Sony's vague answers on the PlayStation Network outage sparks user rage

With the Playstation Network (PSN) that went down Wednesday continuing to remain out, Sony's vague and uncertain answers on the outage as come to spark rage in the users abandoned offline.

Sony has so far maintained that the PSN was taken down by external forces. Sony Corporate Communications Director Patrick Seybold confirmed Friday that the outages that affected Sony PlayStation Network and a Qriocity services were caused by external intrusions.

Seybold's announcement confirmed the existing speculation that the PSN was taken down by hackers after PSN manager James Gallagher wrote in a blog Thursday, Our support teams are investigating the cause of the problem, including the possibility of targeted behavior by an outside party.

However, despite timely updates from the company, the users were left wanting more information. There has been no scheduled time for the next update from PlayStation on their progress.

PlayStation spokesman Patrick Seybold said in a statement Monday, Unfortunately, I don't have an update or timeframe to share at this point in time.

As we previously noted, this is a time intensive process, and we're working to get them back online quickly.

Furthermore, no indications on the identity of the force behind the attack, strong speculation pointing towards the hacker group Anonymous has emerged. The anarchist hacker group, however, has denied involvement in the PSN outage.

Meanwhile, the continual PSN downtime added with the unsatisfactory answers from Sony has sparked rage in users.

Letters from enraged readers of Fusion, which have been published online, shed light on the anger the company is earning with its users.

I have recently subscribed to Playstation Plus and feel very let down by the lack of support/communication shown by the network. As it is, the network has been down on and off for the past month, but to lose it for such a long time -- 5 a.m. Thursday till ??? wrote one 'angry consumer'.

The company is also facing fire from bloggers and other members of the gaming community on online platforms.

IGN PlayStation 3, which identifies itself as the ultimate site for PS3 games with expert reviews, news, previews, game trailers, cheat codes, strategy guides and walkthroughs, has slammed Sony over 'Unanswered Questions' in connection with the PSN Outage.

Colin Moriarty, an editor at IGN PlayStation, asserts, We're consumers, we purchased a console with the promise of access to a free online service, and it's not been there for a prolonged period of time.

The author then goes on to list five 'unanswered' questions:

- What's the status of your credit card information? How about other personal information?
- How will PlayStation Plus subscribers be compensated? How about those with subscriptions to games like Free Realms and DC Universe Online? What about those with subscriptions to NHL GameCenter and MLB.tv?
- What caused the outage, anyway?
- What's the timetable for getting the PlayStation Network up and running?
- Will the PSN be put back up in fragments? Will there be workarounds to get game servers back up?

The company does not has to look far to tap the user sentiment. The latest blog, which ends with We once again thank you for your patience, is followed by a long line of angry responses.

Chuckbait said: Thanks for giving us some sort of update, even if it was to only say 'We have no new updates.'

Another angry consumer NecroC wrote: Boy I sure am glad I paid $50 for a membership I cant use, and pay $15 a month for a game I cant play. I was fine with a day or two, but we are hitting on day 5.