The February 7th-8th PlayStation Network outage stole most of the headlines. However, it's not the only issue gamers have faced with Sony's online service. During this past December 24th, customers received error messages when trying to redeem vouchers. Now, Sony is issuing free $10 redemption codes for affected players, whether or not money was lost on Christmas Eve.
PlayStation LifeStyle shared an email sent to a subscriber who unsuccessfully tried to enter a code. While a $10 dollar credit doesn't go particularly far these days, some players still can use their original vouchers. Sony is aware of affected accounts, but anyone who hasn't received a similar notice can contact PSN support.
As with the extended PlayStation Network downtime, Sony hasn't provided a concrete explanation for the holiday problems. Gamers were only told the service suffered from an "operational issue" earlier in February. For over 18 hours, subscribers couldn't enjoy multiplayer titles and internet-dependent single-player games. The situation reminded some gamers of the infamous 2011 hacking incident, but that outage lasted a staggering 23 days.
PlayStation Plus subscribers have also been promised five free days of service to make up for the inconvenience. Customers are still waiting for evidence of this credit, which seems less generous than the latest $10 voucher. The PS Plus Essential tier costs $9.99 per month so many gamers may prefer a similar voucher instead.
With PlayStation and Xbox titles so reliant on online networks, server issues have become more concerning. Monster Hunter Wilds is releasing on February 28th, so PS5 players hope that the network problems experienced during the second open beta test don't reoccur.