PlayStation Network outage: 6 days and counting
Sony still has no answers for its customers who'd like to access its video and game downloading center. Cloud music subscription service Qriocity is also unavailable.
Sony is still strugglingto get its PlayStation Network back online.
There has been no update since yesterday, when the company communicated to users via its Web site that it has no prognosis for when PSN would be back in business.
The PlayStation Network (and Qriocity, Sony's cloud music subscription service that has also been taken down) has more than 70 million users worldwide and allows people to download TV shows and movies and video games to their PlayStation consoles. Both services went down in the middle of last week. Since then the company has said it is rebuilding the network.
Sony has not provided details on what caused its network to need rebuilding. The company has only vaguely acknowledged an "external intrusion." Some have speculated that Sony shut down the network to prevent widespread pirating of content on its network.
In the meantime, it's not clear if the credit card information of paying subscribers was compromised during the "intrusion" by outsiders, and Sony isn't saying. The company has also yet to explain how it will compensate customers whose subscriptions are rendered useless by the outage.
The timing is also rather unfortunate. Last night Sony unveiled its first two tablets. Like most Sony products they use access to its media networks as a selling point. In the case of these tablets, Qriocity.
Fortunately for Sony, the tablets won't go on sale until this fall, buying the company some time to bring its PSN and Qriocity network back online.
But current customers are losing patience with the protracted outage.
Someone who goes by the name NecroC wrote yesterday on PSN's official blog, "Boy I sure am glad I paid $50 for a membership I cant use, and pay $15 a month for a game I cant play. I was fine with a day or two, but we are hitting on day 5." Others chimed in with more concise but less specific complaints like, "Epic fail," and "Pathetic, Sony."
But what's really grating on many fans and players is the flow of information about the problem from Sony. Many are taking issue less with the lack of access to the network content and service than how the company has conducted itself.
In CNET's own comments user E B wrote, "I'm not sure I have a big problem with PSN being down while they rebuild it -- it's certainly annoying, but if it's needed to bring it up stable instead of having it come down over and over again, that's fine. What I *DO* have a big problem with is the lack of communication from Sony through their customer service channels."
On the PSN blog, user VixDiesel vented that he just wants to know what happened. "There is absolutely not reason you can't give us more info," the user wrote. "Stop doing the shady crappy pr and just tell us already."
This post was updated at 11:20 a.m. PT.