PSN Down for Maintenance on March 1st

The PlayStation Network will see “significant maintenance” on March 1st.  By significant, Sony means that you won’t be able to play your favorite titles on the network from 8AM until 10PM PST.  The network will be taken completely offline during this time, so the old trick of not logging off of the PSN during the maintenance isn’t going to work this time around.  You will be forced to sign-out during this outage.

Sony has said that all services will go dark during this period.  That means no access to PlayStation Home, Store, or online gaming.

What exactly Sony is significantly altering during this maintenance period is unknown at this point, but it could have something to do with the rebranding efforts of the Network and the launch of the PlayStation Vita.  Hopefully it’ll bring more “Cross Platform” play opportunities for Vita owners, and not just a lengthy download and install once the network comes back online.

Expect more details about what Sony has changed, if anything, as the company puts the network back on-line tomorrow night.

Update: Maintenance Delayed