Amazon Web Services outage: Is PlayStation Network down and what is Twitch error 2000?

Another Amazon Web Services outage might be the reason behind Twitch and PlayStation Network being down.
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Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a subsidiary of Amazon, providing on-demand cloud computing platforms and APIs to companies, governments, and individuals around the world.

As a result, many apps and websites are heavily reliant on AWS.

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On Tuesday December 7th, Amazon Web Services experienced one of its worst outages ever, affecting a range of other services, including consumer-facing apps like Duolingo and Tinder.

The following week, on Wednesday December 15th, fresh reports of issues with AWS were reported on Downdetector at around 3.15pm.

This was followed by a flurry of reports of issues with PlayStation Network and Twitch, two gaming-focused services that are hosted by AWS.

Here’s all you need to know about the Amazon Web Services outage and whether it’s responsible for issues with PSN and Twitch.

Amazon Web Services outage

The outage with Amazon Web Services is affecting a range of other apps and websites around the world. Photo: arturmarciniecphotos / Canva Pro.The outage with Amazon Web Services is affecting a range of other apps and websites around the world. Photo: arturmarciniecphotos / Canva Pro.
The outage with Amazon Web Services is affecting a range of other apps and websites around the world. Photo: arturmarciniecphotos / Canva Pro.
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During the afternoon of December 15th, Downdetector reported 134 reports of issues with Amazon Web Services.

According to Downdetector, 40% of the issues reported are to do with the website, 40% with the servers, and 20% with hosting.

Amazon has not yet responded to complaints coming in from users on Twitter.

Is PlayStation Network down?

At the same time as these reports on AWS started cropping up, Downdetector received over 11,000 reports of problems with PlayStation Network.

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PSN enables players to play online with each other and engage with multimedia services from PlayStation.

It is hosted on AWS, although the issues are not confirmed to be a result of an Amazon Web Services outage at this time.

Of the reports on Downdetector, 65% are to do with server connection, 28% with logging in, and 7% with game play.

As of 3.41pm, the PSN status page says that all systems should be fully operational and the company has not responded to any complaints from players on Twitter.

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At 5.40pm, PlayStation had still not publicly addressed the problems, but reports on Downdetectro began to drop, suggesting a fix had been found.

Twitch Error 2000

Similarly, Twitch has had over 4,000 reports of issues on Downdetector.

Twitch is a streaming service used by a variety of content creators including a great number of gaming streamers.

55% of these are to do with the website itself, 32% with video streaming, and 16% with server issues.

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Many users are seeing a message saying that they are encountering Error 2000, which is usually related to server problems.

At 4.11pm, Twitch said on its status page that it had identified an issue that meant Twitch failed to fail to load.

Twitch Support also addressed the issues on Twitter.

"We are aware of several issues affecting Twitch services,” the company wrote. “Our team is aware and hard at work fixing them - we'll continue to update you, here.”

At 5.04pm, Twitch updated the status page to say the issue had now been solved.

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On Twitter, the company wrote: “This issue is now recovering. Users can once again access Twitch. Thank you for all your patience”, followed by a purple heart.

Is the AWS outage the reason for the issues?

It's not yet confirmed whether these issues, among others, are due to problems from Amazon Web Services.

However, both PSN and Twitch have received a wealth of reports of issues with servers, which could be related to AWS.

The outage on December 7th is an example of what can happen when too many companies rely on the same software or technology provider.

However, with the global influence that Amazon has on hundreds and thousands of companies around the world, it’s unlikely that this outage will have a lasting effect on its usage.

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