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Xbox Live and PlayStation Networks Downed By Apparent Attack
mrspoonsi writes Both Xbox Live and PlayStation Network [were] down this morning, apparently due to a denial-of-service attack. The notorious hacking group Lizard Squad — which already carried out earlier attacks on Microsoft and Sony — has claimed responsibility on Twitter for these latest outages. While the group's role in all of this remains unconfirmed, it's worth noting that the group threatened last week to take down Xbox Live and PSN, according to Business Insider. And again, Lizard Squad has already proven it can successfully pull off such attacks, not to mention other malicious pranks.
Whatever the cause, the timing is obviously terrible: Plenty of people surely received one of the two consoles as Christmas presents today, while many more gamers would have happily spent the afternoon in front of the TV. In the meantime, both Sony and Microsoft have acknowledged the problem, with Sony issuing a tweet and Microsoft posting a message on its support website: "We're working to address this as quickly as we possibly can," reads its status website. "Thanks for your patience, Xbox members." In an email, a Microsoft spokesperson declined to comment further or say when the company expects to restore service. We've also asked Sony to comment and will update this post if and when it does. The Xbox Live status page says service remains "limited," and the Playstation Network is listed as offline.
Whatever the cause, the timing is obviously terrible: Plenty of people surely received one of the two consoles as Christmas presents today, while many more gamers would have happily spent the afternoon in front of the TV. In the meantime, both Sony and Microsoft have acknowledged the problem, with Sony issuing a tweet and Microsoft posting a message on its support website: "We're working to address this as quickly as we possibly can," reads its status website. "Thanks for your patience, Xbox members." In an email, a Microsoft spokesperson declined to comment further or say when the company expects to restore service. We've also asked Sony to comment and will update this post if and when it does. The Xbox Live status page says service remains "limited," and the Playstation Network is listed as offline.
If only the games for these systems didn't depend on Microsoft's and Sony's servers to be accessible for them to work. It's almost as if it's some kind of crazy DRM scheme.
Maybe eventually we will have the technology to make a console and games that don't depend on a server that is not in the purchasers control.
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
Maybe eventually we will have the technology to make a console and games that don't depend on a server that is not in the purchasers control.
That's impossible. Everything has to be done in The Cloud, and must be a black box to the user. Anything else is pure heresy. Control in the user's hands? What are you smoking?
The thing is, the game servers are just fine. If we didn't have to go through the Playstation Network we'd be playing the games right now. In fact, some of us were playing this morning after the attack occurred. But since we were already logged in we could keep playing. After the game servers went down for daily maintenance, and we then tried to log back in, did we realize there was a problem. This then brings up the big question: Why do Playstation users have to first get recognized by the PSN? It has been asked many times over the years with no good answer. When something like this occurs, why not just let us bypass the PSN and play the games. Yes, we won't be able to add money to our accounts, redeem codes, or buy updates. But so what. We'd still be able to play.
Care killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.
Not all console games are single player, twit.
They don't need to be. Being able to run your own servers would solve this problem most of the time. Sadly, what you get from greedy companies is just locked-down, DRM-infested proprietary software.