[Update No. 4] SCE has released another statement to let us know the status of the PlayStation Network, but with news low on the ground, rumours and speculation have begun to spread… and it’s not pretty. [End of Update No. 4]

[Update No. 3] Sony Computer Entertainment has released two new statements regarding the status of PlayStation Network, confirming that ‘external intrusions’ resulted in the unexpected service downtime, as the system infrastructure is being ‘rebuilt’ to cope with future attacks. Get the details here. [End of Update No. 3]

[Update No. 2] Sony Computer Entertainment has released another statement regarding the PlayStation Network and its current state, revealing that it “may be a full day or two” before the service is back up and running. Details below. [End of Update No. 2]

[Update No. 1] Sony Computer Entertainment has issued an updated statement on the current state of the PlayStation Network, including speculation on the possibility of a denial of service attack - get the details below. [End of Update No. 1]

Earlier today, the official PlayStation Blogs announced that certain functions of the PlayStation Network were unavailable. Now, hours later, the entire PlayStation Network is down.

Still.

I’ve personally just tried to get on the network and I was immediately thwarted by a message telling me that I’ve been ‘signed out’ (even though I hadn’t even signed in…).

The official word on the PlayStation Network outage is this:

“PSN is currently down for maintenance. We’ll update you with timeframes as soon as we can.”

This despite earlier claims that only “certain functions of PlayStation Network are down.”

“We will report back here as soon as we can with more information,” reads a message on the PlayStation Blog. “Thank you for your patience.”

Is this the result of another malicious attack by a disgruntled hacking group? Or simply maintenance? We’ll let you know more when we do.

[Update No. 1]

Here’s the latest update from Sony Computer Entertainment regarding the state of the PlayStation Network:

“As you are no doubt aware, the current emergency outage is continuing this afternoon and all Sony Online Network services remain unavailable. Our support teams are investigating the cause of the problem, including the possibility of targeted behaviour by an outside party.

“If the reported Network problems are indeed caused by such acts, we would like to once again thank our customers who have borne the brunt of the attack through interrupted service.

“Our engineers are continuing to work to restore and maintain the services, and we appreciate our customers’ continued support.”

[End of Update No. 1]

[Update No. 2]

Here’s a new update from SCE regarding the state of the PlayStation Network:

“While we are investigating the cause of the Network outage, we wanted to alert you that it may be a full day or two before we’re able to get the service completely back up and running. Thank you very much for your patience while we work to resolve this matter.

“Please stay tuned to this space for more details, and we’ll update you again as soon as we can. ”

[End of Update No. 2]