The PSN outage is over, meaning fans on PS5 and PS4 can finally play their favorite online games again. Sony has also distributed some compensation for what happened and it has received a mixed reaction, to say the least. While we don’t know what Sony should do about this, we do know they could have communicated things much better.
PlayStation has apologized for the days-long outage, telling fans it was an “operational issue” on X. As for the compensation, PS Plus subscribers will be getting five days for free on their subscription. If that sounds like an unremarkable compensation for what happened, it is, as fans would have liked something more substantial.
On paper, one could argue that Sony gave fans appropriate compensation for the PSN outage. After all, it wasn’t very long and players seemingly didn’t lose anything valuable from the downtime. However, communication could have been better, as many fans were worried that this would be a hack, causing personal information to be leaked.
Back in 2011, the PlayStation Network was down for over 20 days due to a hack. PS3 users were at a real risk of losing their personal information and money after what happened to the online space. At the time, Sony compensated fans by giving them some free PS3 games, all of which were quality and worthwhile, but it was the least they could do after what happened.
Sony has indicated that this wasn’t a serious breach in security or anything like it, but that could have been communicated earlier. Gamers have logged in their credit cards on PSN, so the possibility of having that information stolen is very real. They should have told fans on the first or second day that this wasn’t a security breach, just to ease some of the tension.
Naturally, many will go to bat for physical games after the PSN Outage. For the most part, these games can be played from the disc straight from the console, though they do have to wait for it all to install on PS5. However, there are single-player games that need an internet connection, a move that continues to baffle fans to this day.
We’re now in an age where some single-player games need internet, which is why the PSN outage means more in 2025. It’s one thing if fans can’t play Marvel Rivals or Overwatch 2, but some can’t even play single-player titles like Alan Wake 2. Making your PS5 the “primary” system can help, but you need to be online for that, so some fans couldn’t even activate it to keep their digital games safe.
Believe it or not, this could have extended over to PC gamers and made things worse. After all, the company originally forced PSN logins for their single-player games on Steam. While that is now optional, we can imagine how bad the backlash would have been if fans couldn’t play Ghost of Tsushima or Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 on their PC.
Five days of free PS Plus for existing users who survived the recent PSN Outage is a pittance. The company could have given players a full month for free, especially non-PS Plus users, after what happened. Most fans would want free games like LEGO Horizon Adventures or Sackboy: A Big Adventure, but the outage was nowhere near long enough to get free games.
In the end, we can all learn something from the latest PSN outage. Sony should communicate these incidents with fans better. Gamers should set their PS5 as a primary console to play some digital games offline. More importantly, more single-player games need to ditch online-only requirements.
Anyway, let’s end this on a positive note. Konami is reportedly working on a AAA Castlevania game for modern systems, and Dungeons of Hinterberg is also coming to PS5.