The PlayStation Network, which users of the Sony PlayStation platform rely on to play games, download content and access apps, fluttered in and out of service on Saturday but remained down for at least some users more than 20 hours after widespread problems with the network were first reported.
“You might have difficulty launching games, apps or network features,” PlayStation said on its website, adding that the problems began at 7 p.m. on Friday.
The company did not explain the cause of the outage and did not immediately respond to an email seeking more information.
The issues affected users of PlayStation’s most popular offerings, including its console and web products. Account management, gaming and social, PlayStation Video, PlayStation Store and PlayStation Direct were among the impacted services, the company said.
PlayStation creates software and hardware, including hugely popular gaming consoles. Users play video games and run apps like Netflix, Spotify and YouTube through the PlayStation Network.
On social media, some users reported that they were able to use their PlayStation on Saturday afternoon, but many were still experiencing issues, and PlayStation had not changed the messaging on its website. By 5 p.m. Eastern on Saturday, there were indications that PlayStation was working for some users in Europe, but the company provided no information to suggest the issue had been resolved.
Some users reported that they were not able to play offline games, a testament to how severe the server problems were, as offline games usually do not face the same issues that online games will sometimes experience.
As users complained on social media, other brands fired off trolling messages.
“Calling all gamers: this play station still works,” Krispy Kreme posted on X. Krispy Kreme offered free glazed doughnuts for two hours on Saturday “because sweet rewards don’t need a server.”
“bet y’all want physical copies now,” GameStop, the struggling video game retail chain, said on X.
