The PlayStation Outage Highlighted the Lack of Games I Truly Own

This past weekend, Sony’s PlayStation Network experienced one of its most significant unscheduled outages, lasting over 24 hours. For an entire day, many of PlayStation’s online services were unavailable, disrupting weekend plans and raising valid concerns about the future of digital game ownership.

The outage highlighted an uneasy reality about how much the gaming industry relies on network connectivity and digital game copies. The situation became even more unsettling when it also affected some players’ ability to access their physical games. As someone who was caught up in this disruption, I want to share a bit of my personal experience.

With the Super Bowl on the horizon, I’ve been in a sports gaming mindset lately. My recent sessions with the hockey roguelite game Tape to Tape on my PC inspired me to delve further into sports simulations, particularly with the big-budget titles on my PlayStation 5. So, I fired up TopSpin 2K25, the latest installment in 2K Sports’ tennis series. I was looking forward to immersing myself in a single-player sports game that would let me relish the narratives I find so captivating without juggling multiple player stats.

That’s when I found out that the PlayStation Network was down, and most of TopSpin 2K25’s game modes were inaccessible. It was quite surprising, especially since the unavailable modes were primarily single-player. Naturally, during a PSN outage, I expected online multiplayer access to be affected. However, I never imagined that my offline career mode, a solo experience I had been playing for months, would also be off-limits. Without that network connection, the game turned into little more than a menu with only tutorials and exhibition modes at my disposal.

Looking for an alternative, I decided to try NBA 2K25 for the first time. Interestingly, I managed to install an update for the game even though the network was down, and fortunately, its single-player modes were functioning. Taking on an old challenge, I kicked off a franchise mode with an expansion team, working with players other teams overlooked. But due to the lack of network access, I missed out on the introductory tutorial. Despite my many years with the NBA 2K series, I was caught off guard by changes to the shooting mechanics in this year’s edition. My initial gameplay was filled with missed shots before I decided to simulate the rest of the game, ultimately starting fresh the next day.

To wrap up my Saturday, I switched to Dishonored, a game I had been meaning to play for the first time alongside my brother. Since it doesn’t rely on online features, it seemed like a safe choice amid the outage. However, I prefer playing my PS5 using the PS Remote Play app on my PC, so that my partner can use the TV for their own entertainment. Although I could initially play via Remote Play, after my first session with Dishonored, the app logged me out of my Sony account. With the network down, I couldn’t log back in, stopping me from accessing my PS5 through my PC.

At that point, I bowed out for the day, likely alongside many others. Compared to the bigger issues like problems with physical games or plans disrupted with friends, my experience was a minor irritation, although quite frustrating. It was eye-opening to realize just how many of my games became unplayable without an online connection. It leaves us wondering about a potentially challenging future for game preservation and ownership.