PlayStation 5 users can't play online after recent update

The PlayStation 5 is a machine that spits out fun and wonder, but it's kind of hard to take advantage of all that whimsy when you can't connect to the internet. Unfortunately, that's exactly the problem some users are reporting, and apparently, a console update may be the culprit.

The update under scrutiny added voice commands and variable refresh rate support to the console — though VRR might not work with all games, apparently — but it has also apparently had the side effect of shunting users off the world wide web.

The trouble started when Elden Ring players reported an error message that said that the PS5 could not verify their PlayStation Plus subscription, which is necessary for online play. Given that Elden Ring had maintenance scheduled for around the same time that these errors began to appear, players initially thought that their new favorite open-world game was responsible. However, when users of other games started to report issues, it became clear it's a platform issue.

As of this writing, the maintenance period for the PS5 version of Elden Ring hasn't ended, though it's concluded on all other platforms. The issue appears to stem from the PlayStation Plus service, as several users have reported that their PS5s erroneously asking them to subscribe to PS Plus to play online — even though they've already paid up.

Strangely enough, according to Eurogamer, this outage doesn't seem to impact the latest big PlayStation exclusive, Gran Turismo 7. As you may remember, GT7 had its own downtime issues a few days ago, after a scheduled maintenance lasted more than 24 hours. Unfortunately, the patch that came after the downtime was arguably worse, as it reduced payouts from certain races so much that players have turned to a script that plays the game for them in order to circumvent its onerous microtransactions.