Sony’s PlayStation Network (PSN) went down for several hours today, causing a significant disturbance. Gamers reported problems while attempting to load the system. The outage affected several systems, including the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PS Vita, and even older devices like the PlayStation 3. Down detector, a service that tracks outages, saw increased reports at about 6 a.m. IST. Sony Interactive Entertainment has not yet stated the incident, however, the PlayStation Network status page initially indicated that the services were not operational. Previously, the official PSN Service Status page read, “You may experience trouble opening games, apps, or network services. We are attempting to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. “Thank you for your patience.”
The status page also indicated that various services, including account administration, gaming, social features, and the PlayStation Store, were now experiencing problems on all platforms. The interruption hampered access to multiplayer and single-player games that require internet connectivity. Users of consoles such as the PS5, PS4, PS Vita, and PS3 have reported being unable to start games or apps owing to messages such as “PS5 error Code WS-116522-7,” associated with a system software update failure. While offline games that did not require a connection continued functioning, those that relied on internet services were disabled.
Why is the PlayStation Network down? Reason
Sony has yet to give information about the cause of the outage or an estimated resolution time. Interestingly, this network issue occurred just hours after Sony fixed a separate flaw impacting PS5 home screen artwork, though it’s unclear whether the two events are linked. Meanwhile, a Twitter user speculated that PSN servers had been hijacked. Notably, in 2011, PSN was offline for 23 days due to a major security compromise. During the event, Sony offered players free game titles and 30 days of PlayStation Plus membership. Gamers should keep an eye on Sony’s updates while the company tries to remedy the inconvenience. For the time being, the only official statement is: “We’re working to resolve the issue as soon as possible.”
