Sony said Thursday that its PlayStation Network, the online service that connects Sony's game consoles like the PlayStation 3, may be out for a "full day or two" due to an unexpected and unexplained outage.

Sony first confirmed the outage at 5:50 PM Wednesday night, when Patrick Seybold, the senior director of corporate communications and social media, reported that "We're aware certain functions of PlayStation Network are down," Seybold said. "We will report back here as soon as we can with more information."

At 9:34 AM on Thursday, Seybold added the latest information, which will be grim news for PlayStation players.

"While we are investigating the cause of the Network outage, we wanted to alert you that it may be a full day or two before we're able to get the service completely back up and running," Seybold added. "Thank you very much for your patience while we work to resolve this matter. Please stay tuned to this space for more details, and we'll update you again as soon as we can."

The PlayStation Network is used to deliver downloadable games, movies, music, and other services to consumers who own a PlayStation 3 console. But the network also serves as the infrastructure for multiplayer games, meaning that gamers won't be able to play a multiplayer game like "Call of Duty" until Sony fixes the outage.

Reports also said that Sony Computer Entertainment Europe had posted its suspicions about a hacking attempt, but by press time, the European PlayStation blog had been apparently edited to mimic the U.S. version.

"As you are no doubt aware, the current emergency outage is continuing this afternoon and all Sony Online Network services remain unavailable," Sony Computer Entertainment Europe PS blog manager James Gallagher posted today. "Our support teams are investigating the cause of the problem, including the possibility of targeted behavior by an outside party. If the reported Network problems are indeed caused by such acts, we would like to once again thank our customers who have borne the brunt of the attack through interrupted service."

The outage apparently is not the work of Anonymous, the industry hacker group that had turned its ire to Sony, announcing a worldwide protest in the wake of Sony's litigation against George Hotz, which was eventually settled, but not before Hotz vowed to join the boycott as well.

"ATTENTION: For everyone coming here complaining about the PSN or inquiring about it, We Do Not Know What Happened," a member of the group posted on its Facebook page. "This is not the work of Anonymous."

This article, written by Mark Hachman, originally appeared on PCMag.com and is republished on Gear Live with the permission of Ziff Davis, Inc.