PSN

Even gamers grow older. There comes a time when a young gamer reaches a certain legal number of years where he or she can get access to content previously unavailable to them, legally or otherwise. When that coming of age does arrive, Sony will now let them easily gradate from a PSN Sub Account to a Master Account as easily as flicking a switch. Sony says this is a much requested feature and, considering that a lot of gamers probably turn 18 every year, it's somewhat puzzling it took them this long to implement it.

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Friday saw the arrest of an 18-year-old man in the UK for his involvement in the hackings that took down both the PlayStation and Xbox online gaming networks for several days last month starting on Christmas. The incident saw a number of headlines after the holiday, as gamers were unable to get online for an increasingly frustrating period of time, and hacking group Lizard Squad claimed responsibility. The unnamed teen was arrested by police near the city of Liverpool on suspicion of not only hacking, but also "swatting."

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Sony is hoping to pacify PlayStation gamers frustrated by the PSN downtime over the holidays, apologizing for the gaming network being offline, and offering free service and cheaper games as a mea culpa. Having seen the PlayStation Network brought down by hacking group Lizard Squad on Christmas Day, and then taken several days to bring it back to life afterwards, Sony is automatically adding five days of PlayStation Plus service to all subscribers or trial users impacted on December 25th. Meanwhile, there'll be a discount on games sometime this month, though it's unclear whether PS3 and PS4 owners will be suitably placated by it.

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This week Gmail is out in China. Most Google services have been disrupted in China since June. Google's own traffic listing for Gmail in China shows the service dropping down to zero near the end of the 25th of December - it's been at around a zero signal since then. Imagine if this happened in the United States. Even a disruption of an hour in the USA results in a news blast and a Twitter explosion - imagine if not only Gmail was out, but all Google services at once.

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Sony may have brought the PlayStation Network back to life after its three days of downtime, but that hasn't stopped some PS4 and PS3 owners from still experiencing problems getting online. The resurrection of the gaming network after it came under attack on Christmas Day cost Sony no small amount of lost reputation, but even with the fix that was finalized yesterday in place, not everyone is happy. Ongoing reports of an inability to connect mean the headache isn't over for some gamers simply wanting to get their online gaming going.

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After three days of downtime, millions of frustrated PlayStation owners, and quite probably a fair few tantrums on Christmas morning, Sony's PlayStation Network has finally been restored. The online gaming service had been offline since December 25th, the victim of a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS), as servers were hammered by web traffic and legitimate gamers were unable to connect for multiplayer titles and more. However, while Microsoft moved relatively quickly to bring Xbox Live back to life, restoring the majority of its services by the following day, Sony's fix was nowhere in sight.

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The aftermath of the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live hacks continues, with PlayStation gamers in particular finding the PSN remains offline with no end in sight. The result of two DDoS attacks over Christmas by a group calling itself Lizard Squad, the downtime put a dampener on those who received new consoles or games for their existing Xbox One or PS4 over the holidays, with the multiplayer support - among other things - offline. Microsoft has managed to bring much of its services back to life, but Sony is still struggling to return the PSN to normal.

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This afternoon Sony's PlayStation Network (PSN) is not quite so awake and active as it normally would be on a Thursday. Most problems reported this morning and afternoon center on Online Gaming, while quite a few Log-In errors have also been reported. The PlayStation Store seems to be affected as well, while not as many problems with the store have been tapped.

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Both Sony's PlayStation Network and Microsoft's Xbox Live gaming networks were brought down over the weekend by cyberattackers that also reportedly had a Sony executive's flights diverted after a fake bomb threat. What appeared to be a DDoS attack targeting the PSN on Sunday evolved into something significantly more serious, across both main online gaming services.

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The PlayStation Network for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 has been down off and on across the United States for the past several hours. This network covers multiplayer gameplay for PlayStation systems and hosts the Sony PlayStation Store as well. PlayStation Portable and PlayStation Vita (PS Vita) multiplayer systems have also been affected.

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The Destiny Beta has begun, and just like clockwork, the PlayStation Network - aka PSN - is down. Due to high volume created by what we must assume IS the Destiny Beta release, PSN is experiencing "Connectivity Issues." You can see the official post via PlayStation Support - if you can access it - which suggests that you Try Again Later.

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Amongst the PS4 news rolling out right now at the Sony E3 press conference is good news for Far Cry fans -- particularly those who enjoy it but don't necessarily plan on investing in the game. The co-op mode in Far Cry 4 will be opened up to PlayStation Network users who don't own the game but have a friend who does.

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