With Sony PlayStation Network Still Down, Users Start To Get Angry

In today's fast-paced, 24/7 society, three weeks is nearly a lifetime.

That is how long millions upon millions of users of the PlayStation Network have gone without the service. And if fan forums and Twitter is any indication, they are starting to get angry about the whole ordeal.

The network has been shut down since April 20 after it was the victim of a hack attack in early April. The hackers illegally infiltrated Sony's database, accessing the personal information of 25 million users. Information such as names, addresses, e-mail addresses, birthdays, passwords, and user names, as well as online user handles were all exposed as part of the hack. Sony's music and video sharing service, Qriocity, was also illegally accessed and subsequently shut down.

Since the hack attack ravaged Sony's online entertainment world, the company is saying it's being extra careful before it restores service. In an update on Tuesday, Patrick Seybold, senior director of corporate communications, said he could not give an exact date as to when the service would restore, but said it is likely a few days away.

I know you all want to know exactly when the services will be restored. At this time, I can't give you an exact date, as it will likely be at least a few more days. We're terribly sorry for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience as we work through this process, Seybold said.

This, of course, was not the answer users of the PlayStation Network were looking for. On Sony's official PlayStation Community forum, in a thread titled Latest Update On PSN Outage, users vented their frustrations with Sony's failures.

A few more days in Sony time would be the end of May.....I would guess a few days would be another 3 weeks. I will get a Xbox tomorrow. This has gotten pathetic. I can't see the grass getting greener after this either, a user with the handle name of JAH said.

Another user, kburke9, decided to take their anger out on Sony's management team for a lack of public relations and making a bid situation worse.

While it is debatable whether this whole mess could have been prevented or not....it isn't debatable whether or not they have made a bad situation into a PR nightmare with one blunder after another and having their customer communications apparently managed by the Communist Chinese Information Bureau. I do feel for the people working around the clock and the poor folks who own Sony stock. They've both been shafted by greedy, short sighted management, the user wrote.

Even professional athletes vented their frustrations with the PlayStation Network outage. Jay Bothroyd, a footballer on the English Premier League team Cardiff City and England national team, took to twitter to complain about Sony.

This playstation (sic) network is getting ridiculous now might go to the dark side !!!!, Bothroyd wrote. The dark side he is likely referring to is Xbox.

Sony president, chairman and chief executive Howard Stringer sent out a letter to gamers last week expressing his apologies for the entire ordeal.

As a company we - and I - apologize for the inconvenience and concern caused by this attack. Under the leadership of Kazuo Hirai, we have teams working around the clock and around the world to restore your access to those services as quickly, and as safely, as possible, Stringer wrote.

Read: Sony: PlayStation Network Likely A Few Days Away From Restoration

Follow Gabriel Perna on Twitter at @GabrielSPerna