14 DAY TRIAL // Online services are extremely important for consoles these days as most gamers want to connect their devices to the Internet and take advantage of the features offered by the companies that made them. The capability of downloading demos and new content or boosting the entertainment value of the platform are extremely important to many users.
That is why corporations like Sony or Microsoft want to unveil new features for their PlayStation Network and Xbox Live, respectively, as soon and with as much media attention as possible.
Such a maneuver might be made today by Sony, which has announced that its PlayStation Network service will be down for maintenance from 9 to 11 AM PST. Now this might not be big news, but if you take into account that today is the day of the Sony press conference at GamesCon in Germany, and that if you convert the time the period in which the service is down is right when the press conference starts, at 6 PM CET, things become quite interesting.
“The PlayStation Network will be taken offline for maintenance on August 18, 2009 from 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM PST,” reads the announcement on Sony's webpage. “We apologize for any inconvenience. During this time you may: Not be able to access the PlayStation Store; Not be able to play online games; See a maintenance page when attempting to access the PlayStation Network.”
Don't forget that this might be just a coincidence, but knowing Sony, perhaps any new online features for the PSN might have been the only announcements that weren't leaked to the public before the company intended to reveal them, unlike the supposed PS3 Slim for example.
All we can do is wait and see this evening what big announcements Sony will make during GamesCon. Stay tuned to Softpedia for more details.