PlayStation Network Features Temporarily Disabled For PS4 Online

Today on what very well may be one of the best days of the year to stay at home and play video games, Sony has disabled a collection of PlayStation Network abilities. This disabling of features for the PSN has to do with the network being a bit overloaded – imagine that, today of all days – so they're looking to lighten the load.

If you're checking in on redeeming game vouchers or cashing in your $10 from the PlayStation Store or having a peek at 30-days of PlayStation Plus, you may be out of luck this afternoon. With the first feature disabled being a game code entry point, as Kotaku notes today, it's quite likely this overloading has to do with two big events happening through the start of the day.

The first of these network-busting events is the European launch of the PlayStation 4. With the EU PS4 launch, Sony began by disabling such features as "What's New" and the "Content Information Screen" setups normally active in the full version of the system. You can find out more about these bits in our full PlayStation 4 review if you do so desire.

The second big reason for this PSN downtime is the once-a-year occurrence of what's called "Black Friday". During this event, massive amounts of PlayStation 4 units were sold as many stores were given new stock of the machine while several games saw small discounts in their physical form in stores across the USA.

The PlayStation 4 has already seen some relatively small-yet-notable downtimes in its first few weeks in business, with the PSN Network Issues update of dread leading the way. Have a peek at your PlayStation 3 or PlayStation 4 this afternoon and don't be surprised if you're met with a couple fewer features than you're used to!