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 be able to access online services “without any 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 company did not originally say why the PSN went down in the first place, prompting fans to wonder and speculate.

But the company eventually stated that an “operational issue” led to the downtime. The vagueness of that statement isn’t doing much for fans, though, who continue to ask Sony to provide more specifics as to what happened and what measures the company might enact to help prevent something like this from happening again.

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

In terms of compensation, Sony is giving all PlayStation Plus members an additional five days of service. “We apologize for the inconvenience and thank the community for their patience,” Sony said.

The original story follows below.

Online services for popular networks go down or suffer intermittent issues from time to time, and that’s exactly what’s going on now for Sony’s PlayStation Network. On Friday evening, players began reporting issues with PSN, and those issues are persisting some 18+ hours later. This is said 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 issues, which are affecting pretty much ever major PSN service, including account management, the PlayStation Store, and the pretty important feature of launching and playing games. To sum up, this is a pretty significant outage, and as you might expect, people are letting Sony know by broadcasting their thoughts and opinions online.

Why is the PSN down?

This is the key question. Sony’s lack of communication is frustrating some fans. So far, this is all the company has said: “We are aware some users might be 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 people that Microsoft encountered a massive DDoS attack on the Xbox Azure servers back in December 2024. “So it’s possible Sony is dealing with something similar,” Warren said.

What’s affected by the PSN outage?

As mentioned, pretty much everything 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 gear, is affected by the outage as well.

Basically, all games that connect to the internet are unplayable now, including juggernauts like Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Warzone, Fortnite, Destiny 2, and others. Some people are reporting that single-player games are not working as 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 issues 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 specific plan right now. 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 going on now as well. Activision hasn’t commented yet, but the Call of Duty Updates X account re-posted Sony’s statement on the outage.

Free donuts

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

A tough time for a PSN outage

The PSN going down on a Friday evening after people got off work and came home from school makes this latest outage quite annoying for people looking to play their favorite game. For people in New England, the outage comes just ahead of a big snowstorm. So anyone hoping to hunker down at home with a game might be sadly out of luck. Then there’s the Super Bowl on Sunday, which will no doubt bring friends and family together. Anyone hoping to play a video game with friends before or after the big game might have to find something else to do.

Here’s to hoping Sony can fix the issues quickly so people can get back to enjoying whatever it is they want to play.

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

The 2011 PSN outage

The PSN infamously went down for more than three weeks back in 2011 after being attacked by hackers. There is no real evidence that something similar is happening this time, however. Sony eventually fixed the problem 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 more 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 take place on Friday, February 14 and include a new look at Death Stranding 2, among other games.

Are Xbox and Nintendo also impacted?

Online services for Xbox and Nintendo are up and running normally right now.