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Topic: Mobility

Open letter to Sony: Two free games? Thanks, but no thanks

Summary: An open letter to Sony, regarding the first (and second) downtime of their PlayStation Network, and why the two free games was unwanted compensation.

Zack Whittaker

By for iGeneration |

Zack Whittaker is saving a kitten from a nearby tree. Hana Stewart-Smith, a freelance journalist and all-round geek pens an open letter to Sony, regarding the recent double-downtime suffered by the PlayStation Network.

Dear Sony's PlayStation Network division,

Addressing a letter to a large voluminous mass is, as we all know, not a sure fire way to get your opinion heard. Not that I'm suggesting that you don't listen to your customers; I'm sure you've been hearing a hell of a lot from them lately. I know my voice is likely to be drowned out, but just give me a chance, I bet you've not heard this one yet.

I don't want anything from you. No, seriously, I don't. I don't need a fancy welcome back package and a choice of two classic games to fulfil my feelings of entitlement. Put it away and give me a hug; you abstract body you. It's good to have you back. I say this without a drop of sarcasm (which in this day and age may come as a surprise to you), and utter sincerity.

Now I know there's been this big hoopla about you being down for weeks and weeks, and people worrying about their credit card details being stolen... and then the whole thing where you came back only to go straight back down. The truth is that, despite this being such a big deal in the gaming community, has it directly affected my life in any way?

Absolutely not.

Everyone really freaked out! I heard some genuine fear; the hackers might have your personal details! How frightening! I do hope nobody ever reads my Facebook page, or I'm in real trouble. They might have stolen my credit card details?

Well, as it turns out, we put our details in a lot of places. It's pretty worrying how casually we do so. I know this probably sounds flippant for the people that have spent weeks stressing out about this, but I exercised as much caution following "The Big PSN Sleep" as I do all the time.

So I just wanted you to know that I don't see why we're entitled to anything at all from you, and I for one am perfectly alright with getting a big fat nothing but the network back.

If I were a PSN Plus customer I might be looking for a refund for the downtime, but I'm not, I'm just an average PSN gamer who was completely and utterly unaffected by the network being down. I really enjoyed the time I spent rediscovering how great single player games were and went back to multiplayer games where I was playing with someone in the same room as me.

If anything, the only thing I can think to have a go at you about is that you've reminded me just how few games exist without online functions, or that are at least not heavily geared towards online play.

So, to summarise: try not to let this happen again and we're all good, ta.

Hana xx

Topics: Mobility, Hardware

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21 comments
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  • RE: Open letter to Sony: Two free games? Thanks, but no thanks

    Sorry but I actually know someone who had their credit card information used thanks to the PSN fiasco. So don't say that this was just people stressing out over nothing. Just because it isn't used today, doesn't mean they might not sit on the information for tomorrow. (Oh and this person doesn't use social networking)
    SujaA
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Open letter to Sony: Two free games? Thanks, but no thanks

      @SujaA So get a refund from Sony? They're offering up to a million in identity theft damages.
      Aerowind
      Reply Vote

    • RE: Open letter to Sony: Two free games? Thanks, but no thanks

      @SujaA

      Improper/illegal use of credit cards happens all of the time. How do you know that the problem to which you refer was a direct result of the PSN problem rather than simply being a coincidence?
      Restricted_access
      Reply Vote

  • better yet sent 2 DVDs to the customers

    one with a Sony PS game, the other one with a Linux distro.
    Linux Geek
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Open letter to Sony: Two free games? Thanks, but no thanks

      @Linux Geek - haha. you're one funny geek
      belkanic
      Reply Vote

      • Well, the one DVD will make a dandy coaster for your drink

        @belkanic
        while playing the PS game they sent along with it.
        John Zern
        Reply Vote

    • RE: Open letter to Sony: Two free games? Thanks, but no thanks

      @Linux Geek
      You do realize that Playstation 3 games are all on Blue-Ray disks? As for linux; while it is not a bad OS, someone needs to fix the broken UI. What never ceases to amaze me is the default on many distros, looks too much like Windows. What is really sad is the Windows UI is a bad mix of what Microsoft stole from both Apple (Mac OS 1), and IBM (OS 2 Warp).
      Rick_K
      Reply Vote

      • RE: Open letter to Sony: Two free games? Thanks, but no thanks

        @Rick_K You totally missed out on the joke. He said PS not PS3 game. The Linux reference is because Sony originally allowed you to install it (it was the only way you could play a few games) and then revoked it. Of course it's not as funny when someone has to explain it.
        Greenman76
        Reply Vote

  • RE: Open letter to Sony: Two free games? Thanks, but no thanks

    @SujaA - yea tell your friend he can claim from damages, and if he's really a friend he'd share some of that $$$ to you.

    you lucky little bastard you.
    belkanic
    Reply Vote

  • The real kicker is

    You will never know if it was the PSN incident when your identity does get stolen. For me this is the smaller of two significant personal information losses that I have been subject to, that the companies actually had the decency to tell me about. The first one lost much more information, DOB and ss# included. That company gave us the complementary 1 year fraud protection. The same cries "it's not enough" and I would reply to these people "Well what would be enough? At least you now have someone you can yell at if you get your identity stolen whereas before all you could yell at was the sky?" You realize that you should be keeping an eye on your information anyway.

    I personally have had no animosity towards Sony for this, I feel it is the price we pay for the digital conveniences we enjoy. I keep watch on my credit scores, try to limit the number of accounts I have floating around, that's really about all you can do. No, not playing is not an option, your personal info is out there, somewhere, waiting for a company to slip or a determined individual.
    oncall
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Open letter to Sony: Two free games? Thanks, but no thanks

    Two free games are nice to have. Nobody forces you to download them.
    If PSN outage did not affect you then why write an article?
    You know, it also did not affect my 90-year-old grandma and her cat and they don't need the stupid games either.
    Scrabbler
    Reply Vote

    • Two free games are nice to have.

      @Scrabbler: Granted two free games are nice to have, and in fact anything that comes with the price tag of *FREE* sends most consumer ****** (myself included) weak at the knees and into a rabid frenzy to get just a single slice of that free "cake". But let's look at the other side to this delicious cake - this was a guest article so for starters it was most likely that they were asked by the guy that regularly posts. Secondly, whether you were directly affected by the outage or not but own a PS3 regardless, then of course this has affected you in some way; either your details have supposedly been yoinked and absconded with, or you were unable to watch films with NETFlix for quite sometime. You may even have had GAMES that had online capabilities that you weren't able to play. So unless YOUR grandmother is 'Old Granny ********' <a href="http://oghc.blogspot.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://oghc.blogspot.com/</a> I genuinely cannot see how your grandmother has anything to do with this article/outage. <br>A final admonition; if you search the web for people who have had serious problems with identity theft, or stolen credit card information as a result of this, it quickly becomes apparent that there aren't many, and even if there is SONY has said they would cover the damages up to 1 million! (not that any of us are even worth that sort of money).
      silicon_salami
      Reply Vote

  • RE: Open letter to Sony: Two free games? Thanks, but no thanks

    Where was the outrage when Microsoft bricked 1 million xbox 360? You know, like people that installed larger hard drives (which require a hack to install). Or is this another attempt to hold everyone except Microsoft to a higher standard?
    Rick_K
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Open letter to Sony: Two free games? Thanks, but no thanks

      @Rick_K But arguably that was due to their own doing, rather than a network problem or hack.
      zwhittaker
      Reply Vote

    • RE: Open letter to Sony: Two free games? Thanks, but no thanks

      @Rick_K That's against MS's ToS. While it's unethical to restrict users like that:<br><br>1. This article is about sony, so this post is off topic.<br>2. Sony was negligent with credit card data. Microsoft did what they did intentionally, and didn't expose millions of credit card numbers.
      3. The people who hacked their xboxes agreed to the ToS. Maybe they shouldn't have bought Xboxes?
      snoop0x7b
      Reply Vote

    • RE: Open letter to Sony: Two free games? Thanks, but no thanks

      @Rick_K Are you a little slow? The Xbox bricking issue happened due to unauthorized modifications that the Xbox owner did, while knowing full well that it was against the Xbox Live rules to use those modded Xbox's on the Live service. That rule is for everyone's own good so that the Live service is a level playing field without modded "super Xboxes" that allow your to cheat in games.

      The Sony issue was 100% Sony's fault, not the PS owners. See the difference??
      j28n
      Reply Vote

      • RE: Open letter to Sony: Two free games? Thanks, but no thanks

        @j28n
        From everything I have read, it was done by a third party. What strikes me funny is how Sony went after the person who hacked the PS 3 and violated their ToS, then as retaliation this happened. Anonymous claimed they would bring the PSN to its knees, and someone used that to gain access to user information.

        The real point that I was trying to make it this: Why are some companies held to a higher standard, while others get a pass?
        Rick_K
        Reply Vote

  • Who is(are) the victim(s) and who is(are) the criminal(s)

    First, get this, Sony did not misappropriate, steal, or sell anyone's personal data.

    Second, Sony's security measures were not any worse than the majority of today's internet service providers; which means they met the standard of practice, but not obviously not evidence-based best practice.

    Ergo, while negligent, Sony was not the criminal in this case. And, in all fairness, Sony's actions to date are a reasonable response and compensation for their negligence.

    Anonymous however, is complicit in providing the means by which the hacks were executed. Information on the security vulnerabilities were supplied via Anonymous media. The hacks were executed in conjunction with Anonymous DDOS attacks. The hacks were executed with Anonymous calling cards. And the hacks were most likely executed by Anonymous members, although without the approval of the majority of Anonymous.

    And of course, the real victims are the customers of Sony.
    Dr_Zinj
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Open letter to Sony: Two free games? Thanks, but no thanks

      @Dr_Zinj I'm sorry, but do you have a copy of Sony's PCI compliance documentation, procedures, policies, and the results/date of their last audit? No? Then you can't really say anything about their security measures.
      snoop0x7b
      Reply Vote

  • RE: Open letter to Sony: Two free games? Thanks, but no thanks

    Dead Nation and Infamous look good. I'll be getting both of those!
    Droid101
    Reply Vote
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