Even the staunchest supporters of the hacking group called Lizard Squad might be reconsidering their allegiance as it has emerged that the Christmas Day attacks on the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live that ruined Christmas for many were performed for financial gain.

Members of the group have revealed that the cyberattack service used to down Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network is now up for sale. The Microsoft and Sony attacks therefore were a "marketing scheme" it is claimed.

The distributed denial of service (DDoS) tools used are up for sale to anyone willing to pay.

Called Lizard Stresser, it was launched on Tuesday and Lizard Squad member "dragon" told The Daily Dot that it is fully operational. The current Twitter account for Lizard Squad also posted the message, "Our booter is now online and registration is open."

READ: Xbox and PS4 down: Online services affected after DDoS attack over Christmas

The group have revealed that after the sale of the service they will "vanish back to the caves where we came from".

Xbox Live and Sony's PlayStation Network are now nigh-on fully functional again after several days of downtime. The latter might take a while to be completely restored to all PS4 owners across the globe, but should be okay for everyone by the weekend.