Thousands of PlayStation users can’t access online systems are services went down.

Reports of outages first emerged on the tracking website Downdetector in the early afternoon.

The gaming giant confirmed the disruption on Friday afternoon.

PlayStation, which is operated by Sony, said users are likely to experience problems trying to sign in and manage their accounts, stream games and use the online store.

The network’s website said it was working to resolve issues “as soon as possible”, but did not give an estimate as to when services may be up and running again, or suggest why the outage may have occurred.

On the social media platform X, players complained of not being able to log in, load games or shutdown their consoles.

It comes after a pro-Iran hacking group claimed responsibility for an alleged cyber-attack against Microsoft 365 on Thursday, according to Site Intelligence Group, which tracks and analyses extremist movements.

The group – 313 Team – said it targeted the “main servers” of Microsoft 365 and caused outages on services such as SharePoint, Teams, and OneDrive.

In a statement shared on its Telegram channel after the alleged attack, 313 Team said it continues to target western systems that are “actively used to serve the enemy”, adding it has the right to avenge the death of the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The former supreme leader of Iran was killed in US-backed Israeli air strike in February.