The PlayStation Network is quite evidently suffering from the pressure coming from the new features introduced with the 2.0 "Masamune" firmware update, and the service is reportedly suffering from widespread outages across the world.While earlier this morning fewer users were reporting connection problems, but many were still able to use the services, things seem to be more serious now, as many more seem to be unable to use online features.The official Twitter help account acknowledged the issue, and advised that Sony is on it.

Hopefully they'll solve quickly, but it's doubtless that the investments in new servers announced by Sony earlier this year are sorely needed and hopefully their effect will be visible soon, as the house of PlayStation risks burning goodwill with outages that are becoming more frequent as the number of users grows.

Update: the situation seems to be gradually normalizing, with the services becoming available again for most users.