In a surprising and rather unprecedented turn of events,PSNhas been suspended in China. At the moment, it is unclear what the exact reason for this is or how long it will be in effect, leaving manyChinese gamersuncertain of when they’ll have access to the PlayStation Store again.
For those unaware, although China does heavily restrict what gaming content its citizens are able to enjoy, the games available onPSNare already vetted and Chinese approved, so although many think this might be related to that, it is unlikely.
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The news itself comes from Daniel Ahmad, a video game reporter who frequently details the state of video games in China. In the past, Ahmad has reported on things such as theChina’s National Day of Mourningwhich shut down all gaming services for a day in the country, and now has translated the recent suspension for fans.
Ahmad claims that the official reason given for the suspension is to carry out security upgrades, but further emphasizes that this is somewhat vague and unclear. His theory seems to be related to a recent claim on Weibo (China’s version of social media like Twitter) that a gamerreported backdoor entrancesthat can easily be accessed overseas. Apparently, PSN was suspended almost immediately after this report was made, so there may actually be some truth to it. If that is the case, then it is a good thing that Sony is taking care of it, and it explains its secrecy to an extent. Furthermore, in this scenario the service should be up and running soon.
Of course, that doesn’t stop many from assuming that the Chinese government is involved in the shutdown somehow. At the moment there is no evidence to suggest that it is, but it has been active in thecensorship of gaming platforms in the past, so it isn’t completely out of the question. This suspension only occurred in mainland China, however, which somewhat debunks the theory just mentioned. If the issue was easily accessible backdoor entrances, then it may be more likely that the network would be shut down across Asia and potentially parts of Europe.
Either way, fans will just have to wait and see what happens. It is extremely unlikely that the service will be shut down for very long, and at the very least, Sony will probably make a statement explaining the situation ifPSN doesn’t resume operation soon.
