Players Reporting PSN Account Bans in Seemingly Widespread Issue

Once again showing how a digital only era is the worst way to go.

I haven’t logged on again tonight because I’m worried I’ll get hit by it. Hopefully it’s sorted soon.

The whole idea of being banned from access to £1000's worth of games is kinda terrifying to me. The fact that random people can report you for no reason and Sony will basically scan through your messages to find any egregious actions... just seems wrong. Even if you're insulting someone several times it's pretty harsh imo. I feel a perma-ban should only happen for serious repeat offenders (I mean like for months on end) and hackers/scammers.

Yes, I will crow about having a physical collection in this case 😂 I just wish the other half of my library was physical too. Scary stuff for all of us considering how many games are digital only. The moment PlayStation drops discs - which will happen one day- I'm probably just gonna swap to Steam instead 🤷 I know there are basically the same issues but it seems a little more lax than the console space.

@RubyCarbuncle Yea, but worried about being blocked out, even briefly, so not wanting to chance it.

Glad the round-headed Dustin Furman got linked.

On a positive note, been seeing people who lost access saying they’re getting it back, so that’s good news.

Luckily no issues here. I’m in us east for reference

the reason to be concerned is sonys atrocious customer service if you can actually get hold of anyone it will take days to sort it out thats assuming they dont just say nope wont do anything to help

@Loamy I don't think it's bad that they can read your messages and ban you for insulting someone.

But only from chat features and/or online play. Never from your library or offline play. There needs to be updates in consumer rights to make sure they can't brick your console, only stop it from getting online or you being online.

Occam's Razor suggests this is just some account glitch rather than an overt malicious act from Sony

I’m pretty sure that’s not what occam’s Razor suggests at all.

When random people on the internet get banned from things the most likely scenario is that these people probably done something they weren’t meant to.

"Physical collectors can have their moment to crow." Why would physical collectors want to crow over this as it affects everybody? Why insinuate that we would see this as a poke in the eye to digital adopters? Please stop this unnecessary cage rattling.

@ChrisDeku yes the use of the term "occams razor" is generally misused when implying that "the simplest explanation is usually the best one."

3 years since the PS5 was released and their system is still fully broken. Sony really is the worse when it comes to software. It feels as if they are still firefighting the mess they created when they rushed the PS5 release when the XSX was announced.

So if you only use physical media and try and connect your Portal to your PS5 can you only play the game in the disk drive? Cause if so i sure am glad all my PS4-PS5 games are digital. Makes the Portal at least more enjoyable for me. This is a glitch of some kind it seems. However this story would be 1000% bigger if it happened on Xbox. This will hardly be news by tomorrow. Still sucks for those that had it happen to them. I just logged off of Spider-man and mine was up and running good.

@Rhaoulos i do wish Sony would take Ui and software and services up a notch. I mean they are crushing it every where else. The Ui is just good enough that i don’t overly complain, but it could and should be way better.

Even largely physical players will still have lost access to their entire trophy campaign history. Not really a reason for anyone to brag. But I’m sure it will be rectified shortly, hopefully with no permenant losses.

@HonestHick
I don’t see how the news would be bigger if it happened on Xbox. There are twice as many players on PlayStation (at least) so you would expect twice the amount of outrage and thus attention. Unless you are accusing the gaming press of some kind of pro Sony bias(?)

And yes, as a device that remote plays your PS5, it is not possible for the Portal to Switch discs. Luckily most of the games I play are on Extra/Premium, so all digital anyway (or on PSVR2, which obviously is not accessible by the portal anyway) but I do have some instances where walking to the other room to change discs would be an annoyance. If I wanted to switch between Ishin and FFXVI for example, as I’ve still not finished the former. For the main though, I typically play one game at a time so it doesn’t impact me too much.

@MattBoothDev I mean honestly it depends on the severity for me. Insults aren't exactly high profile on that list, unless it's a constant hounding of your account. Of course that's just my personal view - I tend to be pretty liberal with all that and I understand not everyone is thick-skinned every hour of ever day, myself included. But I think it's a good lesson to ignore and let go.

But yeah, a limitation to online-play bans and messaging seems much more appropriate seeing as it's there a malicious actor would be causing trouble.

@thefourfoldroot1 i largely mean the YouTube crowds and yes some outlets. It’s easy to hate and make a big deal out of nothing about Xbox. Let’s be real tho MS does a lot to make it easy for these stories to exist in the first place. As an owner of both and someone that reads both of their news stories. I know this to be true. Wow Portal is so much better with digital libraries. I want to get one at some point. Might just want until they are more in stock after the holidays. I have an Edge controller that i barely use so why not a Portal. 😊

@Loamy yeah, I agree to an extent. Insults wouldn't bother me at all. If someone's insulting me over a game we're playing, they're already losing and I'd honestly be amused.

However, I agree with content providers being strict around this stuff. They cater for wide age groups and, let's face it, that hurling insults in the lobby or getting irate that you killed them are extremely toxic and should be dealt with.

See when it's not happening to me, it's happening to someone else, it's less funny and more "get this ***** out of here".

@HonestHick
lol, I probably wouldn’t have bought the Portal due to the remote play app being terrible and practically unplayable for me, but the wife was looking for a Christmas present and got me it. Of course I had to test it to see if it worked and incredibly it was faultless (for the few hours I tried it anyway).I’d recommend it.

I must say I’ve not really seen any publication bias in Sonys favour. I did notice some Eurogamer bias in MSs favour, but I just figured it’s due to their very close relationship (The Series X exclusive pre release details etc) and likely personal relations rather that some fanboy nonsense. YouTube…I don’t really watch that for gaming other than PSVR Without Parol and a couple of other VR related channels, but that’s just due to the terrible mainstream “coverage” for PSVR2

That issue with removing the shows/films purchased should be against the law. People paid in good faith. Licencing issues are between Sony and whichever other companies are concerned, and the customer should not be left out of pocket as a result. I don't care what the EULA says, it should be illegal under law.

If they're going to remove access to items people have purchased, they should be legally required to refund them in full. Whoever pays for that, these multi-billion dollar companies can decide amongst themselves... but it should never be the customer. One would hope that an incident like this, with this amount of items involved, would see some change in the law.

@Paranoimia I agree. It should be part of the licensing agreements between Sony and content providers. They can pull the content from the store for new sales but we should expect access in perpetuity for digital content we've bought.

You can tell in this comment section the ones that have never had a problem with Sony and would name their firstborn Sony with a middle name of PlayStation if they could. Can’t possibly imagine defending Sony in any capacity in this situation. Same for Microsoft, Nintendo, Valve, and any other company.

Glitch or not, the silence is deafening for those that have their accounts they’ve poured time and money into being held hostage. Sony needs to do better and learn to communicate. It doesn’t cost them anything

So, if your account is banned, you lose all your digital games too?? That's absolutely ridiculous! With this and the loss of access to those TV shows, I have lost all faith in buying anything digital on Sony's buggy PSN.

Is this issue fixed yet? Don't want to login if i will be permanently banned

"I don't normally break the rules except this one time when I know I did break the rules, but they can't ban me for that can they?" wah wah wah.

@Loamy this is I don't play multiplayer games on my main account

@Netret0120 I think the issue is fixed. I was banned last night and a few hours later, it is working for me again.

@Northern_munkey It doesn't have much of an impact on those who buy physical games. Physical libraries are still playable even with an account ban, since they are not tied to your account in any way. Where-as you can be locked out of your digital libraries depending on the type of ban. The only shared downside is for online focused games, since you need a valid account to play them either way.

@thefourfoldroot1 hey thats a great wife you got there. Hope you both have a great hoilday’s together.

Wow so it worked well for you thats. Good to hear. I am lucky in the sense me and my wife work from home, so we have fiber 1000mbps internet in the house. I can download a 75GB game in 11-12 mins. So i want to think portal would work really good in my house at least. I am sure Sony in the future will improve remote play and of course cloud. So the portal could very well get better in the future and that will only make me want it more.

No issues on my end. But of course, the physical gamers are gonna ride this matter to high heaven lmao

@Northern_munkey Literally. This article is full on bait, just to get people riled up. 😂

@RBMango
"Glad the round-headed Dustin Furman got linked."
What is the matter with Dustin? He seems like a fine person from what I can see....

@Svark It's a running joke from the PlayStation podcast he co-hosts. Wasn't meant to be a dig. Dustin is awesome.

@RBMango
"It's a running joke from the PlayStation podcast he co-hosts. Wasn't meant to be a dig. Dustin is awesome."
I agree.
I am so sorry the idiots over at Easy Allies pushed against him for imaginary reasons. I just wanted to make sure that folks were not doing that here.
It is easy to see how toxic some conversations have become at this time in America.
Real shame.

I'm sure it's just a glitch and not a test on how far they can go. Said something deemed offensive on Facebook lately? Or maybe expressed diversity of thought? Hmmm... No PS for you! (in a Seinfeld's soup-nazzi tone of voice)

@HonestHick
Yeah, I got a good one 😁
Regarding Portal, internet speed isn’t really relevant as it works over wifi, so it’s more to do with device interference in the home, walls in the way, etc. until Sony allow direct streaming anyway.

@RubyCarbuncle Technical hiccup or not, this is unacceptable and people need to ready up class action suits if they don't get their accounts back.

Sony can be sued for this, aside from the $5B suit they already have in their hands

@thedevilsjester @thedevilsjester thanks for pointing out what I already knew. This affects all PlayStation owners regardless of which format you prefer.

@Northern_munkey But it doesn't. Not really. I (and many others like me) have a large physical collection and don't really play online games; which means it doesn't have any impact. However if I had digital copies of those games, it would have a serious impact.

In my personal experience, those that prefer physical titles also tend to prefer offline games; which means that even if it impacts a few titles they own, it has very little overall impact.

@I_SUPPORT_LGTV

You don't have any private messages on Sony's platform. Any messages you send on your PlayStation to another user are property of Sony and you'd be really wise not to put personal data inside them.

You seem to be having a deranged knee jerk reaction to my comment and you appear to be under the impression that you have a statutory right to use a PlayStation online account with other users of the PlayStation network.

As for your comments about being "judge, jury and executioner", again, massive overreaction and over-complication of actual reality.

I'm going to take a wild guess and suggest you also might think that being banned from Twitter is against your rights, as well?

Anyway, into the police comments. That's just insane and a waste of police time. If someone's being a toxic arsehole in the chat of a game, it's is lobby, or something, they should be kicked and/or banned from online play in that game. The outrage is when you're banned from all your games or from all online play in any game.

If you don't like not being able to be toxic and nasty to others, build your own online service (with blackjack and hookers) and moderate the content however you please.

@RubyCarbuncle
Probably cant play GT7 if your banned. Physical or digital version. Need psn

@thedevilsjester OK I'll word it differently. This affects everybody no matter what your chosen format is but will affect people differently depending on which format you choose. It still affects everybody just to varying degrees..

@Nepp67 Hate to say that, but I'm digital only gamer here, I checked back to my account, and thank god I wasn't one of them. Because the physical games I find is expansive in my country so I bought some digital games as well as Subscribing to PS+. Nothing happened, I hope it'll keep that way

I'm sure now they will magically be able to unban these people and then revert to telling others how "once it's done it's done" wouldn't be surprised if this was just Sony being Sony and going back on a backlog to enforce their archaic tos which treats the consumer like a newborn baby.

No bad words when you're playing games where your character is killing people 🥺

@RainbowGazelle happened to me and i got the last laugh because game pass appeared shortly before and i can play their games on pc if i chose to

@thefourfoldroot1 well that shouldn’t be a problem for me either. Good to know. That makes sense. I will get one and give it a try and worse case it don’t work well for me downstairs and i will just move the base PS5 downstairs when i get the PS5 Pro for upstairs. Tho i do like the playing Diablo 4 in bed on the portal. Really hope the device works for me. Happy to hear yours did.

There was updates to the T&Cs that if anyone tried exploiting game glitches it's a straight ban , likely scenario and also any toxic behavior is a straight ban

Uh the TOS you agree to says they are allowed to ban you and revoke all licenses for no reason.
You guys have honestly had it to good for too long, more of you should be banned no matter how completely unreasonable it would seem.

@sonicmeerkat lol. But seriously we need better consumer protection laws in general, and in the digital landscape in particular. A small segment of the population sticking with physical media isn't going to shift anything. All these companies need a big kick in the butt or the TOS will always be draconian.