Codemasters has responded to the PlayStation 3 gamers who can't play DiRT 3's online multiplayer.

To play online, PS3 players must register a VIP Pass via the PlayStation Store. But they can't, because the Store is offline.

Warner Bros' fighting game Mortal Kombat had the same problem until its PS3 online pass was disabled.

"We've looked into doing something similar for DiRT 3 but it's not technically possible," Codemasters told Eurogamer in a statement. "It's hard-coded into the game."

"Changing this would require considerable development time and a patch which would need to go through the submission process. This in itself would be a longer process that waiting for Sony to bring the PSN Store back online."

When will the PlayStation Store be back online? Sony won't commit to a specific date, merely a rough "end of May" timeframe.