Take heed, PlayStation owners, for Sony is poised to bring down the PlayStation Network for a bout of scheduled maintenance today, February 12, at 9am PST/12pm EST/5pm GMT.
Due to last in and around four hours — provided the company doesn’t extend the window for additional fixes — the network is being taken offline after a turbulent start to the new year, one which saw it besieged by a DDoS (Direct Denial of Service) attack not to mention several weeks where the real-time service page noted that the PSN wasn’t exactly firing on all cylinders.
Here’s a brief update of what you can expect over the next few hours, courtesy of Sony:
During this maintenance period, you may receive a message that states “Sony Entertainment Network is undergoing maintenance” when attempting to access the PlayStation Store or PlayStation Home. If you have signed in to PSN within 5 days prior to the start of maintenance, you may be able to play games online and enjoy apps such as Netflix, HULU Plus and Music Unlimited during this maintenance period.
As with previous periods of downtime, those who have logged on to the PlayStation Network within the last five days should be able to enjoy online gameplay, not to mention the variety of streaming apps available on the system including Netflix, Hulu et cetera.
All things considered, Sony should have the service back online in time for 12:30pm PST/3:30pm EST/8:30pm GMT. But given how temperamental the PlayStation Network has proven to be in the past, we wouldn’t take those slots as gospel. As ever, we’ll keep you right up to date as we learn more.
