Sony is "rebuilding" PSN following hack

Sony is rebuilding PlayStation Network following a security breach that has kept the system offline for nearly five days now.

A new update on the PlayStation Blog from corporate communications chief Patrick Seybold gives no precise indication as to when the service will be back but insisted that starting again from scratch was vital to prevent future attacks.

"We sincerely regret that PlayStation Network and Qriocity services have been suspended, and we are working around the clock to bring them both back online," he wrote.

"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.

"We thank you for your patience to date and ask for a little more while we move towards completion of this project. We will continue to give you updates as they become available."

Meanwhile, Microsoft has chipped in, insisting it is taking no pleasure from its rival's troubles.

"Of course it's regretful that Sony is encountering issues at such a busy time, and Microsoft takes no joy in the problems gamers are having playing their favourite games online," a spokesperson told Electronic Theatre, before noting how the PSN outage serendipitously coincided with a free Xbox Live Gold weekend.

"That being said, we are expecting Microsoft's robust online network to see an increase of traffic from those gamers who own both systems.

"Being able to play their games via the Xbox Live network could make all the difference for some gamers, and the Xbox Nations event will allow all of them to do just that – whether they have a Gold subscription or not."