PSN: Sony issues "emergency maintenance" warning to developers

As it appears the PSN downtime saga will last longer than a week, Sony has issued a warning to developers that it is facing an "emergency" situation.

The following is given to PlayStation developers when they sign into Sony's developer relations site:

"PSN emergency maintenance.

"Please note that PlayStation Network is currently down for an emergency maintenance. Please hold while the issues are resolved.

"You will be unable to sign in until the maintenance is resolved.

"Apologies for the trouble."

PSN was taken offline last Wednesday due to an "external intrusion".

Sony has provided few updates on the matter, saying only that is rebuilding systems and warned at the weekend that its efforts in restoring the service will be "time intensive".

It emerged last night that the outage may be the result of a firmware hack that allowed some to pirate PSN content using fake credit card numbers, although this is currently unconfirmed.

We’re hoping to get a fuller update from Sony on this today, so stay tuned.