Earlier today, hacking group 'SkidNP' claimed responsibility for defacing the website of rival hackers Phantom Squad, shortly before that site went offline. Earlier this week, Phantom Squad said it was planning to hit Xbox Live and PlayStation Network with outages over Christmas, and claimed responsibility for an outage that hit the Xbox Live network on Thursday.

Image used to represent 'SkidNP' in its defacement of the Phantom Squad site

However, it seems that Xbox Live and PSN may not be the only gaming services to be hit over the festive season. Speaking with Neowin today, @Obstructable - who is part of SkidNP - said that his group "will be attacking Steam and Minecraft servers" over the holiday period.

While acknowledging the publicity that such attacks garner for hacking groups, he claimed that the ultimate aim is to force companies like Microsoft, Sony and Valve to do more to stop them. "We will be hitting them because we are trying to make services like them [prevent] these sort of attacks, so they get stronger," he said. "Anyone with a $5 booter can take down Xbox if they have the right IP."

Obstructable's comments echoed those of Phantom Squad last weekend, which said: "I get asked a lot on why we do this? Why do we take down PSN and Xbox Live? Because cyber security does not exist."

Of course, that won't comfort those looking forward to a spot of gaming over the holidays - but while most will of course blame the hacking groups themselves, some believe that the companies who own the networks should bear at least some of the responsibility. Kim Dotcom, for example, said on Monday:

Warning @Sony & @Microsoft. You had 1 year to upgrade your networks. If Lizard Squad takes down PSN & XBOX this Xmas, we'll be pissed! RT! — Kim Dotcom (@ KimDotcom ) December 14, 2015

...and on Wednesday, global hacktivist group Anonymous made a similar comment: "If PSN or Xbox live goes down, Microsoft and Sony are the blame [sic]. You would expect these corporations to have sufficient DDoS protection."