Online gaming platforms run by Sony and Microsoft have been brought to a grinding halt by hackers.

Attacks by an outfit calling itself The Lizard Squad have swamped servers, rendering the systems almost useless.

As Sky's Richard Suchet reports, it's not a good look for either company.

"It is embarrassing and I think all the more so because their servers were brought down by the same so-called Lizard Squad earlier this month.

"I use the term hacking loosely because it's not hacking. What it is is called a sustained distribution denial of service attack."