PSN down in North America and EU
Online service "down for maintenance" on Portal 2 launch day, as cross-platform play with Steam disabled
The PlayStation Network is down for "maintenance" in both Europe and the U.S., on the same day that the cross-platform Portal 2 launches on PlayStation 3 in Europe.
Although the Xbox 360 version of Portal 2 uses the normal Xbox Live servers, the PlayStation 3 uses Steam and as a result is able to connect with the PC and Mac versions of the game for co-operative play.
The title is the first PlayStation 3 game to use such a feature, which has been working since the launch of the game in the U.S. on Tuesday. Today though the whole PlayStation Network is down, and Portal 2 is unable to log-in users as a result.
The European PlayStation Blog acknowledges the problem with the following message:
"We're aware certain functions of PlayStation Network are down. We will report back here as soon as we can with more information. We will also provide updates when we can via our @PlayStationEU twitter feed. Thank you for your patience."
The most recent Twitter comment indicates that: "PSN is currently down for maintenance. We'll update you with timeframes as soon as we can."
A similar message appears on the U.S. blog, with no indication of what the problem may be. Although hack group Anonymous have recently been attacking Sony online services the group recently announced that it would continue its protests by other means.