Sony blames DDoS attacks for PSN downtime

For the first time in days, Sony has issued a formal response to the ongoing distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) affecting various networks in the gaming industry, including PlayStation Network. While the update doesn’t offer much in terms of when PlayStation owners can expect full service to resume, Sony has at least assured us that they are working to restore full network access.

Bad news for Playstation gamers looking to get a little time in with their consoles—old or new—this holiday season. As of around 5 p.m. today (PT), the Playstation Network remains down for basically the third day in a row, minus a few brief spurts of service here and there. Though it’s unclear just what, exactly, the specific reason for the downtime actually is, it’s widely rumored that hackers hit both Microsoft’s Xbox Live and Sony’s Playstation Network with a DDoS attack starting Christmas Day. At least, that’s what Twitter accounts belonging to members of the group Lizard Squad have claimed, but there’s been no outright confirmation from Microsoft or Sony that this is the case.