Dropped by another debilitating distributed denial of service attack, the PlayStation Network's frequent planned and unplanned downtime is starting to create cracks in the loyal fan base Sony has built in the gaming community.
For anyone who didn't care to tune into the most watched television event Sunday evening, and chose to frag out with a few like-minded individuals on the PlayStation Network (PSN), they were greeted with what has been a plague for the gaming network.
"We're aware that some users are experiencing issues signing into PSN - engineers are investigating. We'll keep you posted," stated the official PlayStation account in a tweet Sunday evening.
The network is back up and running but the anger over outages remains high. PlayStation engineers recommend anyone still experiencing problems should reset their console.
Cybervandals have yet to claim responsibility for the downtime and Sony hasn't indicated the outage was planned in relation to maintenance. Whatever the source, PSN subscribers are starting to lose patience with the service.
"I can handle the occasional PSN outage. Hell, I've got no choice. But it's pretty poor how often it is down @AskPlayStation #frustrating," states Twitter user Conc15e Gaming in a tweet.
Ricardo N. posted a screenshot that showed his Internet connection was solid, but his link to PSN was broken.
"@AskPlayStation, turning off PS3 and jumping in my @Xbox due to PSN outage. You didn't learn anything about building brand after 2011's hack," states Twitter user Ricardo N. in a tweet on during the big game Sunday.
Microsoft's Xbox Live has had more than its share of service disruptions, but the DDoS attacks hitting PSN are becoming all too frequent. Sunday's shutdown comes less than a week after another brief outage and roughly a month after major downtime that ruined Christmas Day for many new PlayStation 4 owners.
With Microsoft's Xbox One coming off a strong holiday season, narrowing the gap with Sony's PlayStation 4, and the Wii U finally receiving games, PSN's continuing downtime could just be the catalyst that prompts loyal users to move to a new service.
