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Topic: Hardware

Hey, Sony: Give gamers straight answers if you want our business

Summary: Can Sony recover from the PlayStation Network debacle and still get gamers to trust them? The longer Sony prevaricates, the worse the damage.

Peter Cohen

By Peter Cohen for Gamification |

In the past week and a half we've seen Sony's sudden decapitation of its gaming network and streaming media services and the unsettling news that hackers have PSN account personal information and, possibly, credit card information.

Can Sony recover from this debacle and still get gamers to trust them? The longer Sony prevaricates, the worse the damage.

Class action lawsuits are already rolling in - like sharks in blood-soaked waters, lawyers know opportunity when they smell it. And equally as predictable, politicians have targeted Sony for inquiries as the public seeks answers they're not getting.

To Sony's credit, the company continues to post information through its corporate blog. The quality of that information leaves much to be desired.

For now, anyway, Sony is drilling into minute details for PlayStation Network users like whether trophies will be restored, but still has failed to provide a complete response to the issue of stolen credit numbers.

It's been patently obvious from prior communications that Sony either genuinely doesn't know or doesn't want to publicly acknowledge that numbers have been stolen. Either way, it's an incredibly unsettling revelation for the 77 million users of the PlayStation Network.

Some reports suggest that massive volumes of stolen credit numbers are up for sale, while another report says that credit card issuers including Wells Fargo and American Express have seen no unusual activity.

Writing for Industry Gamers, James Brightman says that Sony's senior executive staff needs to get out in front of this problem in a much more public way than they have been, and I agree wholeheartedly.

Best intentions of Sony in this case mean nothing. Stop spinning, Sony, and give us a straight answer on what happened to our data. Otherwise this failure will hang around Sony's neck like an anchor, and make the Xbox 360 and Xbox Live that much more appealing to gamers looking for a secure and reliable playground.

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Topics: Hardware, Mobility, Networking

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25 comments
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  • RE: Hey, Sony: Give gamers straight answers if you want our business

    I have both PS3 and 360 and guess which system I'm gonna be playing on tonight (online)? Those $10 for 3 months don't look so bad after all...
    statuskwo5
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Hey, Sony: Give gamers straight answers if you want our business

      The majority of PS3 owners are fierce Sony fanboys. Sony will have their business no matter what. So, your demands are just vacuous. Just look at the rootkit fiasco. Not many users cared.<br><br>Besides, you are an Apple fanboy. What do you care about Sony? You don't care. Go back and play with your iPad.
      nomorebs
      Reply Vote

      • B/S

        @nomorebs

        I'm gonna have to say it's the opposite. XBOX customers are fanboys. The PS3 IS a better console. Honestly the only upside I've ever noticed to XBOX in it's entire life is the controller is better, but I do not thing the PS3 controller is terrible just not as good. However, if Sony doesn't take care of this problem Microsoft might see one more customer soon.
        mikeken763
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Hey, Sony: Give gamers straight answers if you want our business

        @mikeken763:

        [i]XBOX customers are fanboys. The PS3 IS a better console. [/i]

        Thanks for validating what I said

        [i]if Sony doesn't take care of this problem Microsoft might see one more customer soon.[/i]

        That one is not gonna be you.
        nomorebs
        Reply Vote

  • RE: Hey, Sony: Give gamers straight answers if you want our business

    Huh? They sent me a very detailed email about the details that may have gotten into the hands of the intruders.
    Droid101
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Hey, Sony: Give gamers straight answers if you want our business

      @Droid101 @dbisse@... The most important questions haven't been answered - what manner of encryption was used to protect credit card information? And, most importantly, *was* credit card information indeed stolen? It's ridiculous that we're now more than a week past the incident and Sony isn't forthcoming with more details.

      - Peter
      flargh
      Reply Vote

      • You don't have a clue!

        @flargh

        Nobody gives out security information about encryption types on their market because it's like telling a thief what lockpick toolkit type to use.
        Joe_Raby
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Hey, Sony: Give gamers straight answers if you want our business

        @Joe_Raby

        I was seriously about to say the same thing. If Sony gave out that information or anything like it I would no longer be a PSN user. Guaranteed.
        mikeken763
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Hey, Sony: Give gamers straight answers if you want our business

        @flargh

        <i>And, most importantly, *was* credit card information indeed stolen?</i>

        And you, what, expect them to wave a magic fairy wand and dancing leprechauns will appear to tell them, in great technical detail, what happened?

        In some cases figuring out how a hacker did what they did and how they did it takes time.

        But in many cases, figuring out what data a hacker actually has is like trying to figure out how many pages of which of your books a glove-wearing thief read when he was in your house: you simply have no data to even allow for an educated guess.
        SlithyTove
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Hey, Sony: Give gamers straight answers if you want our business

        He didn't receive such email because he doesn't own a PS3, just Apple products.

        Mr. Peter Cohen is the new plant from Apple at ZDNet. He joins Adrian and Perlow as the latest iFanBoy
        nomorebs
        Reply Vote

  • RE: Hey, Sony: Give gamers straight answers if you want our business

    Check your Inbox. I got my Sony email a few days ago with answers to 3 questions. The thing is I had only asked 1, and that 1 was to myself.
    dbisse@...
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Hey, Sony: Give gamers straight answers if you want our business

      @dbisse@... He didn't receive such email because he doesn't own a PS3, just Apple products.

      Mr. Peter Cohen is the new plant from Apple at ZDNet. He joins Adrian and Perlow as the latest iFanBoy
      nomorebs
      Reply Vote

  • ...and statistics

    No, they cannot recover. As we all know, whenever an airline has a crash, the airline goes out of business because no one ever trusts them again.

    Plus, once an airline has a crash, it goes out of its way to have more of them, which is why it is safer to fly a brand new airline that has never had a crash than one that has been in business for 30 years and has crashed twice.
    Robert Hahn
    Reply Vote

    • I disagree.

      @Robert Hahn

      Good analogy, but not applicable in this scenario. The perceived risk between these two scenarios is drastically different. In the case of similar instances of hackers obtaining private data (Gawker, etc.), many (dare I say most?) of the people soon get on with their lives maintaining the very same habits they had prior to the mishap. So do I think it will be with the PSN -- with or without straight answers from Sony.
      StephenChapman
      Reply Vote

  • RE: Hey, Sony: Give gamers straight answers if you want our business

    This is so ridiculous, that Sony's network security would be so easy to crack! I do like my PS3, but Sony better get it's act together soon or they will be out in the cold. The new Wii 2 is coming out soon and is supposed to be more powerful than the PS3, it looks like it's going to be pretty cool...

    http://www.tech-adventures.com/2011/04/nintendo-says-wii-2-is-in-works.html
    poyntek
    Reply Vote

  • Just who is this Peter Cohen chump?

    First, you bleat on about how this "would never happen to Apple", yet the two are completely different, both in their level of access and the type of services that they offer, and now you are suggesting that PS3 owners will suddenly feel the Xbox cash, sorry, eco-system is the way forward.
    Get real. Here are just three reasons why that will never happen.
    1) The Xbox Live service as also been hacked, maybe not as severe a data leak, but still hacked. HINT: so much for the secure and reliable playground.
    2) The Xbox games are so full of hacking, modding, cheating cr@p that it makes the PS3 network EVEN WITH THE LOSS OF DATA still look appealing.
    3) The Xbox is still garbage. That will never change.

    Sony should take all the time it needs to ensure they know how the intrusion happened, and if possible who breached the network. Then they should sue the living S**T out of the tiny minded scumbags that did it.

    Oh, and how much did MS or Apple pay you for these anti-Sony rants? Hope it was worth making yourself look so clueless!
    Scrat
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Hey, Sony: Give gamers straight answers if you want our business

      That chump is an Apple fanboy
      nomorebs
      Reply Vote

  • RE: Hey, Sony: Give gamers straight answers if you want our business

    I do not own and never have owned any kind of games console but I can recognise a major security snafu when I see one. I find it astonishing that several of Sony's customers have posted here *defending* the company! What is it about a certain type of fanboy (regardless of which company he/she obsesses about) who will defend his/her favourite company even when that goes against the interests of his/her fellow customers. Why do you identify with the company at the expense of "your own" - ie other customers?<br><br>PS<br><br>I must also say that I am amazed at the hysterical lack of logic in the attacks on the author. He is, according to some of you, *both* an Apple fanboy *and* a paid shill for Microsoft; pardon? If that is the quality of your defence of Sony you should stop posting. With friends like you the company has no need of enemies.
    FrederickLeeson
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Hey, Sony: Give gamers straight answers if you want our business

    Hey Peter, shove your XBOX up your arse!
    Who doesn't fancy Sony just quit using it's products. Period!
    If this happens to XBOX Live I'll laughing so much that you'll hear my AHAHAHA's from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean!
    Stop bitchin all you winers...
    TiagoViana
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Hey, Sony: Give gamers straight answers if you want our business

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