Day 6: Sony PlayStation Network down due to hackers

[Updated story: Sony admits hackers have stolen user info]

It’s been almost a full week and the PlayStation Network is still down.

The network, which has been down since Wednesday and allows 75 million users to play games with friends over the Internet, went down several times in February and March. The network is also used to deliver downloadable games and other static media. Sony’s Qriocity (pronounced “curiousity”) service, which provides streaming video, music and games, is also down.

Sony has not explained what happened exactly, but hackers are apparently behind the recent outage.

Take that hackers!

Late Friday, Sony said “An external intrusion on our system has affected our PlayStation Network … .”

External intrusion = Attack by hackers.

When will online gaming resume? Late Monday, a Sony spokesman said “I don’t have an update or timeframe to share at this point in time.”

Protecting the network from hackers has been a lot more difficult than Sony first predicted. Thursday night, Sony said it might only take a full day or two.

Saturday, Sony said “we are working around the clock to bring [the network] online. Our efforts to resolve this matter involve re-building our system to further strengthen our network infrastructure. Though this task is time-consuming, we decided it was worth the time necessary to provide the system with additional security.”

The hacking group Anonymous, which some had thought may be behind Sony’s problems, say it’s not them. On the group’s Facebook page someone wrote, “ATTENTION: For everyone coming here complaining about the PSN or inquiring about it, We Do Not Know What Happened. This is not the work of Anonymous.”

Sony’s problems are also unrelated to Amazon’s crash, which has crippled many popular websites and online services including Reddit, Foursquare, Quora and Hootsuite.

This is a big blow, especially through the long holiday weekend. Some games can only be played online, and many of the more popular games, such as the “Call of Duty” series, usually have hundreds of thousands of players logging into online firefights.

So, hang up your M16 there won’t be any “Call of Duty” deathmatches until Sony fixes this thing.

As someone says below, sometimes “you get what you don’t pay for.” Time to fire up the Xbox 360.

* Check the PlayStation blog for the latest updates.