PSN Is Back Online: Sony Gives Reason For The Downtime And Reveals Free Compensation Reward

[UPDATE] The PlayStation Network is back online and operating normally. Sony said players should now give you the chance to access online services “with none problems.” The downtime began on Friday, February 7, and lasted for nearly 24 hours, with services being restored on the evening on February 8. This makes it the second-longest PSN outage ever, only surpassed by the infamous 2011 PSN outage that lasted weeks.

“Sorry for the inconvenience,” Sony said in its update announcing the restoration of online services. The corporate didn’t originally say why the PSN went down in the primary place, prompting fans to wonder and speculate.

But the corporate eventually stated that an “operational issue” led to the downtime. The vagueness of that statement is not doing much for fans, though, who proceed to ask Sony to offer more specifics as to what happened and what measures the corporate might enact to assist prevent something like this from happening again.

We’ll report back if the corporate has anything to share, but thankfully the PSN is back up and running.

When it comes to compensation, Sony is giving all PlayStation Plus members a further five days of service. “We apologize for the inconvenience and thank the community for his or her patience,” Sony said.

The unique story follows below.

Online services for popular networks go down or suffer intermittent issues occasionally, and that is exactly what is going on on now for Sony’s PlayStation Network. On Friday evening, players began reporting issues with PSN, and people issues are persisting some 18+ hours later. This is alleged to be the second-longest PSN downtime ever, only behind the infamous 2011 PSN outage that ran for 23 days.

The Ask PlayStation account acknowledged the problems, that are affecting just about ever major PSN service, including account management, the PlayStation Store, and the gorgeous essential feature of launching and playing games. To sum up, it is a pretty significant outage, and as you would possibly expect, individuals are letting Sony know by broadcasting their thoughts and opinions online.

Why is the PSN down?

That is the important thing query. Sony’s lack of communication is frustrating some fans. Up to now, that is all the corporate has said: “We’re aware some users is perhaps currently experiencing issues with PSN.” Beyond that, Sony has not said a word about what happened or when the PSN might come back online.

That being said, reporter Tom Warren of The Verge reminded those who Microsoft encountered a large DDoS attack on the Xbox Azure servers back in December 2024. “So it’s possible Sony is coping with something similar,” Warren said.

What’s affected by the PSN outage?

As mentioned, just about the whole lot related to PSN is impacted by the outage, including launching games, accessing the PlayStation Store, and watching PlayStation Video content. The PlayStation Direct store, which sells all manner of PlayStation items and equipment, is affected by the outage as well.

Mainly, all games that connect with the web are unplayable now, including juggernauts like Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Warzone, Fortnite, Destiny 2, and others. Some individuals are reporting that single-player games will not be working as a part of the downtime, while others say disc drives are failing to work, effectively bricking their console. As usual, your mileage may vary with any PSN issues.

The problems are impacting limited-time in-game events, including Destiny 2’s Heresy/Sundered Doctrine contest. Bungie is currently “discussing options,” but cannot commit to a selected plan at once. One potential option is to “consider a future weekend as a make-up period,” the developer said. Bungie is owned by Sony.

Call of Duty’s Terminator event is happening now as well. Activision hasn’t commented yet, however the Call of Duty Updates X account re-posted Sony’s statement on the outage.

Free donuts

Major brands are already jumping into the combination regarding the PSN outage, as Krispy Kreme has announced that everybody can get a free original glazed donut today, February 8, between 5-7 PM. “Because sweet rewards don’t need a server,” the corporate said.

A tricky time for a PSN outage

The PSN happening on a Friday evening after people got off work and got here home from school makes this latest outage quite annoying for people trying to play their favorite game. For people in Recent England, the outage comes just ahead of a big snowstorm. So anyone hoping to hunker down at home with a game is perhaps sadly out of luck. Then there’s the Super Bowl on Sunday, which can little doubt bring family and friends together. Anyone hoping to play a video game with friends before or after the massive game might need to search out something else to do.

Here’s to hoping Sony can fix the problems quickly so people can get back to having fun with whatever it is that they need to play.

You may follow the official PSN Status page to get up-to-the-second updates on how the servers are running. We’ll update this post as more information becomes available.

The 2011 PSN outage

The PSN infamously went down for greater than three weeks back in 2011 after being attacked by hackers. There is no such thing as a real evidence that something similar is going on this time, nevertheless. Sony eventually fixed the issue and offered games and other services in a “Welcome Back” program to apologize for the outage. But some people didn’t think that was enough compensation, and so a class-action lawsuit was filed against Sony. Sony settled that lawsuit in 2014. The 2011 PSN outage was said to have cost Sony greater than $170 million.

Right before a rumored State of Play

These latest PSN issues have arrived just ahead of a rumored PlayStation State of Play event that reports have suggested may happen on Friday, February 14 and include a brand new take a look at Death Stranding 2, amongst other games.

Are Xbox and Nintendo also impacted?

Online services for Xbox and Nintendo are up and running normally at once.