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If you’re a PlayStation gamer, your last Friday night might not have gone the way you planned.
On February 7, essentially every online service on PS5 and PS4 went down for over 24 hours.
Players were locked out of online services including multiplayer games and even single-player games.
For many, this wasn’t just an inconvenience, it was total chaos.
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Even single-player games were affected, as many titles these days require an online check-in to verify licenses. That said, some users reported their physically bought copies unable to load due to the outage.
Naturally, the PS community was outraged, but this was amplified by Sony remaining silent for most of it.
Until now.
Network services have fully recovered from an operational issue. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank the community for their patience. All PlayStation Plus members will automatically receive an additional 5 days of service.
— Ask PlayStation (@AskPlayStation) February 9, 2025
With memories of the infamous 2011 PSN outage, which lasted 23 days due to a hack, suspicion ran wild about whether this was a similar attempt.
Turns out, the issue was simply down to an 'operational issue.'
“Network services have fully recovered from an operational issue," the official AskPlayStation Twitter account wrote. "We apologise for the inconvenience and thank the community for their patience.”
As compensation, Sony is giving PlayStation Plus members 'an additional 5 days of service.' That's all good and well but PlayStation has failed to compensate those who don't have PS Plus.
"So non PS Plus get nothing,” wrote one dissatisfied fan.
“Not good enough,” added another.
Meanwhile, one PS player told the BBC: "Paying a monthly fee for their service is one thing but not being able to play games that we've purchased is something that's beyond frustrating."
At least during the 2011 disruption, players were happy to be offered free titles such as Infamous and Burnout Paradise as an apology from Sony.
The disruption may not have lasted nearly as long, but the compensation has been highly selective. Some players have turned to the likes of X and other internet forums to demand refunds.
“Unacceptable lack of communication. We pay for your services. Many people make plans to play together on the weekend. You have allowed a disruption in services we pay for and plan for, without communication with us about what is happening. Reimbursement would be the thing to do,” one comment read.
"Apology rejected in its entirety, we want games, not five free days," one responded to AskPlayStation on X.
Others are threatening to leave the PlayStation service and go to Microsoft's Xbox, writing: "I think I'm gonna skip my five days of service and subscribe to XBOX FOR A MONTH. I HATE XBOX. BUT THEY HAVE NEVER HAD AN OUTAGE LIKE THIS."
