Problems have persisted at PlayStation Network (PSN) despite an announcement that services were gradually coming back online.
“Engineers are working hard to restore online gameplay as quickly as possible,” a message at the Twitter feed @AskPlayStation said at 3pm on Saturday (0700 AEDT Sunday).
About 10 hours earlier a message posted on the same Twitter account said service was gradually returning to the PS3, PS4 and Vita networks.
Problems with the network that enables people to play others online first occurred on Christmas Day, just as gamers hoped to go online with their new gifts.
“The video game industry has been experiencing high levels of traffic designed to disrupt connectivity and online gameplay,” Sony executive Catherine Jensen posted at the PlayStation blog.
“PSN engineers are working hard to restore full network access and online gameplay as quickly as possible.”
Jensen assured people who received a PlayStation console over the holidays that the problem was temporary and not caused by the game console.
She said Sony would continue to keep gamers posted on Twitter at @AskPlayStation and update the blog as soon as the problems subsided.
A similar disruption had affected the Xbox gaming network on Thursday, but the problem was resolved by Friday.
There was no indication that the problem with PSN had any connection to the hack into Sony Pictures Entertainment and the ensuing international ruckus over the movie The Interview, a comedy about a fictional plot to kill North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
A group called Lizard Squad claimed responsibility, saying the online attacks would continue until more Twitter users followed the feed.
Security experts quoted in media reports said on Friday they believed the group launched a distributed denial of service attack, in which a massive amount of fake traffic renders servers inoperable.
DPA