PSN maintenance coming Dec. 9, raises handheld activation limit

Sony will run maintenance on the PlayStation Network for five hours on Monday, Dec. 9, but rather than being routine PSN upkeep, this period will improve the user experience for owners of PlayStation handheld devices.

The maintenance window is scheduled to run from noon to 5 p.m. ET on Monday. As usual, PSN members who have signed in "over the past few days" will be able to use games and apps, but not the PlayStation Store, Account Management or PlayStation Home, according to a post on the PlayStation Community Forums.

The post also says that the point of this particular maintenance session is to increase the number of portable devices that PSN users can activate on their account. The current limit is two, and that applies to both PlayStation Vita and PlayStation Portable. After the maintenance is complete, the limit will be three total handhelds. Sony is also implementing other improvements to PSN during the downtime.