The PlayStation Network Needs to Get Its Act Together.

Another Holiday Period and More Downtime!

It’s been Five months since the PS4 launched and the PlayStation Network took on the form of a paid service with the requirement of PlayStation Plus to enable on-line multiplayer gameplay.

[randomass171]

I think PSN has had its act together for quite a few years now. It's Nintendo Network that needs to get the modern features and account system going. Even Microsoft's network at least meets industry standards.

[Bundi]

"Even Microsoft's network at least meets industry standards."
Not sure if a jab or just uninformed...MS set the standard for console networks. PSN is still playing catch up to Xbox Live in terms of infrastructure and reliability.

When was the last time you saw a heading saying scheduled downtime for Xbox Live maintenance?

[randomass171]

What I meant to say was that Microsoft was not behind in that regard. The jab was meant specifically for Nintendo Network. Guess I got my words warbled. Sorry about that. :[

[DVS-Zev]

Like 2 weeks ago
http://www.gamepur.com/news...

[LXGYT]

@DVS still not as bad as PSN maintenance, i haven't seen LIVE go offline ever

[nicksetzer1]

@dvs 1 time is equal to almost weekly?? Makes sense.

[DVS-Zev]

@LX live goes down from time to time.Around the titanfall launch for example, it was down worldwide 1-2 times within a week.

@Nick
I never said it's equal to anything.Bundi asked when was the last time, i answered.Why are you so defensive? lol

Edit below.There was a worldwide issue that lasted way more then an hour on the 11th of march.Then another issue on the 25th and another short one just last week on the 10th.

And yes, it was different then PSN's scheduled maintenance, as these issues were not scheduled at all lol.Why are you trying to pretend XBL is some infallible service? I played 360 for years and play xbox one even more then my PS4.Trust me, i know when there's issues.Like when i couldn't even play Titanfall on launch, for example, because MS's azure servers were garbage.

[LXGYT]

it wasn't down worldwide, there was sign in issues for about an hour, and if you where signed in all ready then you were fine, and on top of it all anyone affected received a 7 day gold membership, plus Titanfall was the biggest multiplayer launch this year so far, a little bit different than PSN's maintenance don't you say?

[UltimateMaster]

As far as terms of features go, the PSN has them all.
As far as maintenance go. Well, I'd rather have them focused on fixing bugs so that all works flawlessly rather than a clunky system with major lag, or putting players on an uneven plain-field with some player's action acts before others, or worst a severe security flaws.

Nobody wants any hacking, not even the heartbleed security flaw.

If people don't like it, they usually announce it in advance, be sure to have your PS logged in to the PSN and you'll still be able to play during those maintenance.

[LXGYT]

@UltimateMaster, PSN still has a way to go before they have feature parity with Xbox LIVE, it still needs things like friend notifications, PSN name changes, a reputation system and so on to be up to par with Xbox LIVE

[thejigisup]

@Dvs-dev
Fackin LOL took the characters right from my finger tips

[wsoutlaw87]

live does maintenance too they just dont tell you way in advance. A few people have sign in issues just like the psn. The only difference is for some reason sonys psn maintenance is reported like they shut down the psn which isnt even close to true. I have never had an issue during psn maintenance.

[DragonKnight]

Are people actually complaining that Sony is maintaining their network? What the hell is wrong with people? The same people who b*tch about this are the same people who would b*tch if a lack of maintenance resulted in unscheduled downtime or worse happening.

"You can please all of the people some of the time, you can please some of the people all of the time, you can never please all the people all the time."

[MatriXcian]

Bundi I think you may be a bit behind on the times Playstation Plus is now considered way ahead of Xbox Live in terms of the better service almost unanimously I might add it is now Microsoft playing catch up launching their Xbox One without many features and services the 360 had so much so that several patches and fixes later they're still not into snuff.

[ramiuk1]

yeah xbox live is still in front for stability and maintenance things.
Sony is catchinbg very fast but it needs to improve it speed of store etc.
still doesnt use my full connection speed.

all the folks worried about maintenance monday why dont u do the reallife thing.
spend it with your family and take them out for day.

[aragon]

My xbox live gold expires Friday after a year never been affected by issues unless my internet was down, my psn on the other hand different story, truth is Sony games in some regards are better than ms but xbox live reliability vs psn, ms wins

[extermin8or]

PSN rarely goes 'offline' you just have to have sign in authentication on PS's cache and account management/ps store become unavailable it's rare you can't sign in at all and lasts a couple of hours or so when that happens.

[Roger2Doger]

The issue is why do they have scheduled maintenance where they have to shut things down like this and more importantly over weekends and holidays when most people are going to be free to play?

I'm not sure if Nintendo, Microsoft and Steam shut their services down as often or not. Or if they announce scheduled maintenance over weekends and holidays.

[MeLoveRamen]

most people are not very knowledgable when it comes to psn maintenance. When there is a psn maintenance that only means you can't go to the ps store, you still can play online and talk to friends so for everyone who think psn maintenance means the whole network is down, you are sorely mistaken.

[frostypants]

@LXGYT, the "reputation system" on Live is purely cosmetic and everyone knows it. It doesn't do squat.

[Mankey]

The only real area I think PlayStation needs to get things together on is the timeliness of updates. Compared to Microsoft and Valve Sony is quite slow putting out updates.

Compiling this issue is that there is a HUGE list of updates people want on the PS4 right now.

[randomass171]

That's a fair criticism. Still, I feel that something like slow updates makes telling Sony to "get their act together" a bit harsh when there are other companies that aren't even meeting Sony's pace with their own networks.

[Mr_Writer85]

I would counter that by saying that Sony are not really a software company.

Really they only delved into the world of OS last gen, so lack the knowlage and experience of MS and Valve who, are software experts.

On the flip side neither Valve or MS can build or design hardware like Sony can.

Look at the Xbox, yes it was more powerful then the PS2 but was ugly as sin and twice the size of a "fat" PS2.

The 360 looked a looked a lot better, and smaller, but due to MS lack of experience building hardware they had trouble with RROD.

And now again the X1 is just a big huge box, compared to the PS4 which (lets just say that in terms of power they are the same) is smaller and looks nice.

Again even the network side, MS know a lot more about how it works then Sony, who are only now starting to charge, Live has had 6/7 years of money pumped into it, PSN 6 months.

To expect a rapid change this quick is a bit silly of the writer.

[TheLyonKing]

The one thing MS fails at above all is paying for an xbl account so you can use your paid netflix...thats messed up

[MrSwankSinatra]

are you kidding me? PSN may have improved but sony still has a long way to go. for instance the PSN store is just a joke they went with a more flashy store from the original which was wayyyyy faster & more organized.

[welly300]

Yeah I agree and the app is a joke it takes you to website and its soooo slow.

[DragonKnight]

Neither of you have been on the PS4 store.

[scootscottskeet93]

Get em DragonKnight.. Hahahaha

[zeuanimals]

What DragonKnight said, that thing is blazing fast on the PS4. They just need to get rid of that janky search system where you scroll up and down letters. Let me use the system's default typing system and the DS4's Gyro Typing thing, saves so much time.

[extermin8or]

Web psn store works fine and ps4's psn store is blazing fast and the same as ps3's new store, it's why they changed it I think.

[GarrusVakarian]

The PS Store is INFINITELY faster on the PS4....wtf are you talking about?

You clearly haven't ever used a PS4 to say such a stupid thing. The store loads in an instant and every menu loads faster. It's a 100% improvement.

[NeoTribe]

Your obviously talking about ps3, and in that case i agree. I loved the old design that ran great. The new design broke the store and runs like garbage. The thing is its not the network thats broke, its ps3 lack of ram thats not allowing it to run good. Ps4 on the other hand is blazing fast in the store. No problems with ps4 store.

[SpinalRemains138]

You're talking about the ps3 store right? I agree though, the old store was miles ahead.

The PS4 store is kickass tho. Very quick and simple. The only thing I would change however, is the vertical alphabet for searching. Who the hell thought that was a good idea? Seriously.

[ALLWRONG]

@DVS-Zev above.

"Xbox Live Down For Scheduled Maintenance"

Helps if you read it.

[DVS-Zev]

Helps if you read the post i replied to.

Bundi:"When was the last time you saw a heading saying scheduled downtime for Xbox Live maintenance?"

[MysticStrummer]

lol Funny stuff. Reading is fundamental.

I've never had much problem with PSN in general. My problem was with my old internet provider. Once I moved and changed ISPs the difference was night and day. I don't mind scheduled and announced downtime because I prefer single player games most of the time anyway and multiplayer games generally don't hold my attention for hours at a time. If I know downtime is coming I can plan accordingly.

[sonarus]

Well the downtimes are annoying I'm sure but being completely honest I have only been affected once since I bought my ps4. (By affected I mean wanting to get online and not being able to. )Truth be told I was not even aware this was happening so often until reading this article. As psn becomes a paid service though they need to tighten up their reliability so hopefully sony isn't taking this lightly

[truefan1]

Why is every criticism of Sony meet with deflection? The article is about psn, not xbl and not Nintendo.

[DragonKnight]

Why is any article criticizing Sony a bunch of nitpicking nonsense? Why is an article criticizing Microsoft met with a bunch of SonyToo™ statements which are then rallied against when the statements are MicrosoftToo™ comments? Why are you trolling everywhere?

[MysticStrummer]

The very first sentence of his comment makes it clear he disagrees with the article. That's not a deflection, though I know you want it to be reeeaaally badly.

[GarrusVakarian]

"The article is about psn, not xbl and not Nintendo."

So why do you mention "TEH PS4 FANBOYZ" in so many of your comments in MS articles? Hypocrite much?

I would like Sony to make maintenance a background task, but apart from that, PSN has been great for me....exactly the same as my 5 year experience with XBL. 140 hours played on BF4 and the only time ive had problems has been due to EA's incompetence.

[randomass171]

The reason is I feel it's not as bad as the author made it out to be. And I brought up the other companies because I felt that they were not performing as well as Sony, so it was weird to be criticizing just Sony on this topic.

[ziggurcat]

you mention deflection, but there you are in every sony-related thread talking about DX12, Ryse, the cloud or titanfall...

[KwietStorm_BLM]

Not sure if serious.

[TruthInsider]

Come on people, it's been 6 months now, Sonys honeymoon period and free ride is over now.
They have had massive luck with Xbone having a bad launch they really need to sort things out now.
There is no bigger PS "fanboy" than me but come on, things won't get better if we are all giving Sony praise and free good exposure.
They are not taking advantage of the luck and if they don't sort things quick gamers will jump ship.

No MP3, no Pics, no Videos, no DLNA, no turning off DS4 light, very bare UI, no instant resume, no jump into friends game, no youtube upload, no youtube app, network downtime too often now we pay etc etc..
Why aren't these things on the machine at launch?

Yes i know Xbone hasn't got some of them either but i don't care about Xbox i care about PS4, does Xbox have to implement them first for Sony to add them?

Start making noise people. Companies won't spend money adding stuff or improving it if they think everyone is happy!

Come on Sony, get your sh*t together, if you lose this massive advantage you will be a laughing stock.

[GarrusVakarian]

"very bare UI,"

Let's keep it that way, please. The PS4's UI is blazing fast, so much faster than the X1's (which i also own). People should care less about aesthetics and more about how fast and easily accessible UI's are. I would prefer an even simpler UI if it meant it was even faster and gave even more power to devs.

[TitanUp]

im used to these from all the different mmorpg i have played.

[liquidhalos]

My only gripe with the PSN is the download speeds. I'm on a 40 meg line yet when I download from the playstation store be it ps4 or ps3 I barely get half that speed. Tonight I've been trying to download bioshock infinite. It's been downloading for just under an hour and I'm only 700mb in.

Other than the speed issues I'm very happy with the service, it's tonnes more reliable than it was when I got my ps4 back in December. I got myself a ps3 a few weeks ago and I'm loving it. PS+ is making catching up on all the great games I missed last gen so so much cheaper. Fantastic service for the most part.

[DanielGearSolid]

You'll never see me complain about maintenance

The more tweaking the better.

Besides, no matter when they do maintenance, ppl will be affected. The world doesn't sleep when America sleeps

[jhoward585]

wow...I was just on the phone with a PSN rep a few sec ago and he didn't have a clue what I was taking about. They never do.

So yeah PSN need to get their act together.

[DragonKnight]

Well, when you fabricate situations, no one will know what you're talking about.

[jhoward585]

I have no reason to make up stuff.

I called PSN about a patch that I couldn't download to my PS4. It seem as though something was blocking me from downloading it. The first person couldn't help me. So he transferred me to another dept and that individual couldn't help me either. so I was transferred again and finally I got the help I needed form someone who knew what was causing me issue. The installed game was corrupted. I had to delete the installed game first on my HD to successfully download the patch, it worked. My guess is most of the PSN rep don't really know much about patch/installs which is surprising to me. They read a script on their computer and follow and step by step guide and still they couldn't help me.

before I call them I thought about deleting the installed game but wasn't sure if that would delete my saved games/progress. So I call them to ask them that and no one couldn't tell me.

Of course this wasn't the first PSN were clueless.

[zeuanimals]

Huh, I was talking to the ghost of Stonewall Jackson on the phone myself from a padded cell in a mental hospital while wearing a straightjacket. You must be the guy in that other cell.

[jhoward585]

@zeuanimals
Its quite obvious with a name like "Animal" you'd be someone who is mentally disturb/out of control.

FYI, I know people to tend choose a name that describe who they are. Animal.

[jhoward585]

@disagrees

I'm Sony fan. I don't own an x1 hardware, and probably never will.
Anyways, I'm really surprised most Sony fan reject anything that has to do with Sony.

I will not do the same thing, I keep it real. I will speak about both the x1/ps4, and not just talk about one system. I won't be affected by the fanaticism of gaming. Good luck gaming.

[zeuanimals]

From your other reply to me: "FYI, I know people to tend choose a name that describe who they are. Animal."

LOLOL. Wow, that's just... I never expected someone to stoop so low as to use my screen name as a way to insult me.

I chose Zeuanimals because that's the name I use in slam poetry/rap, "Zeu" as in Zeus because my lyricism and delivery is godly, though it's actually only my lyricism because my delivery still needs work, and "animals" because I have multiple styles like the various Kung-Fu styles named and inspired by animals. But sure, call me an "animal" as if that's supposed to be insulting.

As to why you have disagrees, it's because you "talked" to a Sony-rep. Are people just supposed to believe some guy on the internet because he says something? Have you not seen the backlash of people claiming to be "insiders" and claim things but never give any reason to believe them?

Give us proof that you actually talked to a Sony rep and we'll start to believe you, just say you did without any proof and you look like a joke.

[jhoward585]

Yeah! yeah! animal. you're an idiot.

nuff said.

[Derekvinyard13]

PS3 store goes sorta slow they should bring back the old one

[iceman06]

This is true. I HATE that they do the app thing now! It takes forever!

[Kivespussi]

I think it looks cooler and it's easier to find what I'm looking for. But otherwise it's so damn slow.

[crusf]

Oh please I for one think that Sony doing maintenance is important to increase the security and safety of the service. This guy clearly wrote the article out of anger rather than understanding. Did you guys forget the PSN Hack?

[Minato-Namikaze]

Doesnt this only really effect people that havent logged on in a couple says or more? Every time there is so called maintenance i can get on no problem.

[ltachiUchiha]

Exactly I dont know what he is complaining about. If your already signed in & playing a game while the maintenance u will be just fine.

[Kane22]

come one now. eveytime sony does a maintenance and even though they warn everyone at least a week. people still need to bitch anyway.

[ltachiUchiha]

Still though I would rather have this instead of forcing ppl who dont really care about online to pay for xbl just to use apps like netflix, hulu plus etc. etc. which u dont need ps plus to use & free 2 play games dont need ps plus. Those things alone is worse then anything u are complaining about.

[aragon]

What does this have to do with paywall and netflix?

[B1uBurneR]

$10 extra a month for XBL. Less maintenance hassle ... priceless

[Silly gameAr]

You guys will take any little thing to try and make XBL look like it's the bestest thing ever won't you?

[dodgefate]

10$ less a month for PSN Better free stuff an maintenance that will make everything better.... Priceless, well still pay monthly but hey it's my money :)

I got a xbox but when PSN is down if i'm even on it I will spend some time with my son an wife /wink

[thejigisup]

"You cannot access the store, download stuff, play on-line games and anything that requires on-line connectivity"

Pretty sure you can play all of your f2p games without ps+, and during those maintenance times.

And i d just like to say, Sony is a family company they want you spending time outside and off the game consoles go see some family during the holidays that's why they pick Christmas and Easter etc go spend that time away from your console for a few minutes

[Kane22]

as long as you sign in at least 2 days before the maintenance you're good. but who am i kidding people will still bitch that they cant buy or so called download something.

[Dropdeadll]

The ps store on the ps4 goes fast though. i think games also download faster then on ps3.

[ironmonkey]

huh even with maintenance you can still play all your games you just cant access the store.

[ScareFactor]

Can't access the store, party up, or invite friends basically useless

[iceman06]

Not always true. It CAN be true. But, I have never had issues with party invites, friend invites, or playing online. I HAVE had issues with the store. I am NOT saying that MY experience is YOURS. Just saying that maintenance doesn't always completely kill the experience for everybody.

[ltachiUchiha]

Whats useless about being able to still play online while maintenance? Whats useless is trying to play a free 2 play game thats suppose to be free 2 play but u cant if u dont have an xbl account which basically means u will have to pay to play that game that was suppose to be free 2 play. Now thats useless. Same thing with using netflix. U cant even access that without paying an additional fee for xbl even if u aren't a big fan of online multiplayer games. Thats useless.

[Delsin_Rowe]

This maintance is protect our accounts, servers, PSN store from hacking ever again and also fixing bugs, glitch to make life better. Sign in a couple days before the maintance and you be able to play online, party chat, Invite friends, everything else except accessing to PSN store so that won't ruin your gaming experience at all!

[TKCMuzzer]

I don't know why there are so many complaints. The maintenance only ever effects the store and accessing your business
account details. It never effects gaming. Just the world we live in, people gotta moan.

[Pancit_Canton]

Unless you have no life,Job or School. I hardly catches their maintenance schedule. They mostly do it in the afternoon where people are busy doing their own thing not playing games all the time. What an idiotic article and stealth trolling.

[dodgefate]

Tweet took down... http://www.thesixthaxis.com...

[choujij]

This year I've seen more service interruptions reported for XBL than NN or PSN. I however, have had no problems with any of them.

But my bro the other day couldn't connect to XBL from his Xbone for several hours.

[_FantasmA_]

LOL people complaining about maintenance. You should complain where there is no maintenance. Only once was I not able to access the store and it was only for an hour or so. Not once have I not been able to play multiplayer. I log in everday so maybe thats why I always have access. I don't get why gamers always expect more of Sony that any other brand. They are always held to much higher and unrealistic standards whereas M$ gets a pass and Nintendo never does anything wrong.

[snarls200]

lgvt psn does not need a reputation system

[violents]

This guy's big complaint is a network problem from four months ago? Wtf? I've had a ps4 since the launch and the only time I experienced any downtime was the launch day hiccups. That's it. And I play almost daily. Find a new reason to troll!

[Skate-AK]

What? It's fine. Flamebait.