Sony said its PlayStation Network will be temporarily down today, Nov. 17, putting a damper on the enthusiasm of avid players eagerly awaiting upcoming big game releases on Tuesday.

PlayStation Lifestyle said the scheduled network maintenance is initially set from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Pacific Time or 12:00 pm to 6:00 pm Eastern Time. On the other hand, updated news said this schedule was moved one hour earlier.

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The upcoming network shutdown is reportedly Sony's way of readying itself for the upcoming big releases on Tuesday, Nov. 18.

Gamers are already expecting the release of a large number of new titles for PlayStation 4 and its game console rival, Xbox One.

To make sure its avid players won't encounter glitches when using its upcoming new games, Sony decided to give their PlayStation Network a maintenance walkthrough.

"Little Big Planet 3," "Far Cry 4," "Dragon Age: Inquisition," "WWE 2K15," and "Grand Theft Auto 5" are some of the big games slated for the Tuesday release.

With another popular game coming, "Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor," Sony expects a huge increase of new and returning gamers that may possibly strain PlayStation Network's servers. The Japan-based giant's network also utilized PS3 thus, "updating PSN of these customers is also likely a concern for Sony."

Sony said the six-hour shut down of the PlayStation Network will be used to enhance the website. It said during this time, "we will deploy a series of back-end improvements to the network."

PlayStation Network's six-hour shutdown isn't entirely negative news for avid Sony gamers since users that have registered and signed into the network after Nov. 13 will still be able to play the site's online games, even during the scheduled maintenance.

Users that have already downloaded Sony console apps will also be able to use it during PlayStation Network's downtime.

On the other hand, the company said Account Management, PlayStation Home and PlayStation Store will be entirely unavailable to all its users today. Users that try to access the feature will get a maintenance notification.

The Japanese tech-giant apologized in advance for the inconvenience the maintenance may bring to customers. It also asked its users understanding.

PlayStation Europe also said users who do not have their details cached, will not be able to sign-in to their account or begin an online gaming session. It also warned about the possibility for "some additional downtime after the maintenance period for testing purposes.

TagsPlaystation network, Playstation Network News, Playstation Network Latest News, Playstation Network Update, Playstation Network Latest Update, Playstation Network Maintenance