PlayStation Network outage 'beyond frustrating' for users
PlayStation Network back online, firm says
(about 20 hours later)
The PlayStation Network has been experiencing a multi-hour outage that began on Friday evening.
The PlayStation Network is now back online, the service has said, after it experienced a multi-hour outage that began on Friday evening.
According to Sony's PSN status page, account management, gaming and social, PlayStation Video, PlayStation Store, and the PlayStation Direct website are all dealing with issues.
PlayStation said the network had now "fully recovered" and apologised for the disruption, but did not disclose what caused the problem.
The outage rendered the online aspects of games such as Fortnite, Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto and Marvel Rivals inaccessible, and has caused issues with license verification of offline single-player games.
The outage rendered the online aspects of games such as Fortnite, Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto and Marvel Rivals inaccessible, and caused issues with license verification of offline single-player games.
On its support webpage, PlayStation said it was aware of the issue and working to resolve it as soon as possible.
According to DownDetector, external, the problem began just before midnight on Friday night.
According to DownDetector, external the problem began just before midnight on Friday night, with more than 71,000 users reporting the outage to the site.
In a message on X, external, PlayStation said: "Network services have fully recovered from an operational issue. We apologise for the inconvenience and thank the community for their patience.
Some gamers on social media say they are still experiencing issues, with PlayStation's support social media channels flooded with complaints from around the world.
"All PlayStation Plus members will automatically receive an additional 5 days of service."
Jeff Thigpen, 48, from Dallas in the United States, said he had been unable to access the PSN for 10 hours.
The outage led to a flood of complaints on social media channels from around the world.
"At my job I have an hourly rotation and during my break I'll occasionally get on my PlayStation Portal," he told the BBC, referring to a handheld device that streams games from the owner's console or via the cloud.
Jeff Thigpen, 48, from Dallas in the United States, told the BBC: "Paying a monthly fee for their service is one thing but not being able to play games that we've purchased is something that's beyond frustrating."
"Tonight I tried and was unable to play any of the games I purchased.
The outage happened on a key weekend for the gaming industry, according to Connor Clarke, who runs the Sheffield Games Collective.
"Paying a monthly fee for their service is one thing but not being able to play games that we've purchased is something that's beyond frustrating."
He said it had been "doubly frustrating because it's an eventful weekend for the game-sphere".
The outage has happened on a key weekend for the gaming industry, according to Connor Clarke, who runs the Sheffield Games Collective.
"There is a free beta for a hotly anticipated new game called Monster Hunter Wilds, and also a double XP weekend in Call of Duty Black Ops 6," he said, adding that the outage would have left thousands of gamers worldwide "quite frustrated that they are unable to play".
"This is doubly frustrating because it's an eventful weekend for the game-sphere," he said.
"There is a free beta for a hotly anticipated new game called Monster Hunter Wilds, and also a double XP weekend in Call of Duty Black Ops 6.
"I imagine there are thousands - if not millions - of gamers worldwide and in the UK that are quite frustrated that they are unable to play at the moment."
Mr Clarke added that these outages often last for a couple of hours at most.
"This one has been over 12 hours," he said.
"It's very frustrating. I'm unable to play multi-player and more frustratingly, I'm unable to play any of my downloaded single-player games because PlayStation says it is unable to verify my licenses."
BBC News has approached both PlayStation and Call of Duty developer Activision Blizzard for comment.
