14 DAY TRIAL // The team at Sony in charge of the PlayStation Network announces that it is planning to bring the service down for maintenance for a six-hour period today. As such, the downtime will start at 1 PM and will end at 7 PM EST and will take place from 6 PM on Monday until 12 AM on Tuesday for European users.
All those who log into the service before the downtime actually starts will be able to still play their titles online and access partner applications, although some issues might crop up as some elements of the network are tinkered with.
Sony says that it is aiming to deliver a number of back-end improvements to the PlayStation Network, but it has not offered a clear list of details for what it plans to change.
The PlayStation Store, the Home environment and the PS Account Manager will not be live during the maintenance period, which might inconvenience some users.
In the official announcement, Sony adds, “We thank you for your patience and support and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.”
When the PSN downtime has been completed, the company will announce using its social media channels if it needs more time to complete the maintenance.
The PlayStation 4 owes much of its success to the PlayStation Network
Sony has been very happy with the launch of the PlayStation 4 since the home console was first introduced in 2013 and much of the success is linked to the PSN.
The network allows the company to offer fully digital game packages in its store and supports a wide variety of apps that gamers rely on to connect with friends and to share content.
The PSN will also become more important than ever if Sony links much of its future to the PlayStation Now initiative, which allows gamers to play video games that they have not downloaded to their hard drives.
The PS Plus service has also become very popular and more than 7 million people are using it in order to get access to free titles each month.
The reliance on the service also means that it needs to be regularly updated in order to make sure that it can support all the experiences and is not open to any kind of malicious attacks.
A PSN hack has already affected Sony’s bottom line and reputation, and the company cannot afford to allow another breach to take place in the near future.
