Massive PlayStation Network outage hits global gaming community. PS5, PS4, PS3 users locked out of online services. Sony silent on cause and resolution timeframe. Gamers demand answers as downtime continues.
By Monday night, Sony’s PlayStation Network had suffered a large outage affecting PlayStation gamers. The outage impacted several consoles — not only the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, but also the PS Vita, as well as older devices remnants like the classic Play Station 3. The network outage was so large and produced an immediate impact that it became almost impossible to even launch or play online games for gamers who had planned to spend their evening gaming.
According to the official PSN Service Status page, the issue is real, “You may have some difficulty launching games, applications or online features. We apologize for the inconvenience and hope to resolve the problem ASAP. Thank you for your patience.” Sony took this notification to its website after landscape full of complaints started emerging on the internet about the connectivity issues.
Common PlayStation Problems
The outage affected things from gaming to network features through the PSN. PlayStation Network sign-in woes exclusively resulted in said users being unable to play online games, other than the obvious multiplayer, and some no-doubt fucking awesome single-player experiences that required being online. The error was widespread across PS5, PS4, PS Vita and PS3. While listing down the impacted categories on its service page as “Other, PS Vita, PS3, PS4, PS5, Web” to confirm how widespread the issue was.
Some users encountered a particular error that was labelled “PS5 Error Code WS-116522-7,” with the actual Sony error page simply says it relates to a system sofware update failure. Those wishing to play games or use the apps will have been unable to – there was no way around this with the network offline. Offline games that do not need an online connection still ran just fine, but this was little comfort those not hit by the network side of things.
Cause, Estimated Time of Resolution Not Announced
Sony has not detailed what has caused the outage so far. Also there is not estimated time to when the issueed will be fixed. The timing of the outage is especially interesting as it followed Sony’s resolution of a different home screen artwork problem for PS5 games earlier that day. Few hours before the network outage the bug was finally resolved, it is not clear however whether or not these two events are related.
It is recommended that players follow the progress and any further updates from Sony as they work to return their service to normal. Bloomberg said it had taken down all of its Sony stories and released this statement from its news editor, Joe Sabatini: “We were informed by our host Thomson Reuters …. that some of their machines were down linked to our series [sic] of Sony articles awaiting publication.
Gamers Waiting for a Fix
Thankfully, offline offline experiences still work, and you can play any single-player games that do not require an Internet connection. Meanwhile, PlayStation Network continues to regain its network operational status and gamers are considering the economic cost of when it will finally return.
Sony is still looking into the cause of the problems, so in the meantime collectively hold your breath and keep an eye on its PSN status page for developments. In the meantime, online gameplay and “related” features are disrupted for PlayStation services.
