Xbox Live and Playstation Network Shut Down by Hackers on Christmas Day

According to Microsoft and Sony webpages as of noon (PT) today, both the Playstation Network and Xbox Live are down. They've been down for a few hours, but neither company is specifying why.

A report from Polygon notes that notorious hacker group Lizard Squad did threaten to take both services offline on Christmas Day. It's undoubtedly true that they, or some other unknown group, is responsible for your shortage of online gaming at the moment.

 

Though you're going to be stuck checking Sony's Playstation status page all day long if you got one of the company's consoles under the tree this year, Microsoft does allow interested gamers to sign up for text notifications regarding its offline services. Toss Microsoft your phone number via its Xbox Live Status page, and you'll get a text message once Xbox's Live Core Services are fully operational once again.