legally possible.

    All I'm hoping for is that Sony do a properly thorough job of re-securing their network services, no matter how long that takes.

  • vizzini #111 10 months ago

    I'm guessing they have had data corruption in their mirroring system and are incrementally rebuilding from backups (which is will be time consuming) or are moving one of their node mirrors to a different geographic location.

    If they originally had a three mirror node configuration against natural disasters, probably using Toyko(Japan), California(US) and maybe some where in Belguim near their European headquarters, it is conceivable that the recent tsunami disaster in Japan has made powering the Japan node difficult or actually has a data integrity problems, requiring relocation of the node to somewhere else near by (such as mainland China or Australia) and rebuilding.

    Internet pipe sizes around the world are getting bigger, but if they have to rebuild a fresh node from a US and EU node remotely, it could take some serious time. It would maybe be quicker to fly locally cloned node cabinents across the world and pass through customs than using the internet.

    PSN supposedly has 80million accounts, and are probably 100Mbytes each in size. But stored with near 1:100 lossless compression.

    So,
    80, 000, 000 * 100, 000, 000 bytes / 100 = 80, 000, 000, 000, 000 bytes = 80 Terrabytes of compressed data.

    Even a fast worldwide pipe of 1 Gigabit/sec (= 1000/8= 125MB/sec) = 80, 000, 000/125 = 640,000 seconds

    or 640,000 / (24*60*60) = 7.41 days as an conservative guestimate to transfer the info.

    So even if PSN was down for double that time, it is not like they've had much latitude for wasting time, when dealing with data sets of this size and pipespeeds over these distances.

  • shen #112 10 months ago

    @coolbritannia "been predicting this for years". Amazing. I predict another stock market crash, the end of the world and scattered showers. A prediction isn't worth much without an accurate window of time.

    See Michael Pachter and his many Wii 2 predictions.

  • m0thr4 #113 10 months ago

    @vizzini

    Oh man... I'm afraid I stopped reading after "I'm guessing...". I don't see the point in such conjecture.
    Edited by 1 at 26/04/11 @ 17:31

  • vizzini #114 10 months ago

    m0thr4:
    @vizzini
    Oh man... I'm afraid I stopped reading after "I'm guessing...". I don't see the point in such conjecture.

    The conjecture was to illustrate to other gamers who might not know, that a week, 2weeks isn't such a huge amount of time when dealing with distributed data problems of this nature, even when people are flat out trying to fix it.

    I actually think your comment of implying they've chosen a cheap, fast and unsecured network is much worse, but I assume you see the point in your own conjecture, just not anyone else's.

  • coolbritannia #115 10 months ago

    To clarify, I argued (over at the forum Goodfella now mods I believe) that Sony had a history of not being able to match Microsoft with their online security.

    I was shouted down, obviously, lots of Sony fans there, but I did say Sony couldn't protect CC details and that the network was open to attack.

    Now, obviously you can call me a fanboy until the cows come home, but all this has unfolded exactly as I predicted.

    P.S. I take delight in being proven right after being shouted down 4 years ago, but I don't want PSN out of action like this, as others have pointed out, we're all gamers, if this happened on Live I'd be fucking livid.

  • EuroStalker #116 10 months ago

    I actually found vizzini's comments further up informative. Sure it was quess work but beats the usual Sony are evil crap.

  • EuroStalker #117 10 months ago

    I said 6 years ago that Microsoft couldn't build a secure OS and guess what I am right. They still haven't.

    I also predict it will rain in Scotland some time this year, Uwe Boll will never make a decent film and Nintendo will release a Mario game on Project Cafe.

    Any one want to bet against me?!?

  • man.the.king #118 10 months ago

    @Stoatboy

    "Whilst I'm not particularly bothered by the outage, I do kinda resent being thanked for my patience when they can't possibly know if I am being patient or not. I could be an impatient fuck-monkey ranting all over the internet for all they know. The fact that I'm not only makes this kind of blanket approach to gratitude worse. Impatient fuck-monkeys ranting all over the internet just got thanked for their non-existent patience to exactly the same degree that I did, and I'm being a model - nay, a god-damned paragon - of calm and restraint here. "

    +1 for coaxing a giggle out of me that caused my co-workers to give me curious looks :D

  • TrevSkyline #119 10 months ago

    @ iknow

    No, I am not 15 I am 33.....been into games since I was 8 so probably have more experience in life and games than yourself.

    Why my age has any reference to what I said, that's beyond me....

    I still stand by my statement, Sony HAVE dropped the ball slightly.

  • man.the.king #120 10 months ago

    @mingster

    This elicited a giggle - yours raised a guffaw.

    +1 mate - for wit :D

    /really should have worked from home today

  • coolbritannia #121 10 months ago

    Eurostalker, never do promo work for Sony: "of course Sony's online is shit, it's as sure as rain falling in Scotland".

  • FuzzyDuck #122 10 months ago

    @sega

    I think the PSN releases of Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 and final fight require you to be signed in, so I'd imagine these are both currently unplayable.

  • coolbritannia #123 10 months ago

    Wall Street Journal is reporting PSN is down "indefinitely".

    http://bl ogs.wsj.com/digits/2011/04/25/2...

  • funkateer #124 10 months ago

    "Wall Street Journal is reporting PSN is down "indefinitely". "

    Well, it's a blog post hosted by Wall Street Journal. I'm pretty sure "Indefinitely" means here that it's not known yet when it will be online again. By that definition, XBL was also "indefinitely" broken a few years back, even though that 'only' lasted for 11 days.

    Reading all your posts about the issue, I think you just fail to acknowledge that you have no idea about the business models of PSN and XBL. You just assume that when something's free, it must be half-arsed, and XBL is a paid for service, so has higher availability. Welcome to the internet age; the world doesn't work like that. The most profitable connected services are free!

    If you'd be correct, every free-to-access internet page would be insecure. For example nobody would be able to buy something from a web-shop like Amazon, because it's free to access so insecure. Nobody would sign-up to Steam.

    So far, we know nothing about the PSN outage, and you and I are not in the position to tell people what the reason is. It might be a huge fuck-up on Sony's part, but PSN being free is definitely not the reason in itself.

  • man.the.king #125 10 months ago

    Who has the most number of posts on Sony-related threads?

    coolbritan nia

  • man.the.king #126 10 months ago

    @funkateer

    I think you are crediting coolbritannia with something alien to him: Objectivity.

    If nothing, the nature of his post history should give away that he's just your garden variety 360 fanboy troll with a case of sour grapes.

  • sega #127 10 months ago

    Thanks FuzzyDuck and others - I guess that's not too bad then as far as offline is concerned. However Final Fight does happen to be one of the greatest games ever made, which is a bit of a downer.

  • hugejeans #128 10 months ago

    US blog has all the info dont look to good

    http://bl og.us.playstation.com/2011/04/2...
    Edited by 1 at 26/04/11 @ 21:25

  • man.the.king #129 10 months ago

    Looks like the PSN WAS broken into illegally, and some personal information WAS compromised. From what I understand of the update, people with compromised accounts will be emailed as described in the Blog.

  • Anufea #130 10 months ago

    So basically everything PSN knows about me including credit card data might have been compromised to a third party - thanks for waiting a week to tell me, Sony!

  • BartonFink #131 10 months ago

    That is the worst bit of news on this that people could have got.

    Yes folks it's time to panic and cancel those credit/debit cards if you haven't done so already.

  • funkateer #132 10 months ago

    Wow, that IS bad is all I got to say...

    Coolbritannia: happy wanking!

  • funkateer #133 10 months ago

    "From what I understand of the update, people with compromised accounts will be emailed as described in the Blog. "

    Hm, I didn't get that from the update at all. They only said that they would NOT contact you by email asking for CC info and such. Better to at least monitor your CC expenses or even cancel your CC.

  • man.the.king #134 10 months ago

    @funkateer

    "Hm, I didn't get that from the update at all"

    You are right. Sorry I misunderstood this - "We are currently working to send a similar message to the one below via email to all of our registered account holders regarding a compromise of personal information as a result of an illegal intrusion on our systems" - and thought it meant they will be contacting affected parties.

    But what you say makes more sense. In this case, YES, DEFINITELY, EVERY PSN USER NEEDS TO BE ON THEIR GUARD.

    Cancel your CC or at the very least, monitor it extensively.

    EDIT: I would say every PSN user on EG should also contact other PS3 owners they know and alert them so that they can act on this information as well.
    Edited by 1 at 26/04/11 @ 21:57

  • NeverWinter78 #135 10 months ago

    "Thanks for your patients" my patients has run out. Sony you suck !