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Mysterious PlayStation outage sparks security fears over weekend

Sony’s PlayStation network went down for over a full day with no formal explanation, leaving customers worried over their personal information.  

If you were hoping to stay in over the weekend and wind down with some online gaming, you may have been disappointed.

Sony’s PlayStation network went down for 24 hours with no tangible explanation on Saturday, rendering all PS4 and PS5 online features inaccessible. Predictably, many gamers took to Reddit and Sony’s forums to express their frustration, making it clear they demanded some form of compensation.

Sony has actually delivered on that request. This week, the company announced it would be offering a free five days of PlayStation Plus, though it only applies to current active, paying members.

‘Network services have fully recovered from an operational issue,’ PlayStation wrote in a statement. ‘We apologise for the inconvenience and thank the community for their patience.’

While the outage is now over and some customers have redeemed their free premium subscription days, the actual reason for the whole ordeal is still unclear. Sony hasn’t shed light on the cause just yet, with many concerned over the security of their personal information.

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If you’re an older gamer you’ll understand why.

In 2011, Sony’s PlayStation network went down for over three weeks and 77 million accounts had their data compromised.

It was such a big deal that government officials in various countries expressed concern over the theft and Sony’s prolonged silence over the issue. It took the company a full week to warn users that their data had been stolen and cost $171 million USD in damages.

Information that was compromised included usernames, physical addresses, email addresses, dates of birth, passwords and financial information including credit and debit card numbers.

Should a similar situation occur now it would be a much bigger headache for Sony, as its PlayStation ecosystem is substantially larger today than it was in 2011. With Xbox having all but given up on the console and hardware race, Sony is poised to be the biggest online multiplayer database for users – especially with the runaway success of the PS5.

The 2025 outage has also highlighted the problem with modern gaming’s reliance on online connectivity.

Most games now require connection to the internet, even if they’re singleplayer and don’t offer any additional benefits by being online. The brief shut down of the network meant that most games weren’t playable – despite not having to actually connect with any other players.

Keep in mind that this also affected the PlayStation store. If you own a digital-only PS5, then you couldn’t even purchase or download any new games. This was not as big of a problem in 2011 when most people still bought games via traditional disc.

It looks like things are back to normal for now, though most are still expecting a more comprehensive explanation from Sony as to the cause. We’ll have to see what happens next.

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