Sony Announces Five-Day Extension for PlayStation Plus Users Following Global Outage
Sony has revealed that all PlayStation Plus members will receive an extra five days of service automatically, following a global outage that disrupted the PlayStation Network (PSN) for approximately 18 hours over Friday and Saturday. The Japanese electronics and entertainment giant expressed its apologies and gratitude for the community's patience, stating, "Network services have fully recovered from an operational issue." However, the cause of the outage was not specified in the announcement made on Sunday.
The outage, which commenced late on Friday, resulted in users being unable to sign in, play online games, or access the online store. By Saturday evening, Sony confirmed that the PSN had been restored to normal operation. The PlayStation Network plays a crucial role in Sony's gaming division, catering to millions of users globally.
During the peak of the disruption, around 7,939 users in the U.S. and approximately 7,336 users in the UK were impacted on Saturday afternoon, as reported by Downdetector.com, a platform that monitors outages by aggregating status reports from various sources, including users.
Following the restoration of services, a user shared their relief, stating, "PlayStation is back up again after being down for a whole day. Sony at least saved millions of Gamers their Sunday right after ruining their Saturday." This incident is not the first time Sony has faced network challenges. In 2014, a cyberattack caused a multi-day outage during the holiday season, while a more severe breach in 2011 compromised the personal data of nearly 77 million users, resulting in a month-long shutdown and regulatory scrutiny.
Sony offers PlayStation Plus users a five-day service extension post-global outage.
The outage disrupted the PlayStation Network for about 18 hours over the weekend.
Sony did not specify the cause of the outage in their announcement.
Source: REUTERS