If you had trouble opening your Christmas Day inventory gifts in Grand Theft Auto Online, you weren't alone. Between apparent DDoS attacks and the likely holiday rush of player traffic, Xbox Live and PlayStation Network have suffered connectivity issues over the past few days. Rockstar Games is no Grinch however – in recognition of the downtime seen with online services, the developer is extending its Christmas day gift-giving streak "for the time being."

Rockstar's initial press release specified that a seasonal tree for GTA Online apartments is among its Christmas Day bundle, but it also encouraged players to check their inventory for "a few extra gifts." The festivities will continue on for New Year's, offering firework launchers to help welcome 2015, and the celebratory chaos will be available through January 5.

At the time of this writing, the outlook for presents is good – a status page for Xbox Live is currently showing green lights for online play.

Update: The PlayStation Network has gone offline since this story was published. Recent activity from the Ask PlayStation Twitter account notes that an estimated revival time cannot be given, but adds that engineers are currently working on resolving the issue. We recommend keeping an eye on Ask PlayStation and also checking the related status page before making plans to play on PSN.

Posted: Dec 27, 2014 9:00 pm
Related Forum: Grand Theft Auto Forum

Source: http://www.joystiq.com/2014/12/27/rockstar-extends-gta-onlines-christmas-gift-window-due-to-xbl/