IGN - One Year Later: Reflecting on the Great PSN Outage

IGN - April 20th has a strange place in history. The evil fascist dictator Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889. Famous horror author Bram Stoker died on April 20, 1912. And of course, potheads are exceptionally fond of the date (but chances are, you already knew that).

[GribbleGrunger]

why can't they just leave this stuff alone? all this will lead to is another bout of claim and counter-claim between the PS3 fans and the 360 fans. it really is of NO importance.

[n4gisatroll]

Because, its IGN and they are talking about Sony.

[sikbeta]

@Gribble

You answered your own question bro

"this will lead to is another bout of claim and counter-claim between the PS3 fans and the 360 fans"

= Hits for IGN yay! XP

[Nitrowolf2]

lol it's IGN what did you expect?
What is there really to reflect off if this anyway? If anything that's for Sony.
IDK I read it, the majority of the article is just restating it and then they end with the obvious questions that were even asked during the outage.

And why are they posting a God of War: Ascension Trailer in an article that's unrelated to it?

[jimbobwahey]

I wonder why they never did something like this for the Xbox Live outage that lasted almost as long as the PSN downtime? Pretty weird. Then again they word the article in such a manner as to suggest that Sony is the only console manufacturer to have suffered significant downtime of their online service and have their security compromised, two things which have happened to Xbox Live (quite recently too).

Strange how the Xbox Live downtime and security issues are brushed under the rug but they take the time to remind everybody that PSN went down a year ago. Kinda seems like the author had an agenda doesn't it?

[360GamerFG]

Please tell me you're not talking about the 2 weeks of sporadic outages from 4 years ago when the servers were overloaded from all the new X360 users.
2 weeks and sporadic vs almost a month of total blackout and personal info leak. . .not the same. But what does logic matter to your tin foil hat wearing types?
Yes it is another conspiracy against SONY.

[mobhit]

Well, that downtime was thrown under the rug just like the RROD issue so don't be surprised.

Not sure why IGN wants to bring up the past. Sony did something about it. That should be commendable.

And Financial Gamer, what does it matter how long it was down for? It was down and yet the media didn't make a big spectacle out of it.

THAT'S THE POINT.

[dark-hollow]

"Xbox Live outage that lasted almost as long as the PSN downtime?"

what? are you comparing servers being under pressure from a lot of people going online which led to "SOME" cant go online vs A SECURITY DATA BREACH where 50 MILLION ACCOUNT HAS BEEN AFFECTED!

[Awesome_Gamer]

One word: hits

[WrAiTh Sp3cTr3]

A year already? Wow...

[MrDead]

Holy knuckle-cracking Kringles on a bullet train with a sack full of ketchup-covered cheese logs! Its been 1 year! I'm still loving my free Ratchet & Clank and Wipeout.

It was a bit of a pain when it happened but all PS3 users ended up gaining from this with 2 awesome games

[Persistantthug]

I got 4

:P

[MrDead]

I only had one account

[Baka-akaB]

So now we are celebrating anniversaries of issues ? Oh IGN you never fail at failing

[Noticeably_FAT]

I think fake Kaz puts it best.

CEO Kaz Hirai ‏ @KazHiraiSCE

:-( PSN gets hacked once and everybody moans. It's been a whole year since and not once has anyone said "Thanks for not being hacked again!"

On the plus side, thanks to about 10 different PSN accounts, some EU and Jap accounts I added like 6 games to my PS3 library, which was more then the previous couple of years combined!

I also think its funny that this site will hate on IGN because of this article, but will slobber all over them when they give an Uncharted sequel to a sequel a great score.

[Statix]

"Second, for better or for worse, the "free" model PSN totes should be examined. With more customer money put into PlayStation Network's infrastructure, could something like this have been avoided completely?"

PSN being free has nothing to do with its level of security or avoidance of hacker attacks. Xbox Live is a paid service, yet individual user accounts get hacked and credit cards get stolen on a daily basis. The frequency and scale on which these hacks happen are not known, because Microsoft chooses not to disclose these figures. Microsoft on the whole chooses to simply ignore these incidents of hacked accounts and pretend that there are no holes in its security system. PSN might arguably be a more secure system at this point in time than Xbox Live; you hear about Xbox Live accounts being stolen all the time, to this very day. But you rarely hear about PSN accounts being stolen.

[Tai_Kaliso]

How you got so many agrees with that load of crap is beyond me.
A hack, which is what happened to the PSN last year is something totally different then "Phishing". Phishing is something that Microsoft has no control over, people have to be smart and check to see what they are logging into.

I was phished on Gamebattles and lost a playoff COD4 team, but it wasn't Gamebattles fault, it was my own fault for falling for something like that. How in the world can a company, be it Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo avoid or counter phishing scams? They cant.

As for the fact that PSN is free, of course this has something to do with lack of security. Part of the price for Xbox Live goes into security protocols.

I cant believe people honestly think PSN is more secure then Xbox Live, especially seeing as how Xbox Live has NEVER BEEN HACKED.

This site amazes me sometimes, but not in a good way at all.

Bottom line, who trusts Sony with their credit card info anymore? who trusts Microsoft? I know I store mine on Xbox Live, but I'd never trust Sony with it again.

[Tai_Kaliso]

Sony didn't hack their own network, but they lacked proper security and part of that could be from a lack of funding because they offer it for free.

Its obvious since the hack that someone was searching PSN for a weak spot and they found it.

Hack is a hack and a Phish is a phish, big, BIG difference.

[Christopher]

***A hack, which is what happened to the PSN last year is something totally different then "Phishing". Phishing is something that Microsoft has no control over, people have to be smart and check to see what they are logging into. ***

Just FYI, Microsoft was found vulnerable on their login system via the Web. It was found that people could do brute force attempts to log into an account since the password required element that would normally require e-mail verification after 8 false attempts could be easily worked around by simply going back to the initial login screen (it would not remember the 8 login attempts when this was done).

[Statix]

@Tai_Kaliso:

CORRECTION: Sony DID lack good security. Now, they DON'T lack good security, because Sony corrected their mistakes/oversights, and also realized that they're primary targets from hackers.

Also, I reiterate, PSN being free and Xbox Live being paid has NOTHING to do with the level of security of the service. Sony makes enough money from selling games and hardware (along with other businesses) that they can invest that money into having a good security system. Your argument that "it's a free, service, hence, the security must be weaker" does NOT hold water. Steam is a free service; do you not trust putting your credit card information into Steam? Amazon is a free service. Do you not trust putting credit card information into your Amazon account? Your argument simply holds no water, and is a gross generalization at best.

One last thing; some Xbox Live accounts are stolen as a result of phishing, that is true (although one wonders why phishing-related problems seem more prevalent on Xbox Live than PSN in the first place). However, there have been many accounts and articles recently that show that some peoples' accounts are being stolen, and it has NOTHING to do with phishing. Many people, some in the gaming media, swear that they used a totally random password, and didn't fall for any phishing scams, and STILL had their accounts stolen. There's a lot of evidence out there that there are holes in the Xbox Live security that are not even being acknowledged by Microsoft, let alone rectified. Here are some articles detailing the issue:

http://www.thesixthaxis.com...

http://www.destructoid.com/...

http://www.destructoid.com/...

http://www.analoghype.com/v...

Still feel safe putting your credit card info into Xbox Live after reading all those horror stories above? If you are, then you're blinded by your own fanboyism.

[Tai_Kaliso]

Its called keylogging. You can pick up a totally undetectable virus that keylogs passwords and things like that.

I am 100% confident in Microsoft and Xbox Live, its one of the reasons I pay for Live. I've never had any issues and I don't know a single person who has.

I do know people who have been phished from other sites or games like Runescape or WOW. We cant blame Microsoft for that though can we? Although I'm sure this site would try.

Microsoft has never had to shut down their online network for a month, I've never even experienced downtime for so called "service" or "maintenance" like PSN.

So I'm never really sure what is going on with that.

As for people and claims, I'm sure people were phished or keylogged or simply didn't have secure passwords, I mean birthdays aren't exactly original.

If I'm running something that I offer for free, I'm not going to invest a ton of money into, that is just business 101. You can think that it being a free service didn't contribute, but just like me its opinion and cant really be proven.

They were hacked before, Microsoft hasn't been and that is why I would feel uneasy about keeping any info on PSN. After all, Sony did take their sweet ass time letting their "valued" consumers know what was going on, and that half assed apology was worse then BP's for the Gulf oil spill.

I'm sure you probably thought PSN was more secure then XBL before it was hacked as well, I just wont be taking any chances. I've spent $0 on PSN since.

[TopDudeMan]

So, the PSN got hacked, went down for a few weeks, people started predicting the end of the world, it went back up, we got free shit, we continued playing our games happily. Thee end.

What more is there to say, really?

[TekoIie]

I think what makes this "memorable" Is because of Anon. It's more like lets remember what dicks they were....

[Iceman X]

That's funny that people seemed to have forgotten when Xbox Live service was down more than once. But PSN down once and it's still news?? Go google this Live have been down over 3 times, 1 time it was almost the full month of Dec.

[360GamerFG]

It was 2 weeks at worst. It was sporadic, most people weren't even affected. Psn- 4 weeks. Complete blackout. Everybody, including SOE was affected. At least back your conspiracies with facts.

[Hicken]

And while one was self-induced- the PSN blackout- the other was out of control.

If you're gonna call other people out on missing info, make sure YOU bring all the facts to the table, as well.

[mobhit]

Financial Gamer rushing to defend Microsoft as usual.

[TekoIie]

Does no one remember the group that caused this hmm? That's why this brought up more than the XBL blackouts...

[mr_badhand]

@hicken,

Out of control? Really? Do you even own a 360? How was it out of control?

During that time it was hard to get on but never impossible unlike the "self induced" blackout.

You speak on facts but you have none yourself to back it up.

[CrustifiedDibbs]

live was NEVER down for a month. you ps3 kids cant just make things up. i remember the '07 outages. for about 2 weeks the system was overloaded with new users. sometimes i could get online and play halo, sometimes not. never was it completely down. i have also used live frequently since then, and i dont remember the other 2 "outages" you are claiming.

"And while one was self-induced- the PSN blackout- the other was out of control."

nice spin. i guess peoples info being at risk had nothing to do with the "self induced" blackout. they must have just done it for fun. server overloads and a whole network being hacked are very different.

" Financial Gamer rushing to defend Microsoft as usual."

yet i noticed you didnt call out hicken for constantly coming to the defense of sony. why is that?

[mobhit]

Hey, maybe *YOU* should read what he said. He called out Financial Gamer for not providing missing information while he called someone else out for that.

It's called hypocrisy.

How did he come to Sony's defense. Read next time.

You guys can mash all the disagrees you want but it changes NOTHING about what was said.

And well said Vita3DS. It's funny how people say PS3 fans troll 360 articles and YET we have the same people who said that doing the exact same thing with this article.

[CrustifiedDibbs]

"You guys can mash all the disagrees you want but it changes NOTHING about what was said. "

what did he say that was wrong? yeah the disagrees to agrees are really in my favor lol.

"How did he come to Sony's defense. Read next time."

here you go... "And while one was self-induced- the PSN blackout- the other was out of control."

how is that not coming to the defense of sony? that is deflection an spin at its finest.

"And well said Vita3DS. It's funny how people say PS3 fans troll 360 articles and YET we have the same people who said that doing the exact same thing with this article."

so when ps3 fans sream conspiracy and deflect to xbox live outages, im supposed to just let people lie?

typical n4g... call out the media for overblowing psn downtime, and in the next breath, completely overblow ms downtime.

[maniacmayhem]

@mohbit
What facts is Financial missing? Fact, psn was OUT for a month. I think we all know this.

Then there's this Xbox sorta/kinda outage that some are just now starting to bring up.
If you can't see Hicken's defense shields up for calling some Xbox outage out of no where which is no where the level of the psn outage then you are just as blind.

When was Xbox down for almost a month? C'mon now, you don't have to lie to kick it.

[Vita3DS]

I remember the PSN Blackout.It was the most talked about topic for people who never touched a PS3 in their lives.

[AngelicIceDiamond]

Im just glad its behind us now.

[blackblades]

I forgot all about that the only thing I remember is free games 9 of them.

[sorceror171]

It had a bad effect on Infamous 2. The outage happened right when I2's UGC beta was going on. People couldn't publish missions, Sucker Punch couldn't put out patches, etc. It slowed down UGC development right when it could really have used it.

UGC after the post-release patches is much improved from the release day version. It would probably have been more popular if it had been just a bit more polished on day 1...

[gtxgamer2]

Thinking back on this makes me realize how much i hate hackers