PSN buckles under strain of PS4 launch

Users have reported outages on Sony’s PlayStation Network in the wake of the US PlayStation 4 launch on Friday, as the million who bought the console logged on to the network to download a day-one update.

Region-wide connection issues have been reported, accompanied by the error message “The network connection has been lost,” numbered NW-31453-6 or NP-3500-8.

Sony put up a warning on PlayStation.com letting customers know about the issues.

“The PlayStation Network is currently experiencing extremely high volume, some gamers may experience some difficulty connecting. We ask for your patience,” read the message.

Sony claims to have sold one million units of the new PlayStation 4 on the first day at retail, and when those customers connected and powered on their console it immediately began downloading the day-one firmware update.

Many of the device’s major features require an internet connection and presumably use the PSN servers, so that can’t help the situation much either.

The PlayStation 4 will arrive in Europe on November 29th, so hopefully Sony will have some time to bolster its servers to avoid a repeat performance on the other side of the Atlantic.