PlayStation’s online serviceswent down this Saturday, February 8, lasting nearly 24 hours and disrupting manyPS5 and PS4features, some unrelated to multiplayer.
PlayStation Server Outage
This weekend featured theMonster Hunter Wildsbeta, a free weekend forBlack Ops 6, and many other events—or simply players looking to unwind with their favorite games onPS4 or PS5. However, that became difficult asPlayStationservers experienced widespread issues, leaving players constantly checking thePSN status.
For now, the problem appears to be fully resolved, with online services stabilizing in the early hours of Sunday. However, this remains the biggest topic of discussion, as such incidents can impact a brand’s reputation for some time.
What Happened?
Between the night of Friday, February 7, and the early hours of Saturday, February 8 (CET), players from various regions started reporting errors in some PlayStation Network online features. At first, the issue wasn’t widespread, but signs quickly emerged that things weren’t functioning properly.
A couple of hours later, PSN services started going down. By 3:00 AM on February 8, Sony’s official accounts acknowledged the problems. Generally, when a company issues a public statement about such issues, it signals a significant outage—and this was no exception.
The situation wasn’t as severe during the morning, but by midday (CET), access to PSN had become nearly impossible due to maintenance. As expected, login attempts, PlayStation Store access, online features, and even the license server responsible for verifying digital game ownership were all impacted, with only brief moments of functionality.
It wasn’t until the evening, around 8:30 PM CET, that things began to improve. At that point, services started to come back online, though Sony delayed officially confirming the restoration. Finally, at around 12:40 AM on Sunday, Sony changed the PSN service status from red to green on their official website, marking the end of the maintenance period.
Why Was PSN Down for Nearly 24 Hours?
During the nearly 24-hour outage, many feared a repeat of PSNGate. It has been almost 14 years since the infamous month-long PSN shutdown due to a security breach, but its memory resurfaces whenever there’s a major online service failure. While this weekend’s issue was vastly different, it still became the second-longest maintenance period in PlayStation’s history—only surpassed by the 2011 incident.
After restoring online services, Sony merely stated that the issue was due to an “operational problem.” It remains unclear whether it was a DDoS attack, a hardware failure in critical systems, or something else requiring urgent maintenance. While there’s no reason for alarm, as a general cybersecurity measure, it’s always a good idea to change passwords in situations like this—though Sony has not reported any data breaches or intrusions.
What Compensation Will There Be for the PSN Outage?
Both Sony and game publishers running events have announced compensations.
Additionally, some games with scheduled events will either extend them or offer in-game compensations to PlayStation players.
Aside from the five extra days of PS Plus, examples include an NPC inWarframestaying available for a few more hours andMonster Hunter Wildsextending its beta by 24 hours for PS5 players. If you had planned to participate in any weekend events, it’s worth checking your favorite games’ social media pages for potential bonuses or extensions.
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