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According to multiple reports, the PlayStation 4's latest firmware update - version 4.72, which launched yesterday - may be the cause of a newly introduced bug which forces users to appear offline. We haven't experienced this ourselves, but it definitely sounds like a bit of a pain.

For those who don't know, you can set your status to 'appear offline' when signed into the PlayStation Network. This allows you to hide the fact that you're online from other players, which is handy when you fancy some quiet gaming time.

The aforementioned bug seems to set your status to 'appear offline' regardless of your input. This means that friends who want to invite you to a party or an online session, for example, may not be able to see that you're actually online.

Having said all that, it's currently unclear whether this is the fault of the firmware or if it's just Sony's network playing up, but the fact that users started noticing this not long after the update released points to this issue being caused by the former. Either way, we imagine that a fix won't be far off.

Have you ran into this problem since the firmware update? Give us a status report in the comments section below.