PSN Survives the Holiday Traffic Onslaught

Christmas miracle

by Sammy Barker Mon 26th Dec 2016

We'd all be quick to complain if the PlayStation Network had gone down this Christmas, so it's worth acknowledging that the service held sturdy for a second consecutive year, with very few issues reported. Online gaming, account registration, and the PlayStation Store all remained online, meaning that those looking to spend the 25th December with the PlayStation 4 could do so without a hitch.

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To be fair, while many still argue otherwise, the PSN's reliability has improved vastly over the past couple of years, with outages coming far less regularly, and the service being restored much faster when they arrive. Every online platform should, of course, target 100 per cent up-time, but it's nice to know that Sony's vastly improved the stability of its network since the PS4's turbulent first 18 or so months.

As the Editor of Push Square, Sammy has over 15 years of experience analysing the world of PlayStation, from PS3 through PS5 and everything in between. He’s an expert on PS Studios and industry matters, as well as sports games and simulators. He also enjoys RPGs when he has the time to dedicate to them, and is a bit of a gacha whale.

1
rjejr
Mon 26th Dec 2016

Good to hear. Guess I shouldn't have any problem at all getting the Slim online this morning then. Think I'll go do that now. We'll after I unbox it all and get some caffeine in me.

2
get2sammyb
Mon 26th Dec 2016

@rjejr Working fine here in the UK now.

3
FullbringIchigo
Mon 26th Dec 2016

i was kicked off once for about 20 seconds otherwise it was fine

4
Paranoimia
Mon 26th Dec 2016

Never had an issue with it myself, except when the network's under attack. shrugs

Though no network can claim 100% uptime, much like Domestos can never claim to kill 100% of all known germs.

5
GamerDad66
Mon 26th Dec 2016

I put a new game in for my son on Christmas and there was a 11GB patch...

Needless to say, I was super worried because the game was online only (PvZ:GW2).

Everything worked, I was shocked.

6
Gamer83
Mon 26th Dec 2016

Sony charges $60 a year for it. I can't hand out credit for a paid-for network working, that should be expected just like it's expected of Xbox Live.

7
get2sammyb
Mon 26th Dec 2016

Yeah, you'll never get 100% — even Push Square goes down sometimes! But 100% should always be the aim, even if it's unrealistic.

8
Flaming_Kaiser
Tue 27th Dec 2016

@Gamer83 I do hear a lot of times that xbox live is not so great.

9
Gamer83
Tue 27th Dec 2016

@Flaming_Kaiser
I've used both services for a long time, Xbox Live is better. PSN has come a long way but it still has a long ways to go.

10
RedMageLanakyn
Wed 28th Dec 2016

It was definitely slow in terms of downloading patches. It took 8 hours to download the FFXV patch. Also got kicked out of a few games, all the way to logging back in to my account. Better than not working, but still frustratingly slow.