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Games

The PlayStation Network Went Down for a Few Hours and People Lost Their Goddamn Minds

The outage only lasted about 12 hours, but users were outraed and took to social media to demand compensation.

If you were trying to connect to PlayStation Network, PSN, on the (UK time) evening of January 4 you might have experienced some problems. I was in this very situation, trying to get a game or two of Rocket League going before turning in. Figured my WiFi was on the blink again, so I reset it a few times. Nothing. (Remember when you simply blew on the cartridge to make the game work?) And then, a familiar notification: "PlayStation Network is currently undergoing maintenance."

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Nothing unusual about that. PlayStation was on the case.

We're aware that some users are having trouble accessing PSN. Thanks for your patience as we investigate. — Ask PlayStation (@AskPlayStation)January 4, 2016

You'd expect such an outage to last a few minutes. But an hour went by. Then two. Then came rumors that PSN would be down not for an evening, but potentially for a few days, until January 7.

Probably an error, but — Push Square (@pushsquare)January 4, 2016

And, boy, did some people lose their shit over that. What was causing this downtime? A hack, like the blackout of 2011? A DDoS attack, like the Lizard Squad-credited one that crippled the network ahead of Christmas 2014? Whatever the cause, the people, the players, immediately demanded recompense.

If you think — Kareem James (@jkareem430)January 4, 2016

RT if you pay for PSN and believe — Stevie (@1StevenGeorgiou)January 4, 2016

PSN USERS ARE IN AN OUTRAGE AS THE SERVICES ARE CURRENTLY OFFLINE… — Teddy (@iCrazyTeddy)January 4, 2016

RT if you want compensation for this — 7421max (@7421boss)January 4, 2016

— Virgil McCrary (@VirgilMcCrary)January 4, 2016

— lee (@leeeejones27)January 5, 2016

After a hacking back in 2011, PlayStation did indeed gift users free software or PS Plus membership. Eventually. And they also gave customers a little something after their late 2014 problems. So your Change.org petition probably isn't necessary.

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Sony: PSN Network Compensation — RednekGirl (@Wize7RdnekGirl)January 5, 2016

Besides, it's all fixed now.

PSN has been restored. You should be able to access online features without any problems now. — PlayStation Europe (@PlayStationEU)January 5, 2016

The "cost" to millions of PS Plus subscribers, for the time they couldn't get online, amounts to something like 16 cents, based on the cost of a month totaling $9.99, there being 744 hours in January, and the outage lasting for about 12 hours. Sony is yet to confirm why PSN went down, but it doesn't appear to be anything as potentially disastrous as the Steam attack of Christmas Day, which revealed thousands of users' credit card and address details.

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