THE BUZZ: Sony has reminded fans that the PlayStation Network will be unavailable for approximately 13 hours, starting this morning.

The maintenance will begin at 8 AM GMT and last until 9 PM tonight. Users will be unable to access the PlayStation Store on PS3, PSP or Media Go, nor will you be able to access Network Account Management and Registration, PlayStation Home and Music and Video Unlimited services.

“Users who are already signed into their account on PlayStation Network before the start of the maintenance should be able to stay signed in to their online session, but will not be able to access any of the services listed above,” Sony said.

EGM’s TAKE: While maintenance and downtime are annoying, at least with PlayStation you are able to continue playing as long as your signed in. However, 13 hours is a long time for scheduled maintenance. In America the outage spans most of the day, but at least late night gamers might be able to get some play in before bed. In Europe it kills the entire night, with the outage not scheduled to end until 5 AM GMT. Users can’t really complain about the downtime either as Sony provides its service free, to all but PlayStation Plus members. Oh well, looks like you’ll just have to watch some television or put a film on tonight to keep you entertained.