Image copyright AFP Image caption Xbox Live and PlayStation have more than 150 million users between them 
 
 Microsoft and Sony have been working to restore internet platforms for their Xbox and PlayStation games consoles. 
 
 Attacks disabled the online services on Christmas Day, making it difficult for users to log on. 
 
 The Xbox Live status page suggested on Saturday that Microsoft services had been restored. PlayStation said it was getting to grips with the issue and thanked users for their patience. 
 
 A hacking group called Lizard Squad claimed to have caused the problems. 
 
 The name is the same used by a group of hackers that has targeted Sony in the past. 
 
 Microsoft's Xbox Live has 48 million subscribers and Sony's PlayStation system has more than double that number, at about 110 million users. 
 
 In a tweet posted on Saturday morning, PlayStation said: "Update: PS4, PS3, and Vita network services are gradually coming back online - thanks for your patience." 
 
 A later statement said: "We are seeing reduced reports of network issues. We'll continue to monitor." 
 
 'Member Two' 
 
 A hacker claiming to be from Lizard Squad - a 22-year-old calling himself Member Two - said it had hacked the sites "because we can". 
 
 He also suggested the motive was to demonstrate weaknesses in the two companies systems. 
 
 "It's just such a huge company Microsoft... Do you not think they should be able to prevent such an attack?" he told BBC Radio 5live. 
 
 "Is Christmas really about children playing with their new consoles, or playing with their new toys, or is it about them spending time with their families and celebrating Christmas?" he added. 
 
 "I think everyone's just taking it all out of the ordinary." 
 
 Analysis: Rory Cellan-Jones, BBC technology correspondent 
 
 Image copyright AFP 
 
 Sony executives must be asking themselves - when will it stop? 
 
 The attack on the PlayStation network - along with Microsoft's Xbox Live network - is nothing like as serious and sophisticated as the Sony Pictures hack. 
 
 But the impact on customers is more direct, and the fact that the company has taken longer than Microsoft to get its network up and running is another blow to the reputation of its security operation. 
 
 The distributed denial of service attack which overwhelmed the servers at Sony and Microsoft appears to have been on a very large scale, and came when traffic would have already been very high. 
 
 But customers are just as angry with Lizard Squad, the group which claims it launched the attack - and has since justified it with some rather pompous statements about exposing poor security. 
 
 The group now appears to have set its sights on bringing down Tor, the secure network which enables anonymous online communication. That has incurred the wrath of the better known hacker collective Anonymous - so prepare for more online conflict in the coming days. 
 
 Services disconnected 
 
 To make the most of the Xbox and PlayStation consoles players have to connect to the internet in order to reach the console manufacturers' servers. 
 
 The outage stopped people accessing some core services, such as registering a new account, connecting with other people to play the same game and connecting to entertainment channels via the console. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption A hacking group called Lizard Squad claimed to have caused the problem 
 
 Earlier this month a different branch of Sony - Sony Pictures Entertainment - was hit by a cyber attack that stole huge amounts of data from its servers. 
 
 The fallout from that hack soon focussed on The Interview, a film featuring a fictional plot to assassinate North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un. 
 
 No link between Sony Pictures hack and the gaming service disruptions has been confirmed. 
 
 However, the latest disruption did mean that many families were unable to enjoy their new Christmas presents. 
 
 In the UK, Ros Bruce, from Essex, said her 10-year-old son got an Xbox One for Christmas, had spent most of the day in tears, and called for Xbox to provide compensation. 
 
 Ian Hornby, from Lancashire, spent a frustrating time trying to connect a new PlayStation to the Sony network, and said he hoped that the electronics giant would now invest in better protection for its systems. ||||| Gamers who received new consoles for Christmas might find themselves unable to connect and play with friends, thanks to a coordinated attack by hackers who claim to have taken down the two largest gaming networks. On what might be the biggest gaming day of the year, a hacker group called Lizard Squad is claiming responsibility for taking down both Xbox Live and PlayStation Network. 
 
 Reports of service disruptions began popping up earlier today, with both Xbox Live and PlayStation Network acknowledging issues with some core services. In both cases, users have had a difficult time logging in to the networks, which generally gives them access to connect with friends and play games requiring online access. 
 
 We are aware that there have been issues reported with PSN. Thanks for your patience as we investigate. — Ask PlayStation (@AskPlayStation) December 24, 2014 
 
 A hacker group called Lizard Squad claims to be behind the attacks, which follow weeks of threatening to take the systems offline. This is the same group that said it was behind PlayStation Network and Blizzard outages in August that took down games like League of Legends and Path of Exile. 
 
 https://twitter.com/FUCKCRUCIFIX/status/548168352666247168 
 
 For those who just got a shiny new PS4 or XBOne for Christmas, the attack couldn’t have come at a worse time. That’s because new users generally have to be connected to one of those networks even just to set up their Xbox or PlayStation accounts for the first time. 
 
 And what are those gamers supposed to do for the rest of the day? Spend time with their families? ||||| Sony’s online PlayStation store and Microsoft’s Xbox Live network have been disrupted over Christmas in what is thought to have been a cyber-attack on the companies. 
 
 
 
 The network outages, which have left millions of users unable to play games and access entertainment channels, are continuing into a second day. 
 
 Sony said on Friday that some users were having trouble logging into its network and engineers were investigating. Microsoft said it knew some users were having trouble signing in. “We’re aware of this issue and we’re working to find a fix ASAP.” 
 
 An online entity calling itself Lizard Squad, regarded as a serial nuisance by gamers the world over, appeared to take responsibility for the disruptions via its Twitter account. A DDoS attack, which bombards servers with spurious traffic, was thought to have been the method used. 
 
 The PlayStation store also experienced spells of inaccessibility earlier this month. That followed the hacking of computer systems of Sony Pictures Entertainment, followed by the release of confidential information on the internet. 
 
 Sony and Microsoft had both expected heavy use over Christmas as people who received their computer games tried to hook up. The problems may have been exacerbated by Sony’s decision to let consumers download controversial movie The Interview through Xbox Video as well as other online sources. 
 
 Microsoft said in an online message: “Are you having a rough time signing in to Xbox Live? We’re working to get this figured out right away. We appreciate your patience.” 
 
 Sony similarly pleaded for patience. “We are aware that some users are experiencing difficulty logging into the PSN,” it said. 
 
 On Thursday Microsoft Xbox spokesman Sean McCarthy had declined to give details of how the company may have been preparing for security breaches, given the problems that Sony has experienced in releasing The Interview. 
 
 “Of course it’s safe to say holiday season is always a very busy time of year for any consumer electronics company, so we work hard to ensure the stability of our infrastructure when so many consoles are activating for the first time.” 
 
 The Associated Press contributed to this report ||||| Story highlights Some Xbox users finally able to log on to network 
 
 Incident and a hack of Sony Pictures don't appear to be related 
 
 Lizard Squad hacker group has claimed responsibility for prior attacks 
 
 One Twitter user bemoans issue, stuck with cranky teenager 
 
 (CNN) Sony's PlayStation and Microsoft's Xbox Live gaming networks experienced widespread problems on Christmas Day as a hacker group claimed responsibility for what it said was an attack. 
 
 Hundreds of users took to Twitter to report problems with the systems, which lasted much of the day. 
 
 "With the #Xbox hacking shutdown going on I'm watching my 15 year old nephew meltdown: 'I've got nothing else to do!!!!'" Jim Crilley Jr. wrote on the social messaging site. 
 
 The problem persisted for hours, but Thursday night Xbox Live briefly posted a message on its support website saying: "Were you having a hard time signing in to Xbox Live? If so, we're glad to say we've reached a solution! You can once again sign in without any issues. Thanks for hanging in there while we worked. We appreciate it!" 
 
 But many PlayStation users were still having difficulty logging on to their network. 
 
 Gamers were able to play games offline, but couldn't communicate with other players or make use of network functions. 
 
 The hacker group Lizard Squad said earlier it was "smacking" the two systems, apparently one of several attacks in December. The group took responsibility for keeping each network down earlier this month on separate occasions. 
 
 On Thursday, the group asked for retweets in exchange for ending the problem, which could be a distributed denial of service attack. 
 
 That's when hackers flood networks with illegitimate traffic, overwhelming the ability of the servers. 
 
 The problem might be exacerbated by video gamers who received new systems for Christmas and were adding to the potential traffic on one of the busiest gaming days of the year. 
 
 The network downtime started just hours after Microsoft's Xbox video store started to stream the Seth Rogen comedy "The Interview." The movie was made by Sony Pictures, a sibling of Sony's PlayStation division. 
 
 Sony was the victim of a massive cyberattack in late November that was widely believed to be motivated, at least in part, by North Korea's anger over "The Interview," which depicts the assassination of Kim Jong Un. 
 
 But there was no indication that Thursday's problems were in any way connected to the movie's digital release. Other participating distributors of the movie, such as YouTube, were unaffected. And PlayStation is not participating in the release. 
 
 A Sony Pictures spokesman deferred to PlayStation for comment about the outage.
– Thousands of people who got new Xboxes or PlayStations for Christmas were left frustrated yesterday as both networks suffered major disruptions. The problems began Christmas Eve and persisted through the next day, with Microsoft and Sony telling users they were aware of the issues and were doing their best to get them fixed, the BBC reports. Some suspected the problems may have been linked to Sony's release of The Interview, but a hacking group calling itself the Lizard Squad has claimed responsibility, reports TechCrunch. The same group said it took down gaming networks in August following tweets denouncing the bombing of ISIS targets. The group, which also took responsibility for bringing Xbox and PlayStation networks down earlier this month, asked for retweets of its messages yesterday in return for ending the problem, CNN reports. The problems may have been made worse by the number of people with new devices or games trying to hook up to networks, or possibly even by Sony's decision to release The Interview on Xbox Video as well as other sources, the Guardian reports.