Sony has said the 24-hour outage that knocked out PlayStation Network over the weekend was due to an “operational issue.”
In a tweet confirming the recovery of its network services, Sony apologized for the downtime and thanked the PlayStation community for its patience. As a make-good, it’s giving all PlayStation Plus members an additional five days of service.
However, some PlayStation customers are demanding more information on the cause of the downtime beyond the vague “operational issue,” and have pointed to the high-profile PSN data breach of 2011 that saw personal details from approximately 77 million accounts compromised.
“Given what happened in 2011 we need to know if we need to call our banks for new credit cards and need identity protection services,” one social media user said in response to Sony’s statement.
“Sweet, but can you also tell us what happened and how you’ll be working to avoid it in the future?” another asked.
“Your lack of transparency is disturbing,” said another.
Some are also calling on Sony to outline the measures it’s taking to prevent similar “operational issues” from knocking out PSN in the future.
PSN going offline not only affected online gaming but single-player games that require either authentication with a server or a constant internet connection. Embattled U.S. retailer GameStop tweeted a joke at Sony’s expense while PSN was offline, saying “bet y’all want physical copies now.” But this joke was met with ridicule across social media, as users pointed out the declining shop chain’s penchant for selling products other than video games these days.
Yeah let me go to my local GameStop and grab some physical ga- https://t.co/zpCn71rF5t pic.twitter.com/W1J9ECChUE
— 「WOKEN ELMA SIMP」 (@WOKENJJT) February 8, 2025
Some third-party publishers whose games were affected have announced extensions to in-game events or limited-time modes. Capcom just announced an extension to the next Monster Hunter Wilds beta test after last weekend’s was cut short by the PSN issue. EA was forced to extend FC 25's most hardcore multiplayer event, too.
Sony is yet to expand on the PSN downtime beyond two single tweets: one to acknoledge PSN was offline, another to say it was back up with the vague explanation and compensation. Clearly, some customers want further communication from the company.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
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