Sorry, PS3 gamers, The PlayStation Network is still out of commission as of this morning and what caused the outage to the PS3's online service remains unknown, leading to speculation that hacker group Anonymous is responsible.
As we reported earlier this week, the PSN went down on late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning. Sony issued a statement on Thursday on its European blog, referencing the possibility of "attacks" on the network. Then later said it could be a "day or two" until it comes back up. Suspicion immediately fell upon Anonymous, a loose affiliation of nameless hackers and internet denizens.
A few weeks ago, Anonymous "declared war" on the PlayStation Network due to the legal battle between Sony and PS3 hacker GeoHot. The case was settled, and it was presumed the "war" was called off. Perhaps not...
Last night, a member of a Facebook page created in the name of Anonymous posted an update that seems to take credit for the PlayStation Network's outage. It reads:
"Take a break from online gaming for a while.....it will help your skills, your health, and your emotional levels, which by the way are a bit out of order if they are being shackled by the PSN being down. We have no qualms about our actions, even though it may affect fellow anonymous or supporters... we hope they understand the bigger picture."
With a more recent post reading:
"Art thou infuriated?"
Lest you think this proves Anonymous is behind the PSN outage, consider the following statement, posted last night on an "Anonymous" website under the heading "For Once We Didn't Do it":
"While it could be the case that other Anons have acted by themselves AnonOps wa not related to this incident and takes no responsibility for it. A more likely explanation is that Sony is taking advantage of Anonymous' previous ill-will towards the company to distract users from the fact the outage is actually an internal problem with the companies servers."
So are Anonymous behind the problems with the PlayStation Network? It's impossible to say. Because Anonymous has no real structure or hierarchy, there's no way to tell if any statement issued in the name of the group actually represents the views of the group. Anyone can claim to speak for Anonymous, so nothing "it" says really means anything... until it does.
The PlayStation Network has been down now for over 24 hours, and it has been over 16 hours since Sony has issued any kind of statement on the matter, which leaves only questions... and a lot of free time for PlayStation 3 users. If you're wondering what you can still do with your PlayStation 3, check out this guide I put together.
So what do you think is behind the outage? Any theories?
Comments are Closed
Comments
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blitzninja
......Fallout.... :)
alionheart559
just when i wanted to play tekken 6 online. oh well gives me time to get trophys (:and other things
wiggles17
That Anonymous comment really pisses me off, I play games in my free time. That means after school, work, hanging with friends. Who are they to decide when and where I can play or not. Sure I'm still playing games, but maybe I want to see how the mutiplayer is on some new games I bought this week. Screw you anonymous if you are responsible, and even if you're not.
goku234
Anonymous you suck. you know you did it. just admit it. it is obvious.
trustillz
You can still use netflix I've come to find out, when the sign in screen appears just keep hitting circle to close and netflix with run like nothings wrong, HAA anon! Lol
starkiller730
netflix still works lol..im just siitin here watchin south park to pass the time ^_^
coolkhoury
....I'm pretty sure games work WITHOUT going online
coolkhoury
....I'm pretty sure games work WITHOUT going online
coolkhoury
.....I'm pretty sure games work WITHOUT going online
BigPoppaChunk
well yesterday on the g4 playstation exclusive won this week page i named about 50 xbox exclusive games and could of kept going to shut up some teen sony fanboy!
BUT this is just stupid hacking a system for revenge or because you can the only people suffering are the gamers and the poor sony techs trying to fix this.
I am not recommending this but just saying if this is a attack and not just bad luck why are these brillant hackers not tageting the higher ups of sony corp.
SO TO THE SONY PS3 NATION I FEEL BAD FOR YOU AND SONY WILL FIX IT HANG IN THERE , PLUS YOU KNOW SONY WILL TAKE CARE OF YOU WITH A FREEBIE !
TgunzR1
PS3 users all way say "hows it feel paying for online...suka?" Well right now great! Sorry :( i am going to go play some XBOX live. Good luck seeing that error message on playstation... :)
Dav22
Tell Anon for go get jumped!!! Some people WORK for a living and PS3 is down time, if people wanna play online gaming its thier choice, take your prepubecent issues out via email to sony not on the millions of users who pay good money for consoles and games!! If Sony catch up with anon I hope they give it to them hard!!!!
Jswiss
What?! 0_o
My PSN is still down...
Aw man, now what are we suppose to do? Someone told me that the sun's out, and people are going to this place called a "park", I've been invited to play a game of basketball...in REAL LIFE!
But, I have a few questions...
_____________________
For one...Who does that?! o_0
Two: "How does that even work in the real world? With all those players there won't there be lag?
Third: "If I don't like the way the game is setup, can I recalibrate the buttons on my shirt to change it?!"
Four: "Are there any lobbies?"
Fifth: "Can we still cross chat during gameplay?"
Six: "How can you save a game if you have to go to the bathroom?"
Seven: "If I throw on these "Jordans" & "Bulls" jersey while playing, will that be considered as cosplay?"
And finally: "Is there a nude code for the girls who are sitting on the bench, watching?"
___________________
Real life gaming sounds too complicated if you ask me.
Ah, well...(turns on his "other" console, the "Xbox 360", and starts to play Mortal Kombat on Xbox Live.)
-Jswiss
benhamean
I love how easily people get wrapped up in something called the " video-gaming network" industry. It's not the end of the world, sure it makes Sony looks bad, who cares who did it, your comments don't solve anything.
melektau
If anyone knows anything about Anonymous, it is impossible to tell if a "member" is responsible. As far as I know, (and admittedly 'I know nothing' - Sgt.Shultz) there is no way to actually know.
Best guess is that its one of 3 things.
1) Either a rogue hacker(s) who took it upon him/ herself to take the opportunity to make an historic hack.
2) PSN needing to do some maintenance, and decided that by extending outage into a long weekend was a great way to get the membership outraged enough about hackers to align themselves fully behind Sony.
OR
3) In my opinion, and most likely; Is that Sony was trying to do a major security/ system update and got it royally screwed up. Now they are scrambling. And with all the rumors of it being a hack, announced that yes, it was a hack. This is a great way to take the heat off until they get it sorted out, and if it got people pissed off, so much the better; Even if it makes Sony look incompetent (Which by the way, in any of the above scenarios it ultimately is.)
See, win, win for Sony and PSN.
Except for the fact that ANY hack that could be visited upon a secure, high tech network like PSN should ultimately be able to be flushed out, eradicated, and secured within a very short time. Likely a couple to a very few hours. Definitely not DAYS.
The fact that it has been days is, I'm sorry to say, pointing to either gross incompetence, or a tactical move by Sony. Either way, as per usual, it is the end user (you and me) who are the ones getting screwed.
Thanks Sony.
BTW, I didn't even realize the PSN was down until Friday. I sympathize with everyone who has been checking hourly since Wednesday trying to get their fix. Sony deserves to give everyone that has been inconvenienced a big fat apology. And I'm not just talking a few poorly written lines on the website. I'm talking about COMPENSATION.
AWESOMEgamer875
Please read through this, though it is long.
Ok I admit, at first I flipped. But after these two days of no online gaming, not only have I broken a "leveling up addiction" from Black Ops, Ive also taken time to look back at the Single Player games that have been gathering dust while I climb the boards in Black Ops as im on my fourth prestige. I played Red Faction again, completing some of the side missions. And I came to the conclusion that just because new firmware is being made and processors for new games are being installed doesnt actually make a game any better, if a game is fun, then it is going to be a good game forever. Red Faction is one of those games. Im getting ready to pop in GT5 for awhile and perhaps work on the Killzone 3 campaign. In retrospect, in a way that is a bit strange, Im almost thanking the people who hacked the PlayStation Network, for they have helped me to remember that gaming isnt a task to get to the highest level, or beat your friends online, but a way to relax and have fun. So thank you Anonymous or whomever actually did this.
smoky420
psn being down sucks but you can still watch netflix atleast i am and i have the old fat ps3
mbbrunson
I swear of PSN isn't working by the time I get back to the US in two weeks...I'm going to kick some Anon ass
Mr.CtrlAltDelete
And don't call me an Anon or a Anon lover. I just have my views and opinions that I'm entitled to without prejudice and accusations.
Mr.CtrlAltDelete
I don't think Anonymous did this one. If it was an Anonymous MEMBER, it wouldn't be because of the WHOLE GROUP making him. It would've been out of his whole free will. So therefore Anon is not really behind this. And as for this possibly being GeoHotz related, its POSSIBLE, but not LIKELY. I really think that this is all just Sony spazzing out and being paranoid about everything.
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