Steam, PlayStation, Nintendo online services struggle with high volume

Christmas means new toys for everyone and, as a result, high traffic volume is currently plaguing Steam, PlayStation Network, and the Nintendo eShop.

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Christmas time means many people are opening up freshly-wrapped consoles, handhelds, and games. So as you might expect, a number of online services have been affected by high volume. Sony's PlayStation Network and Nintendo's eShop have both been affected by heavy online traffic, as has Valve's Steam service.

A number of users have hit PlayStation's forums to post in regards to network outages experienced throughout the day. PlayStation Network servers are said to be online, according to the PlayStation support page, though a number of users across forums and Twitter say that they are still experiencing trouble.

Meanwhile, the Nintendo Network has experienced problems since early this morning, leaving users unable to jump onto the eShop or set up new Nintendo Network accounts. Nintendo urges users to be patient and note that they are addressing the issues.

Steam is also experiencing extremely high volume, which can be attributed to its free Left 4 Dead 2 giveaway that started earlier today.

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?

From The Chatty
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    December 25, 2013 2:30 PM

    Ozzie Mejia posted a new article, Steam, PlayStation, Nintendo online services struggle with high volume.

    Christmas means new toys for everyone and, as a result, high traffic volume is currently plaguing Steam, PlayStation Network, and the Nintendo eShop.

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      December 25, 2013 2:35 PM

      Live is fine. No one bought Xboxes this year.

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        December 25, 2013 2:51 PM

        That's onion like, yes?

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          December 25, 2013 3:03 PM

          The thing with this is, since the eShops have all been unified, it could just as easily be that a bunch of people unwrapped brand new 3DS XL's, an idea made more plausible by that Target sale a few weeks ago.

          Of course, I could be overthinking this a tad.

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            December 25, 2013 4:21 PM

            Could be a combination of new hardware and games.

            Most games have an online component, even if they are just singleplayer only, and will at least check to see if their servers are on. Publishers gotta have those metrics!

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            December 25, 2013 4:24 PM

            I was talking more of the terrible article linked. It surely isn't fact based.

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              December 25, 2013 5:04 PM

              Don't call me Shirley.

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              December 25, 2013 5:29 PM

              I googled around and those people appear to work at Nintendo, so it's probably legit.

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      December 25, 2013 5:05 PM

      The Wii U problems are compounded by their shitty wi-fi. Couldn't be that expensive to just have added an ethernet port to the thing.

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        December 25, 2013 5:14 PM

        Pick up an USB adapter. Costs about $10 and usually comes ethernet cables. And there you go.

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          December 25, 2013 8:30 PM

          I wonder if Ethernet>USB is still faster than wifi. At least it'll be more consistent.

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            December 26, 2013 8:28 AM

            It's usb 2.0 so faster than the Wii-U wifi. About on par with 802.11n wireless in theory (200+ mbps?). Still slower than everyone elses ethernet port though.

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          December 26, 2013 7:16 AM

          the adapter for the wii even still works, which is great. i just unplugged that shit from the wii and stuck it right into my wiiu.

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        December 25, 2013 5:21 PM

        Works great with my router.

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      December 25, 2013 5:17 PM

      [deleted]

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        December 25, 2013 6:26 PM

        that's how it was for the Wind Waker HD bundle. Added another hour to the prior one or two I spent downloading and updating the system.

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        December 25, 2013 8:31 PM

        Forgot about this. This is most definitely why the eshop is getting hammered. Doubt it's due to a million new Wii U's being brought online, though I hope that's the case.

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        December 25, 2013 9:00 PM

        DL'd all of this before way Christmas then repacked it, in anticipation. Kids were playing Zelda on their new system at 7am. Hi I'm the awesome gamerdad.

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          December 26, 2013 8:33 AM

          haha, yep, I downloaded Rumble U for my kids on the 24th. Duh and/or hello, world.

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      December 25, 2013 9:32 PM

      [deleted]

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      December 26, 2013 8:16 AM

      When I read this news the other day, I pictured it like Nintendo execs feeling left out over their platform's less-than-stellar sales so they're like, "Yeah, and uh, we're swamped too and having network problems. Yeah."

      LOL

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      December 27, 2013 5:07 AM

      Please, come back my beloved networks. I need to buy Super Mario 3d Land.

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