What’s Happening With The Playstation Network?

The worst thing that could happen to a gamer in this day and age is to cut the cord required for online gaming, it’s equivalent to an apocalypse. Since last Wednesday, all PS3 owners are suffering through the withdrawal of the Playstation Network, including all online play, syncing trophies, communication with friends, and basically anything else that requires the use of the internet. It’s a painful experience, no doubt. But what is uncontrollably painful is the fact that questions like, what is the cause behind this mayhem or how can this be happening for almost a week now, are yet to be answered.

Yes, it doesn’t cost anything to access PSN, and Playstation Plus subscribers only shipped out the cash to have access to game deals and free content, not to actually play online. This is a time when you have to recall the debate regarding which system is superior, the 360 or the Ps3? Do you remember every saying that the PS3 is better for having the ability to play games online for free as opposed to 360 owners?

Well, this blackout of online communication is proof of what happens to a system when it is free to be violated by god knows who or what. Paying sixty bucks a year for smooth online play (sorry it’s true) is worthwhile when you have a network as sophisticated as Microsoft’s. The chances of a group of skilled hackers disrupting the 360’s online community is almost impossible, and if it did happen than Microsoft would probably want to find those responsible and hire them as counter hackers. When XBOX Live goes down for maintenance or updates, it lasts a full day, max. That’s the reliability and service you are paying for. Aside from an outage back in Christmas 2007, XBOX Live has been pretty stable and well maintained. Compared to LIVE, the PSN has always been more flimsy and an occasional thorn in gamer’s sides, so what’s happening now is inevitable.

So what is the original cause for this blackout? There is no official word, yet but the hacker group that penetrated the PS3 (Anonymous) recently have stated they are not responsible at all, which is very hard to believe. Even if they weren’t involved, they demonstrated that anyone talented enough can breach the Playstation Network, so this blackout may be from other hackers out there who want bragging rights to. Sony may not be responsible after all if their servers were attacked beyond reasonable measure, but they still have a large problem at hand that needs to be dealt with immediately; and for such a massive company, you think it wouldn’t take this long for them to solve it.

All Playstation owners can do right now is wait, and bitch and whine thoroughly during this time because that’s all there is to do. Sony is keeping a closed lip when it comes to the whole situation, but they are apparently working around the clock to fix this online blackout, it’s just a matter of time. The real question is what will happen when the online is up an running again, what changes will be made? Do PS3 owners finally have to pay yearly to get a securely protected online service similar to XBOX Live? That’s something we have to anticipate, no doubt.

Sony does have the obligation to make things up to the gamers, and free content is not enough, thorough compensation is required. For such an outrage to happen like this for almost a week now, it must really have developers upset with Sony, especially when it comes to recent releases like Mortal Kombat, Portal 2 and the PS3 exclusive, SOCOM 4. Gamers haven’t even had a chance to play these games online yet thanks to the blackout, and Zipper Interactive must be kicking themselves for this kind of error to occur, since SOCOM has such an anticipated online component. This is a dark time for all PS3 owners and developers alike, it changes how Sony will be viewed at for a while, so don’t feel bad if you suddenly get the urge to jump on the Microsoft bandwagon.