I keep remembering old school consoles. You know, the ones you were able to just plug in and start playing as soon as you took them out of the box? I know, I know, they didn’t have nearly the same functionality that our new consoles have, but for some people who couldn’t download their day one patch from the PlayStation Network, it’s hard to even know what the functionality is.
With the influx of new PS4 owners thanks to the Black Friday, the PSN simply could not cope with demand at the end of last week; people were unable to login to the PSN, making it impossible to download the necessary day one update, redeem vouchers or download digital content. Sony acknowledged the problem with this tweet:
We are aware some users are experiencing issues logging into PSN on PS4 due to the heavy traffic we are receiving, we're investigating.
— PlayStation Europe (@PlayStationEU) November 29, 2013
Sony had to actually stop people from redeeming vouchers while they worked on the problem. On Saturday, they wrote a post on the Playstation blog:
We are aware that users are experiencing some disruption to the PSN service. To minimise the inconvenience we have suspended the “redeem voucher” functionality whilst we investigate further. Unfortunately this means that money cards, product vouchers, PlayStation Plus vouchers, PS3-PS4 upgrade vouchers and any other vouchers for digital content are not redeemable at this stage.
Sony obviously had people working on this all weekend, but redeeming vouchers is still limited. Playstation is increasing voucher redemption functionality, but it is not at full service and users are still struggling. Sony hopes to have their activity feeds up an running in the Content Information Screen soon, although it sounds to me like their priorities are a bit out of line. Shouldn’t they be focusing on getting everyone access to the voucher and download systems? Those seems to be a bit more crucial – hard to see what your friends are playing if they aren’t able to download their digital content.
It seems that we keep on getting proof that neither the gaming community, nor the companies themselves are ready for the shift to digital. If you build your system on the cloud, it clearly can’t support the demand. We keep seeing this – every time an online-centric game launches, servers crash and chaos ensues. Why would it be any different for consoles? So far, Xbox One is winning this race – no reports thus far about their cloud servers going down. I suppose their investment is paying off.
Last Updated: December 2, 2013
Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)
December 2, 2013 at 12:08
I sense a general lack of Xbone news today?
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1j5srioJp1qiijpmo1_500.gif
ToshZA
December 2, 2013 at 12:12
http://vinescope.com/banana-sings-955.html
That Tall Twit
December 2, 2013 at 12:12
LOL!
Vampyric Squirrel of the Sith
December 2, 2013 at 12:26
Super Kitty Bros?
Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)
December 2, 2013 at 12:30
Like a Tom Cat!
Guest
December 2, 2013 at 12:12
Currently on XBL:
TiMsTeR1033
December 2, 2013 at 12:14
*hears crickets chirping*
Martin du preez
December 2, 2013 at 12:14
Currently on XBL & the WiiU:
http://i40.tinypic.com/2qceamd.gif
ToshZA
December 2, 2013 at 12:19
Because #foreverSP
Admiral Chief of Souls
December 2, 2013 at 12:19
In the meantime, over at Valve….
http://d24w6bsrhbeh9d.cloudfront.net/photo/a2N1epD_460sa.gif
ToshZA
December 2, 2013 at 12:20
Oddly enough, I’ve not bought a single game this time around. Thinking of the Civ V gold bundle though.
HvR
December 2, 2013 at 12:30
Somebody should change that gif so that Gabe gets fatter with every round.
Hesperus Phosphorus
December 2, 2013 at 14:45
Haha, quite.
Steam is easily one of the most awesome things in gaming these day, but damn I remember the right early days where Steam made me not want to touch any games that had anything to do with it.
Hammersteyn
December 2, 2013 at 12:19
That’s how it’s for us in SA anyways,login problems and latency so we probably won’t notice.
Admiral Chief of Souls
December 2, 2013 at 12:21
http://d24w6bsrhbeh9d.cloudfront.net/photo/a6w1PG9_700b_v1.jpg
Anon A Mouse
December 2, 2013 at 13:17
AMD Radeon “Liverpool”. There’s the problem right there. Name it after a football club that can’t even beat Hull City and that’s what you get.
Sageville
December 2, 2013 at 12:21
THE CLOUD WILL SAVE US!
Vampyric Squirrel of the Sith
December 2, 2013 at 12:23
Hahaha! Well done Sony, good planning!
Hopefully we get our own servers and don’t have to piggy back off the EU servers… but there’s no chance of that 😛
Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew
December 2, 2013 at 12:26
(•_•)
I guess Sony forgot to
( •_•)>??-?
… Buckle up…
(??_?)
YEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH
RyseandRepeat
December 2, 2013 at 12:26
LOL
RyseandRepeat
December 2, 2013 at 12:27
And that’s why I don’t buy day one.
Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)
December 2, 2013 at 12:29
That’s why I like it that Americans and Europeans beta test for us, the People of Africa!
RyseandRepeat
December 2, 2013 at 12:31
Exactly! And nana, you are most active today, have they finally given you a day pass?
Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)
December 2, 2013 at 12:36
I am, it’s lazy Monday!
iPrimal
December 3, 2013 at 04:33
day 1 in the U.S. was just as bad.