This is a bit of an odd one, but it appears as though many PS3 users are being hit by a bug causing all of their PSN friends to disappear from their friends list, meaning that no other players will show up in that section of the XMB.
If you do a quick search on twitter, you’ll see a lot of people saying that their friends list has disappeared, and everyone seems a bit confused with the situation.
In fact, I’ve just checked myself, and between three PS3s, the full friends list is only appearing on one of them, with the other two showing zero friends. After a restart, another is showing the full friends list but the third system remains lonely on PSN.
This will obviously cause issues with people wishing to play online, particularly with popular games such as Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto which use the XMB’s friends list as an invite system.
Our suggestion is to restart your PS3, but if the problem persists as it does with one of mine, then you’ll just have to wait for a solution. It’s very strange that these issues are appearing almost seven years after the launch of the PS3.
jtalley95
Ps3 friends gone?! Wats goin on?
blackredyellow
Happened to me earlier. I signed out and back in and it was fixed. Just as well as I was playing GTA V online!
xoxbabydoll
I JUST had this happen to me.. started freaking out but I signed in and out like 6 or 7 times and my friends finally showed up again..
cody97420
I myself have had this incident more than a handful of times stretching clear back to a year ago i have no idea what causes it but after 20 or so mins it either reappears after i sign out and reboot or i have to delete my internet history and most of the extra junk i have just sitting on my system. So my guess is its the memory on the system.
a inferior race
I think Sony are doing something in the background before ps4 launch
bigchrissyc
Happened to me last night. I thought it was because Far Cry 3 couldnt synchronize with my friends, so i quit the game. No friends list. But when i used the the PSN app i could see my full friends list.
KittDJW
Happened to me last night twice, lost my friends list for around 40 minutes.. attempted many restarts and something someone posted about adding and deleting a comment on your user. it eventually came back and then went again around 02:30am.
I agree with other comments I’m betting this is just teething issues as the PSN is being prepared for the PS4.
dsemsey
I had this problem if you turn the system off then unplug it from the back for a min or so it worked on 2 consoles hope this helps everyone.
XisTG
I still have my friends and all, but for the last week my PSN ID shows me without a single trophy: http://mypsn.eu.playstation.com/psn/profile/XisTG.png
They still show on the consoles though.
double-o-dave
Like a couple of other people have said, I’m pretty sure this will be something to do with preparing for the PS4 seeming it will be keeping the same PSN IDs etc. Well that was my first impression when I read the title of this article, but who knows??!
coruscant
Didn’t Sony say they’re extending the amount of friends you can have? Probably to do with that (as they said you’ll also be able to see your expanded friends list on the PS3 too, not just the PS4).