PlayStation Network Activity Suspended in China, No Word on When It Will Return

The PlayStation Store has reportedly been temporarily suspended in Mainland China, and at the moment, it’s unclear why. The report comes way of Daniel Ahmad, a senior analyst at Niko Partners who covers the video game market in China. According to Ahmad, who shared the news on Twitter, the temporary suspension may be the result of some shenanigans on Weibo, a Chinese microblogging website very similar to Twitter.

As Ahmad notes, not only is unclear why the store has been suspended, but it’s unclear when it will return to normal function.

“The PlayStation Store — PSN — has been temporarily suspended in Mainland China from 7 am on May 10. No time or date given for resumption of services,” said Ahmad. The official reason given is to carry out security upgrades. But it is unclear what this means exactly.”

Ahmad continued:

“The only reason I’m posting is this, and I kid you not, is because an Xbox fanboy claimed on Weibo that they reported to authorities about certain back door elements that are easily accessible to switch to overseas services. Was taken down right after. So let’s see what happens.”

You’d expect that this would be a huge inconvenience for Chinese players, however, as noted in the replies to the Tweet, most Chinese gamers on PlayStation buy their games from the Hong Kong store and/or import physical copies.

Of course, we will be sure to update this post as updates are provided. In the meanwhile, be sure to check out the rest of our extensive PlayStation coverage by clicking right here.