PSN down: PlayStation Network not working as outage stops people playing games

Consoles turned into useless boxes as online service stops working just hours after Xbox Live problems

A detailed view of a PS4 controller as players practice during day one of the 2019 ePremier League Finals at Gfinity Arena on March 28, 2019 in London (Alex Pantling/Getty Images)

PlayStation Network has stopped working, stopping people from being able to play games.

Just about every single part of the online service is broken, according to PlayStation's status page.

It means that players are unable to even get into games, let alone play them online.

The official PlayStation support Twitter account recognised the problems but didn't give any indication of why they might be happening or when they could be fixed.

"We’re aware that some users are experiencing issues logging into PSN," it wrote. "Thank you for your patience as we investigate."

PlayStation's official status page tracks whether all of the parts of PSN are online. It shows that just about every part of every single service is broken.

That includes the gaming and social features that are the main point of the PlayStation.

"You may have some difficulty launching games, applications or online features," a note on the page reads. "Our engineers are working to resolve the issue as soon as possible, and we thank you for your patience."

The feature to create an account is the only one working, it shows. But you won't then be able to actually log in with it.

It comes just hours after a major outage at Xbox, which lasted some time and also hit the central functions of the console.

Because both the Xbox and the PlayStation are so tightly integrated with their online features, problems with their online services also tend to mean that games won't even open, leaving the console largely useless until service is restored.