Sony: No idea when PlayStation Network can be restored

By Geoff Duncan April 26, 2011

Image used with permission by copyright holder

The sound of gnashing teeth you hear may be caused by the molars of disgruntled Sony gamers: what was first an annoying outage of Sony’s PlayStation Network and Qriocity media service has swollen into an extended crisis for the company. And as the outage nears its one-week mark, Sony has come forward to say it has no idea when it will be able to bring PlayStation Network back online.

“I know you are waiting for additional information on when PlayStation Network and Qriocity services will be online,” wrote Sony’s senior director for communications Patrick Seybold in the company’s PlayStation blog. “Unfortunately, I don’t have an update or timeframe to share at this point in time.”

The statement that the PlayStation’s network outage would be indefinite follows confirmation that the outage was caused by an “external intrusion.” Some speculation has centered on the online hacktivist group Anonymous, although there has been no hard confirmation or claim of responsibility. The outage followed on the heels of Sony launching legal action against PlayStation 2 and iPhone hacker George “GeoHotz” Hotz, who developed a method to jailbreak the PlayStation 3 console so it could run homebrew software and alternative operating systems—a capability Sony itself took away from the PS3 over a year ago. The confrontation between Sony and Hotz has been very public in social media and Hotz’ blog.

PlayStation Network boasts more than 75 million members, enabling users to play against each other and chat; Sony’s recently-launched Qriocity service enables users to stream music to a range of Sony devices, including PSPs, Bravia Internet-enabled TVs, and selected Blu-ray players.

Sony has said it is working to rebuild the PlayStation Network, not just reactivate it. The company has also indicating it is working to determine if any account holders’ personal information may have been compromised.

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