You'd expect such an outage to last a few minutes. But an hour went by. Then two. Then came rumors that PSN would be down not for an evening, but potentially for a few days, until January 7.We're aware that some users are having trouble accessing PSN. Thanks for your patience as we investigate. — Ask PlayStation (@AskPlayStation)January 4, 2016
And, boy, did some people lose their shit over that. What was causing this downtime? A hack, like the blackout of 2011? A DDoS attack, like the Lizard Squad-credited one that crippled the network ahead of Christmas 2014? Whatever the cause, the people, the players, immediately demanded recompense.Probably an error, but — Push Square (@pushsquare)January 4, 2016
If you think — Kareem James (@jkareem430)January 4, 2016
RT if you pay for PSN and believe — Stevie (@1StevenGeorgiou)January 4, 2016
PSN USERS ARE IN AN OUTRAGE AS THE SERVICES ARE CURRENTLY OFFLINE… — Teddy (@iCrazyTeddy)January 4, 2016
RT if you want compensation for this — 7421max (@7421boss)January 4, 2016
After a hacking back in 2011, PlayStation did indeed gift users free software or PS Plus membership. Eventually. And they also gave customers a little something after their late 2014 problems. So your Change.org petition probably isn't necessary.
Besides, it's all fixed now.Sony: PSN Network Compensation — RednekGirl (@Wize7RdnekGirl)January 5, 2016
The "cost" to millions of PS Plus subscribers, for the time they couldn't get online, amounts to something like 16 cents, based on the cost of a month totaling $9.99, there being 744 hours in January, and the outage lasting for about 12 hours. Sony is yet to confirm why PSN went down, but it doesn't appear to be anything as potentially disastrous as the Steam attack of Christmas Day, which revealed thousands of users' credit card and address details.Follow VICE Gaming on Twitter.PSN has been restored. You should be able to access online features without any problems now. — PlayStation Europe (@PlayStationEU)January 5, 2016