Good News, Everybody! PSN is Still Down
Well, it seemed like good news around 3:30AM EST when I checked on the PlayStation Store. On PS4, instead of an oppressive blue screen of nothingness that only alters to cry about server woes, the store actually worked, giving the thousands of us night owls first wind of an online-capable future.
Then PSN took another big shit and stopped working. This pushes us into the third day of the Sony network’s inactivity since it was supposedly “taken down” on Christmas Day, alongside Microsoft’s Xbox Live service, by a group of hackers that call themselves “The Lizard Squad.”
The hackers’ reasoning for this attack on home entertainment? ”Microsoft and Sony are fucking retarded, literally monkeys behind computers,” one Lizard said in an interview with The Daily Dot, and the attack was meant to illustrate both corporations’ failings when it comes to online defense. The hacker goes on to say companies like Microsoft and Sony would be wise to hire criminals given their proven successes in the field — a Suicide Squad of nerds, basically.
There is some doubt about The Lizard Squad’s involvement with the outages, however. Especially in Sony’s case, in which crucial, and private, information was hacked and leaked last month thanks to our friends in North Fucking Korea (spawning The Interview debacle — yet another struggle over mere entertainment). The Squad even claims their denial-of-service attacks only spanned 12 to 14 hours Christmas Day, and yet PSN is still KO’d. Online gaming could have bigger enemies than a faceless group of kids “doin’ it for the lulz.”
While Xbox Live has recovered, returning to a functional state sometime yesterday, PSN’s troubles are still extending across the PS3, Vita, and PS4. That means no games (or services) can be downloaded, nor can media apps (like Netflix and Hulu) be used.
It’s a critical strike against the company given that many new customers will have received brand new consoles over the holiday; brand new consoles that don’t work as intended. Currently, Sony has not spoken publicly about PSN’s continued troubles. We’ll update as word comes in.