PSN Outage: Sony offers compensation, but little explanation as to why it happened

If you're a PS5 or PS4 owner who just wanted to game over the weekend, you probably encountered the PlayStation Network (PSN) outage that lasted for 24 hours from February 8 to 9.

During this time, users were unable to access online multiplayer games (note that non-F2P multiplayer games on PlayStation require a paid PS Plus subscription). Additionally, due to issues with live license verification, certain offline single-player games were also rendered inaccessible.

While the issue has since been sorted out and PSN services have been fully restored, Sony has yet to give any specific explanation for the outage, only stating on its social media that it was due to an "operational issue":

Some might see parallels between this PSN outage and a similar outage that occurred in 2011, which came as a result of a security breach and lasted 23 days. However, the use of the term "operational issue" seems to imply that it's an internal PSN issue.

Sony, as a whole, has been quite tight-lipped during this entire fiasco. When the outage was still ongoing, the only information players got was a post on the same Ask PlayStation account on X, directing them to the PlayStation status update website, as well as a rather cheeky "Sorry for the inconvenience". It certainly doesn't work wonders to maintain the relationship with PlayStation's user base, especially paying PS Plus members.

But at the very least, those paying for PS Plus will get five extra days of PSN service for free. It didn't elaborate on how this would work, but a good guess is that a user's subscription would be extended by five days. While it's certainly longer than the 24 hours that PSN was down, it can seem rather deficient given that even free-to-play multiplayer games like Fortnite and Marvel Rivals were impacted.

Not to mention that this came during Open Beta Test 2 for Monster Hunter: Wilds, one of this year's most anticipated games. Though, to Capcom's credit, a 24-hour extension of the Open Beta Test is currently being considered, according to the X account for Monster Hunter (though it's not clear whether this will specifically be for PlayStation players or not).

Much can be said about Sony's lacklustre response to the debacle, especially considering it happened on a weekend when you'd expect the greatest number of players coming online. Furthermore, the "operational issue" that Sony alludes to doesn't provide much in the way of clarity or transparency, not least because of its ambiguous nature. Hopefully, Sony will further address this incident in the coming days.

Source: Sony

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