Apr 8, 2011 06:57 GMT  ·  By

The Anonymous collective has suspended the distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against the PlayStation Network and other Sony online properties whose downtime might inconvenience gamers.

Anonymous launched a DDoS campaign against Sony in response to the company's recent actions that involved suing PlayStation 3 hackers George Hotz, aka geohot, and Alexander Egorenkov, aka Graf_Chokolo.

After an initial warning that slammed Sony for victimizing its own customers and violating the privacy of thousands, the group began attacking the company's websites, including the PlayStation Network (PSN) and the PlayStation Store.

Following complaints from gamers who could no longer play on official servers, the group has suspended the attacks and is re-evaluating its strategy.

"We realize that targeting the PSN is not a good idea. We have therefore temporarily suspended our action, until a method is found that will not severely impact Sony customers," Anonymous said in a statement.

"Anonymous is on your side, standing up for your rights. We are not aiming to attack customers of Sony. This attack is aimed solely at Sony, and we will try our best to not affect the gamers, as this would defeat the purpose of our actions," the group added.

It will be hard to find a method that only affects Sony and not its customers, but Anonymous claims to have plenty of tricks up its sleeves. Judging by past experiences this is one group that can back up its claims with actions, so it remains to be seen what it comes up with.

The people who wrote the statement warn, however, that Anonymous is formed from smaller groups of people that can act together or separately, based on principles that are not necessarily accepted by the majority.

This means that even if attacks against PSN have stopped for now, some Anonymous members who don't agree with this decision might take it upon themselves to continue them.