14 DAY TRIAL // In what seems to be becoming at least a monthly ritual, the PlayStation Network is at the moment down, which means that those who own a PlayStation 4, a PS3 or a PlayStation Vita are unable to go into multiplayer and cannot access the content associated with the service.
Sony itself has not yet acknowledged the problem via its official social media accounts, and the status page is still weirdly saying that all features are up at the moment, even if this is not the situation for those who are trying to use the network.
The official support account for Destiny has acknowledged that there are issues affecting the game on the PlayStation 4 and that it is investigating the cause and presumably working with the platform holder to eliminate it as quickly as possible.
At the moment, the community is still engaged with the Iron Banner event, which is running until February 2, and it's frustrating to be unable to take part because of issues linked to a third-party company.
Given the fact that Sony has not made an official announcement about a planned maintenance period, the current downtime is probably either indicative of a relatively major issue with the infrastructure that supports the PSN or a DDoS attack that's targeting it.
Regardless of the source, the company needs to move as quickly as possible to both communicate with users who are affected by the problems of the PlayStation Network and to introduce a fix and bring it back online as quickly as possible.
PlayStation Network is one of the main reasons for the current success of the PlayStation 4
The service has received a range of new features since the current-gen console was launched and Sony is saying that it represents one of the unique selling points for the PS4.
The company is at the moment attracting more users than ever to the PS Plus concept, which offers free new content each month while also using the PSN to deliver a range of video and audio content, although the pace of release for new apps has slowed down significantly.
A major PlayStation Network security breach forced Sony to apologize and significantly increase security back in 2011, and after an outage at the start of 2016 the company has been sending out free content to its users.
The PlayStation 4 is at the moment over the 36 million units sold worldwide, and it needs a solid network to continue to expand and to power the multiplayer associated with major titles like Destiny and Call of Duty.
Long-term problems with the PSN or a new security breach might represent a solid boost for the rival Xbox One from Microsoft, which Electronic Arts figures say has sold around 19 million units all over the world.
All console manufacturers have previously said that they are working together to increase protection for their users and to make sure that DDoS attacks are no longer able to bring down their networks for significant periods of time.
UPDATE: Service has been restored to the PSN, but Sony is not talking about the problems that affected the service.
We are aware of issues preventing some PlayStation 4 users from playing Destiny. Thank you for your patience as we investigate.
— Bungie Help (@BungieHelp) February 1, 2016