PlayStation Network Down, Cause Unknown?

If you’re the owner of a PlayStation 3 and tend to use PlayStation network, the system’s online interface, you may have noticed that you have not been able to use the system’s online functions for a day or two. This is some pretty bad timing for the system to be down, as this week marked the launches of Mortal Kombat and Portal 2, both of which contain online multiplayer modes; surely, the PlayStation Network service being down certainly puts a hamper on the vast majority of people who purchased these titles, as the online portions were likely a big sell to most.

The official PlayStation blog has posted a status update on the downtime with the following statement:

“While we are investigating the cause of the Network outage, we wanted to alert you that it may be a full day or two before we’re able to get the service completely back up and running. Thank you very much for your patience while we work to resolve this matter. Please stay tuned to this space for more details, and we’ll update you again as soon as we can.”

Is the cause of the outage really unknown though? Rumors have been swirling around that the true cause of the downtime is actually the direct cause of attacks from internet hacker group Anonymous, who has vowed to hit Sony where it hurts due to the corporation suing hacker GeoHot for publicly posting the rootkit for the PlayStation 3 back in January, which has since led users to run homebrew software on the console, as well as granting users the ability to play pirated games (you can essentially say that GeoHot gave users the “key to the city” in regards to the PS3 itself).

Surely, Sony will never admit this is the case (if it is in fact the truth), so it all remains pure speculation until some concrete proof surfaces, although it is certainly a most interesting theory nonetheless. Hopefully PS3 users will be back online as soon as possible!

[PlayStation Blog]