Destiny's rare item merchant, Xur, Agent of the Nine, will stick around a little longer because of the recent connectivity issues with Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network, Bungie has announced.

"We understand that Xur has been hard to reach for a lot of you this weekend, so we’re going to extend his stay," Bungie's community manager David "Deej" Dague said on the game's official forums. "Our current plan is to allow him to remain in the Tower with his current inventory until Monday night at 10pm PST, just before the weekly reset."

Dague added that Bungie will keep an eye on the overall situation and extend Xur's stay for as long as needed and is feasible. Next week, Xur will return to his normal schedule with refreshed inventory.

Rockstar Games similarly extended Grand Theft Auto V's Christmas update for the same reason.

Thankfully, Xbox Live services were restored on Friday, and it seems that the PlayStation Network finally started working again last night.

Destiny's rare item merchant, Xur, Agent of the Nine, will stick around a little longer because of the recent connectivity issues with Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network, Bungie has announced.

"We understand that Xur has been hard to reach for a lot of you this weekend, so we’re going to extend his stay," Bungie's community manager David "Deej" Dague said on the game's official forums. "Our current plan is to allow him to remain in the Tower with his current inventory until Monday night at 10pm PST, just before the weekly reset."

Dague added that Bungie will keep an eye on the overall situation and extend Xur's stay for as long as needed and is feasible. Next week, Xur will return to his normal schedule with refreshed inventory.

Rockstar Games similarly extended Grand Theft Auto V's Christmas update for the same reason.

Thankfully, Xbox Live services were restored on Friday, and it seems that the PlayStation Network finally started working again last night.

UPDATE -- 07:30 a.m., December 28

The PlayStation Network is back online, Sony has announced with the following message posted to the PlayStation Blog:

"PlayStation Network is back online. As you probably know, PlayStation Network and some other gaming services were attacked over the holidays with artificially high levels of traffic designed to disrupt connectivity and online gameplay. This may have prevented your access to the network and its services over the last few days. Thanks again for your support and patience. We’ll provide any further updates here."

UPDATE -- 08:20 p.m., December 27

It appears that the PlayStation Network is back online. Sony hasn't made an official announcement about the state of its online services, but we were able to access the PlayStation Store both on PlayStation platforms and on the PC.

According to PlayStation's official website, the PlayStation Network is also online for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and PS Vita. Sony said that you should check out its Contact Support page if you're still you're still having issues.

Keep checking this story, which will we continue to update with new details as they come in.

UPDATE -- 12:30 p.m., December 27

Sony has addressed the ongoing service issues with the PlayStation Network in a post to the PlayStation Blog.

"The video game industry has been experiencing high levels of traffic designed to disrupt connectivity and online gameplay," Sony said. "Multiple networks, including PSN, have been affected over the last 48 hours."

Sony said that there may be more disruptions in service due to surges in traffic, but that its engineers will continue to work to restore service as quickly as possible.

"If you received a PlayStation console over the holidays and have been unable to log onto the network, know that this problem is temporary and is not caused by your game console," Sony said. "We’ll continue to keep you posted on Twitter at @AskPlayStation and we’ll update this post once the problems subside."

PlayStation Network's status was improved to "intermittent" for a short time earlier today according to PlayStation's official website, but is now offline again, as you can see in the message above.

Sony hasn't said when network services will be back in full. Keep checking this story, which will we continue to update with new details as they come in.

UPDATE -- 6:40 a.m. PST, December 27

The PlayStation Network is slowly coming back online for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and the PS Vita, Sony has announced late last night via its official Ask PlayStation Twitter account.

We in San Francisco were still unable to connect to the The PlayStation Store via the PlayStation consoles, but other users around the world are reporting they had more luck, and we were also able to connect to the PlayStation Store website on the PC, which wasn't working yesterday.

PlayStation Network was also still offline according to PlayStation's official website, as you can see in the message above.

Sony hasn't said when network services will be back in full. Keep checking this story, which will we continue to update with new details as they come in.

UPDATE -- 3:54 PST

Still no word on when to expect PSN services to resume, though both users and some GameSpot staff have had random luck in both getting online and connected to some games.

According to Sony, "No ETA available yet, but our Team is working to fix it as soon as possible, thank you for your patience."

UPDATE: The PlayStation support twitter account has begun issuing updates, telling individual users, "Our engineers are continuing to work hard to resolve the network issues users are experiencing. Thank you for your patience."

However, when will PSN be back online? Sony says, "No ETA available yet, but our Team is working hard to fix it as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience."

The original story appears below.

Following network outtages for the PlayStation Network that started on Christmas Eve, and which extended on Christmas day to both PSN and Xbox Live, Sony's online gaming infrastructure remains offline today.

The Xbox Live status page currently lists all core services for Xbox 360 and Xbox One as "up and running," though access to apps for MLG.tv, Maxim, and IGN are "limited."

PlayStation Network, meanwhile, is completely offline according to its status site (and verified by the fact that I can't log in online). Sony has not issued an official word yet on the cause of the attacks or when it expects online services to be operational again. We'll update this story with further details as they're made available.

Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com

Sony has released a new, Christmas-themed trailer for the PlayStation 4-exclusive shooter The Order: 1886.

The new trailer is set to Silent Night, has a creepy vibe. It includes a few new bits of footage, as well as some things we've seen before in previous trailers, like the scene from The Video Game Awards 2014 trailer in which the characters rappel down the side of a zeppelin.

The Order: 1886 is also currently holding a promotion where it's giving away a new prize every 18 hours, 8 minutes, 6 seconds, until the game's release on February 20, 2015. It's currently offering a different version of the “Endless Duel” statue from the premium edition of The Order: 1886. You can find out more on how to participate in the contest here.

GameSpot's latest hands-on preview for The Order: 1886 showed reservations for the game, as you can see in the video below.

Blizzard's former chief creative officer Rob Pardo recently discussed the possibility of adding eSports events to the Olympics.

"There's a very good argument for eSports being in the Olympics," Pardo told the BBC in an interview. "I think the way that you look at eSports is that it's a very competitive skillset and you look at these professional gamers and the reflexes are lightning quick and they're having to make very quick decisions on the fly. When you look at their 'actions per minute', they're clearing over 300."

Pardo said that it's hard to think of video games as a sport if you define it strictly as something that requires physical exertion, but that he questions that definition given other events already included in the Olympics.

Sports television network ESPN has been airing Dota 2 and League of Legends eSports events on its online branch, ESPN 3, but the company's president John Skipper recently stated that he doesn't consider video games played at that level to be a sport.

“It’s not a sport—it’s a competition. Chess is a competition. Checkers is a competition,” Skipper said. “Mostly, I’m interested in doing real sports.”

Pardo, a 17-year Blizzard Entertainment veteran who was lead designer on the original World of Warcraft and who also worked on the Starcraft, Diablo, and non-WoW Warcraft franchises, left Blizzard earlier this year.