PSN's Down for Routine Maintenance Later Today

Always good to see the network being maintained. If they could just stop the outages and maybe invest the PS Plus money back into the service instead of in shareholders pockets and the PSNetwork would be a thing to enjoy and be in awe with. Might even work well all the time too lol.

The bit that says: "but contrary to popular and rather ignorant opinion" kinda bothers me. People who sign in after putting their kids to bed and can't go online aren't "ignorant" when they complain about this, they just don't follow all the ins and outs of the business. The other day I saw the same sort of language being used in the article concerning Sony's laughable downloadservers.

Instead of always coming up with excuses for Sony's part, we shouldn't label people who complain as whiners but join them in their quest for a better PSN. The Sony apologists are starting to look an awful lot like the Nintendo evangelists who simply refuse to accept that the console or service they chose has flaws. I've had lots of problems with my PS4 already, where in the past I've been extremely satisfied with Playstation, but sharing your thoughts online will result in lots of angry responses about how others "are always online", "download 40gb in 20 minutes" or my favorite: "you don't even own a PS4, Xbot in disguise".

People who complain bout the service being down prime time aren't ignorant, they have every right to be annoyed.

@Boerewors Maybe ignorant is too harsh a word, but the meaning behind it purely comes from the fact that it is indeed incorrect. You see websites, for example, stating that the network is 'down' and then don't bother to clarify that, well, it isn't actually down. All about those hits, though!

Sort of like the headline for this article in fact!

I appreciate the article telling us it's going to be down tonight but I have to agree with @Boerewors that the wording of this type of article doesn't add to the site's credibility.

I'd be really interested to read an article on what Sony are doing to improve psn but this would mean pushsquare putting direct questions to Sony. Questions such as does Sony have plans to migrate their infrastructure to use cloud based technologies that don't require any downtime for maintenance and that can scale with demand (especially for downloads).

I've worked in companies that have lots of system downtime and also in some that have almost none. A common reason for systems that need lots of downtime is that the company usually hasn't invested any significant cash or effort in replacing and upgrading their legacy technologies (or in house skills for that matter) and so relatively straightforward changes that in modern cloud-based architectures would require no down time at all instead require that systems be taken offline during upgrades. I guess a lack of progression to implement modern infrastructure could also be political (some companies have a culture of resisting significant change - even tech companies, bizarrely).

Without some more information on Sony's plans the continuation of these psn upgrades - which require down time and are considered "business as usual" - shouldn't give anyone cause to celebrate.

@Pipr
Thanks for the comment, made me feel less "alone". It sometimes feels as if you're some sort of outcast when you openly critisize Sony, but I wouldn't if I didn't love Playstation so much. I hardly ever complain about my One, not just because I feel they're on the right track, but mainly because I just don't care; I've had a PS since the first day it was available 20 years back and I have so many fond memories I do feel connected to the brand in some way.

But where others feel they have to cover up everything Sony fudges up, I honestly believe we should hold them accountable and demand more of them. A brief look back at the One, 3ds or PS3 had clearly shown us that we as consumers can make a difference, but at this point Sony seems blinded by their own succes and they seem to think that sales equal satisfaction.

In 2014, starting from September I've started to experience more and more problems with PSN(I remember it because it started when Destiny launched): from bad download speeds to outages. Those problems at itself weren't the end of the world, but all the times it happened combined just is too much, especially for a company who wants to lean more heavily on digital services than any of the console manufacturers with PSnow. Every time we are told that they are looking in to it and that their best engineers are doing the best they can to sort it out. Then everything runs smooth for a little while and it start all over again. Even the best technicians can't work with a bad online infrastructure and like you said the scheduled downtime is the biggest worry that Sony isn't ready for what the future holds. I'm sure they've been investing, but seeing the service didn't improve too much over the last five years I'd say they're not doing enough.

Gaming as a service is the future and Sony has been dealt the best cards; they are on top at the moment AND they are a hardware manufacturer so they could even being games to a fridge if their service is up to scratch. PSnow's evolved form could be included in every Sony product you buy that has a screen and an Internet connection and the possibilities are near endless. But before they start thinking bout that future and start rolling out other services like Vue, they have to improve on their online structure so we get the very best experience TODAY. Never build a home on a crooked foundation!