There can’t be many people who haven’t heard about the current PlayStation Network woes. It’s a hugely negative story for PlayStation which is getting attention from national mainstream press and causing competitors to gloat.
We tried to lighten the mood slightly with a few clumsy jokes on Friday but now it’s three days later and the PSN still hasn’t risen. We’re worried you might be getting a bit too frustrated and unhappy so we thought we’d look at what improvements might be implemented while Sony has its servers switched off.
Increased security. This one is a certainty, Sony haven’t given much information about what they’re doing and this is the one thing they’ve been clear about. The new PSN will be stronger and more resilient to the kind of attacks which brought the old PSN down. More security is always a good thing, as long as it doesn’t get in the way of actually using the service.
More servers. This is very possible and would definitely be welcomed. While the PSN is down, they could be adding to their servers so that capacity is increased and the whole thing works more smoothly in the future. This attack on the PSN might be the thing that finally gets us stable multiplayer launch weekends on the beautiful black box along with even faster download speeds and updates that are quick enough to largely silence those that constantly complain about their frequency.
New features. People have taken the opportunity to postulate that Sony might be using the down time to pack in new features – specifically, cross game chat – to the Network services. We think that this is unlikely. It is possible, however, that newly strengthened servers might be better able to handle increased traffic and that might make new features more likely in the near future. We would expect to see this sort of thing in a big firmware update at a high point in the media calendar – like around E3 time.
Compensation. Like it or not, this situation has been a PR disaster for Sony. We’re fairly sure that down time on the network is accounted for when you sign up but customers still have a right to be disappointed that a service they pay for (be it via the initial console purchase, PS+, PSN games that require authentication to run or third party partnerships like LoveFilm, MLB.com, etc) has been missing for so long. One way Sony could help calm the growing outrage is to give something away. To be fair, PlayStation have been very generous with their PS+ service and some heavy discounting recently so we think this is very likely. What they offer their loyal fans is a subject of pure conjecture but we would expect their generosity to be on full display fairly soon after the network hums back into life.
So there we have it, this is all pure speculation at this point but it’s better to speculate on positives than to dwell on the negatives, right? What would you like to see from the new, improved PlayStation Network when it comes back on?
iAvernus
I don’t expect any compensation tbh. The whole leap year incident didn’t bring anything, and it took Sony dam near forever to release a statement on that.
I’m thinking PSN will be back up in the next few days, and the only thing everyone will get, is an apology from Sony.
I honestly never thought about trying out XBL, till yesterday. love my PS3, but the customer service sucks.
KittDJW
Could a lot of peoples slow downloads through the PSN be down to ISP’s or router settings because my broadband download limit is 1mb per second and almost all of the time that is what I get downloading from the Playstion store.
Sometimes it does seem a little slower at peak times when downloading patches for games but personally I can’t complain.
m61726b
Wonder if Lovefilm customers will get any compensation?
fattyuk
The only compensation I want or expect is!!!!!”…….
….. Free online gaming!!
I’ll be happy with that!
Boomshanks
http://www.gigalb.com/2011/04/playstation-network-downtime-101/
Here’s a nice article explaining exactly what is going on, or well at least what everyone knows so far
NobbyNobbs
The article is quite out of date according to other info.
Sony have admitted external intrusion. Its also looking like Sony are investigating theft of credit card details, but can’t confirm if they have been stolen yet. If our credit card details have been compromised that would explain the prolonged downtime.
minerwilly
I am more often on this site than i am on the actual PS3 , seriously people need to get a life . I was listening to Radio 5 today and quite frankly the people phoning where embarrassing , one guy even said he has sold his PS3 as a result of this !! what a total tool .
Im sick of reading stuff like “but its my right” , ” i bought this console with the knowledge i could use it online ” , ” but i cant watch lovefilm” pathetic . They are not sitting on their laurels at Sony they are desperately trying to get it up but also trying to create a whole new security system so that our card details etc are safe . Just give them time to fix it and play some singleplayer games ( like the majority of us have done from about 1979 to 4-5 years ago )
I love online gaming and which is why as a result i have over 30 games that the single player i have barely scratched , if id even be botered to turn the thing on over the last few days i’d have tried these .
Compensation ? – Id take Critter Crunch because ive been having the time of my life playing Clash of Heroes on DS and i believe they are made by the same company .
E8_BALL_
“I am more often on this site than i am on the actual PS3 , seriously people need to get a life .”
a slight contradiction/double negative. i have a life, as im sure all here do, but love playing ps3 in my spare time.
NobbyNobbs
Heh, the best bit yet is an advert on the UK Sony site, purchase a theme between 13th and 27th April and get a free t-shirt for Playstation Home.
I guess there aren’t going to many uptakes of that offer at the moment.
Its a PITA as I really fancied a game of Demons Souls this weekend.
Vayner
http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/gx6o4/im_a_moderator_over_at_psxscenecom_the_real/
The most sensible speculation I’ve read so far.
AJ
Interesting… I’m glad they don’t seem to have access to our personal information. If that’s all true of course.
AJ
Honestly, I think this is the perfect time for everybody to crack out the single player games that they have been neglecting. I really haven’t been bothered much by it because it’s finals week for me and no PSN is just one less distraction from studying and writing papers.
Although I did just get Portal 2 and completed the entire single player and co-op splitscreen with my brother. And I just bought Fallout 3 GOTY from a friend for $20…
I assume it’ll be up by tomorrow in time for the US store update.
TURRICAN-808
Yh, i even had a break from my SNES games and went on Valkyria Chronicles
NobbyNobbs
Well looks like its hit the fan. Sony now think they have lost personal identifying data and can’t tell if credit card information has been lost.
I wonder how many people will never give Sony credit card information again, or how much of a shafting the financial institutes are going to give them.