Can Sony Fix Its Tarnished Image Following Its PlayStation Network Problems?

Patience is wearing thin, particularly for a company that has offered few answers to its most devoted fans. On Wednesday, April 20, Sony’s (SNE) PlayStation Network was taken down due to an “external intrusion” and has failed to give any clear indication as to when the network will be up and running once again.

[MasFlowKiller]

Tarnished Image?
I would not go that far

ether way gamers have short memory
http://www.engadget.com/200...

Maybe sony can do like a free online wee......i forgot PSN is free

I guess ill continue to play my free copy of portal 2 on steam until this gets fixed

Or play some GT5 or some Killzone 3 coop, If the PS3 was a one track console with its only selling point been its online connectivity i would be angrier but i have to catch up on my SP gaming

[DA_SHREDDER]

still doesn't change the fact i got 2 mmo's that i have paid for that I still have subscriptions for. BTW, those aren't free. And yeah, i dont plan on using them anymore cause of this. Sad thing is I cant even sell my copy of DCU. So to me its all money down the drain.

No, im gonna quit playing mmo's on the ps3 cause even if they pay me back(and thats a big if) obviously the ps3 isn't a good platform for subscription based content since hackers have declared war on my favorite console. Its not that i don't want to, its just not logical. Sorry that i don't stoop down to your level, but I care about myself and what i spend my money on.

[AlternativeChaos]

@DA_SHREDDER
Really, you are going to stop playing your MMO's because of one week offline

thats just stupid

your just trolling

So if your ISP has drops your connection for a day your going to stop going to using the internet

Or if your cable provider single drops for an hour your going to stop watching tv

ether your just a petty little girl or a really silly troll

[JackBNimble]

I am sure that any subscription based mmo that is effected by this will be carried over for however many days that the servers are down.

Are the pc servers for DCU down aswell?

[ComboBreaker]

The media have been tarnishing Sony's image ever since 2006.

At this point, Sony doesn't even care about what the media thinks anymore. Sony only care about PS3 gamers, about providing a ton of great games and a free and rebuilt PSN that is secured for PS3 gamers.

[V0LT]

That's like saying you won't drive a car again because one broke down on you.

[RememberThe357]

How about you wait to see how Sony is going to handle this before getting too pissed off.

Server problems happen and Sony is fixing the problem.

Also,

"Sorry that i don't stoop down to your level, but I care about myself and what i spend my money on."

I have a hard time understanding this. Are you saying your a better person because you have less patients than we do? It sounds like your saying you above us because we're willing to wait and see how Sony handles this situation before deciding what steps we're going to take as consumers. But that can't be what you meant because that doesn't make any sense.

[Dee_91]

Yea but I doubt the trolls here fixated with making sony fanboys know they are sony fanboys on every post let this go

[Soldierone]

@above...umm if my cable goes out, my cable company refunds me money for it. It doesn't matter if its a day or just a few hours, they refund money so you dont get mad at them. Same goes for the internet company. If its out several days they give you a week free...So bad example.

Also at above SOE games are being affected, but are still up and playable on PC. They stated they may go down at times due to issues, but its not the same thing.

[miyamoto]

tarnished image?

if there is any tarnished image in this PSN outage that needs a fixin'
...its George Hotz, Failoverflow, Anonymous & the likes!

During the 80s & 90s hackers that hacked Microsoft went from zero to hero. Now this is the exact opposite.
They are 'no more heroes' but they have become 'cyber terrorists'!

[Sitris]

@soldierone
My Internet went out for 3 days, the best I got was a "sorry for the inconvenience email" my foxtell got cut off for a week, got nothing back. I was very pissed, and made multiple calls with no help. Sony hasn't even told us if they will, and for gamers that aren't PS+, and don't have a MMO subscription, have nothing to get from Sony. Does MS give money to gamers who can't play cod online without Gold subscription? No, why should Sony give non-subscribers stuff for network going down that you pay nothing for. Granted this whole situation is crap, but we should remember that sites and details get hacked everyday, and sadly as we move more towards a fully digital system, this will happen ALOT more.

[Dee_91]

@myself "Yea but I doubt the trolls here fixated with making sony fanboys know they are sony fanboys on every post let this go"

See
http://n4g.com/user/comment...
its already happening lol

[Troll_Police]

If MS can fix it's tarnished image after this,

http://www.huffingtonpost.c...

then I'm sure Sony can recover too. How quickly we forget. Maybe Sony can give us 1 month of PSN for fre......oh wait, PSN IS free.

[Godmars290]

If MS got over RRoD, then Sony can get over this.

[Convas]

Wow, you really don't have any form of cognitive comparison skills do you?

A server going down for a week because of heavy traffic and a server going down because of an attack that exposed millions of user's sensitive information are two different things.

How quickly we forget nothing, you guys need to stop using that old excuse now.

[gamingdroid]

MS never got over the RROD, you guys are still talking about it! :)

[GrandTheftZamboni]

@Clizz

"A server going down for a week because of heavy traffic"

Yeah, that's much better, network going down even without being attacked.

[Rainstorm81]

It does feel a little bit like 06-07......Bash Sony.....

Oh and the hackers?? It's not their fault, they were fighting for the freedom of PS3 users/S

Even worse half of this site's population blames Sony, and condones this type of Cyber terrorism

[-Alpha]

Half the site blames Sony? I strongly doubt that. And I don't know anyone who genuinely condones what the hacker did whatsoever

Fanboys aside, of course.

And as far as bashing Sony-- these websites are publishing these pieces because it's the nature of N4G. Everybody wants a piece of the attention. Annoying? Yes.

[Rainstorm81]

Now that this situation has shown itself, Noone will openly defend the hackers. But weeks before PSN went down and throughout the entire Geo-HOt and Anonynous situation, many people sided with the hackers.

Instead of taking sides now its "Sony's Bad security"... 5 years in and PSN has finally been cracked, security must not have been that bad for sometime. Its really sad cause all of this stems from losers that have grudges against big companies.

Like Michael Calce aka Mafiaboy
Back in 2000 he Took down: Yahoo, Amazon, Dell, E*Trade, eBay, and CNN.

"Because the Big companies are Evil"

[gorebago]

I 100% at this point DO NOT blame Sony. How could you? I blame the sociopaths who a week ago promised something big, made it happen and then lied about their guilt.

Unless facts come out stating otherwise, I'm with Sony.

And for the record, V for Vendetta is a terrible movie and an overrated graphic novel.

[Obama]

Almost all the ones who are laughing and blaming Sony don't even own a ps3. Guess which console they own?

[-Alpha]

@MasFlow

Sorry, but that's an entirely different situation.

XBL wasn't shutout entirely, it suffered from an overload for a mass amount of people. Some were able to log in, some had issues, but nobody feared for their security

PSN was shutout for everybody, hackers are getting personal information, and Sony has lost trust in the process. It'd be foolish to think even the most hardcore Sony fan wouldn't think twice before submitting CC information on to the PSN

The situations are entirely different. To state that XBL's image was tarnished because of an overload is not the same as PSN getting hacked by one person and stealing, possibly, information ranging from your password to your CC

[Dee_91]

@alphamale
http://n4g.com/comments/red...

Yes people do believe it is Sony fault

[Rainstorm81]

**Completely off topic**

Alpha you must have a quite a fanbase here on this site, alot of ur comments get +bub comments even if you have multiple disagrees.

Do you have a your own game site or something??

[ownallconsoles]

He's a 360 fanboy at heart that's why. They're slowly taking over n4g. smh

[Homicide]

Xbox live went down because of a massive influx of new users. PSN went down because of crap security, and to add, millions of user's info is at risk.

[rob6021]

Do you really know what kind of security PSN had? No - no one does except the hackers that got in and Sony themselves. Tell me when MS had most hackers on the internet targeting them, and how their security held up then.

[testerg35]

lol.. "most of the hackers on the internet"

[sleepy3]

@rob

Lets be real here. A small group of hackers were concentrating on Sony. Hots is not the hacker Obama. The VAST VAST VAAASSST majority of hackers were busy doing what they always do. Attacking Microsoft windows......

[dalibor]

That goes to show no online service is perfect. Had no one tempered with the PSN would this ever had happened? Hell no. Now watch as anything that is free just dissipate because of actions that some a sholes did. We as gamers should go after these thieves and rob them and see if they like that. I hope Sony goes after as many of these hackers as they can. I'm pissed. But not at Sony. And anyone who backed up hackers are crazy. Thanks for supporting the scumbags.

[TheKayle]

go to watch the chat log of the hackers..and u will see how much they laught about the security of psn..and how ridiculous is the way how sony manage the user info...PLS

[Zeevious]

There's tons of fun to have with PSN offline.

A two week outage didn't tarnish Live's reputation.
This seems like just sensational nonsense to me.

First, it's not Sony's fault, it's hackers.
Hackers who don't even have the _ _ _ _ _ to take credit for their own work.

Sony's is securing the network, and our personal information to make sure this can't happen again.

I'm sure it was just completely accidental and harmless "Homebrew" right? Isn't that all custom firmware and stealing that key was all about?

If that's what anyone calls tarnishing Sony & PSN, I have the solution, right here :
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_L...

(Oh, and standing up for gamers here cost me another bubble! N4G - Why is it bubbles never go up, just down? Bubble System Tarnish?)

[Anon1974]

Tarnished image? Let's see. Sony found out there was a problem. They immediately shut down the PSN. Within a day of verifying what happened they notified the public.

Hacking happens, just like any other kind of crime. Sony did exactly what they should have. So how is their image "tarnished" anymore then a bank that gets robbed, or any other corporate victim of hacking? Someone will always get around your security - it's only a matter of time. It's how you deal with it that sets companies apart. Sony acted swiftly and decisively and I hope they get the service back up again as soon as possible. In the meantime, I'm going to fire up my PS3 and play me some Fallout.

[Thatguy-310]

Sony did really mess up on this one but will I hold it against them ? Nope and probably never will..you can call me a fanboy or whatever you want but I'm always going to support Sony because they've done so much for gaming and I basically grew up with the playstation brand.. But believe me on this, SOny won't need to fix their "tarnish"image because this will be forgotten by the time E3 comes along..I for one didn't care for what happened since I didn't have my credit card info in any of my accounts :) But anyways all my support to Sony and hopefully this will lead to an introduction to a new firmware with better security and new features ? :) (Crossing Fingers)

[ndl1531]

true man people act as if the ps3 is unplayable . the web browser works , netflix works, THE ENTIRE LIBRARY OF SINGLE PLAYER GAMES works, yet people still complain ? SONY GOT HACKED and they are working on fixing the problem . im currently on borderlands single player and loving every minute man really recommend it to anyone who loves great games

[yewles1]

Wow, was 2006 THAT long ago? My, how time flies...

[gorebago]

This gen flew by quickly.

[lee_ten]

wow, really? REALLY?

not giving hits.

[Godmars290]

We can only see what they do once PSN is up and running again.

Though I'm sure that Morgan Webb will be making jokes about this for a while...

[sikbeta]

YES, new and robust security on their servers ans assure us that it'll not happen again, I know people in order to forget about this whole mess will want something in compensation and I hope Sony to deliver...

[Joe2911]

They don't have much choice but to compensate after spilling the beans to the extent they have. This is BIG. I am already thinking about next gen, it will be much harder to choose between PS and xbox this time around (I was hardcore Sony).

[vikingland1]

funny funny funny

[showtimefolks]

within a week of psn being back up we will forget this.

take your time sony make sure things like this can't be done again

chill out everyone its not the end of the world

[Guard719]

YES! You have the right state of mind. it isnt the end of the world! ANd like that PS3Colypse from last year, people will forget this! Yea it sucks but you can still play on your ps3!

[B1663r]

Sooooo, from reading the n4g comments, the PS3 could transform into a robot and kill your mother and little sister and you guys would be like "this could happen to anybody"

So Id have to say that the PS3 image has not been tarnished at all.

[cyclonus007]

I'd love a people-killing robot. One that plays Blu-rays? Even better.

[MysticStrummer]

Alternatively, reading other N4G comments would have you believe that the 360 is some sort of impregnable fortress. I know no 360 user will believe this, since I am a self proclaimed MS hater, but I honestly hope the same thing doesn't happen to XBL, because it easily could.

[etowntwo]

B166

You had me literally LOL! !!!

[nightmarex121]

If they take the time right now to change up the psn and add bunch of new features then most people will forget about it, if they can wow us with a feature. They need some kind of wow factor to deflect the past problems pretty much. Its kinda almost like the toyota case, when people lost trust b/c of safety issue, but if you offer good deals and the feature that people want then they going to bounce back.

[disturbing_flame]

Hope the PSN still be free after that.

It would be the best answer of this corporation.

[gamingisnotacrime]

its too late to start charging, but for PS4... watch out

[disturbing_flame]

i think people will be happy with that, they can thanks hackers.

When they are downloading illegally films, music on the net, people don't feel they are doing wrong, but when somebody like them take their credit card info they complain and whine, and they are not angry after the ones who steal their money but against what had provided them a free service that was working before some dumbass like them hacked it and robbed data from it.

This society is doomed.

[cyclonus007]

Well, you could always go to Xbox Live. Oh wait...

http://i.joystiq.com/2011/0...

[MysticStrummer]

Shhh... They don't want anyone to focus on the fact that 360 was hacked a long time ago. What a joke N4G is. lol If abandoning the original XBox with a badly built successor didn't hurt MS, then this won't hurt Sony.

[rob6021]

yea these hackers that were out for our rights..why couldn't they just send the details to Sony and help Sony build up their security? Oh yea that's right they were out for vengeance - and they decided to go after sony's customers instead of Sony themselves.

[JAMurida]

I don't get why you would post that or why people are acting the way they are about the situation.

ANYTHING could be hacked. PSN, XBL, Wii online or whatever it's called, 3DS, phones, computers, A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G. It's funny seeing the people who are saying, "I'm done with Sony, not risking my info anymore." But using XBL or another online service makes you safe again right? lol. Once your connected online you have as much chance as Sony, MS, Samsung, anyone has to get hacked.

[cyclonus007]

I agree with you, that's why I posted it. The larger issue here is nothing is safe. LIVE, Visa, MasterCard, BofA... all of them have been hacked by people trying to steal information. Whether PSN was breached for theft, piracy, or whatever remains to be seen.

But now the game begins. Don't be surprised if you soon see people demanding the heads of the hackers responsible. A mother on the Today Show blaming hackers for the theft of her identity because she let her son use her credit card on PSN. Demanding that something has to be done. Analysts recounting the Geohot case and how Sony tried to prevent this from happening. Horror stories about the stuff Anonymous does and has yet to do.

Hackers, crackers, pirates; they just doomed the jailbreaking scene forever. It's just a matter of time now.

[sikbeta]

How could you!? that never happened, it's all lies, that can't happen cos they get what they pay for and by that logic, that's a fake...

XD

[Jsynn7]

Another lame PSN Outage article posted by another lame multi-account troll. Mods, please ban this kid. This is getting ridiculous.

[coryok]

huh? i dont think sony has a bad reputation. they support their products longer than any other console manufacturer and give away things that other console manufacturers charge 50$ for.
im pretty broke already, sony offers me some real value, whether its through there amazing selection of games or the value that they put into their products, i feel more satisfied with my sony purchases than i do with others

[finnhima]

Puhlease. Sony will always be lambasted and trashed by the media no matter what they do. This past week shows the extremities of just how far some websites will go. These sony scare tactics, and these "nail in sony's coffin" articles were WAY too much.

For example. Kotaku and ign together released over a dozen articles in the past few days with nothing to contribute to the news other than overblowing.

What makes it worse is how people have changed this into a "bad sony" thing when the fact was they shut down the psn to protect OUR PERSONAL INFORMATION. Protecting THE CONSUMERS. From who? ANONYMOUS hackers.

[mrkeith]

lol what tarnished image? I havent been online on the PS3 for a month or so

[InLaLaLand]

Same my PS3 doesn't load DISCS!!!

[psnplus_not]

charging for psn...i hope they can still keep it running due to lack of funds from playstation store...girlfriend flirts with another guy...ok work through that....girlfriend flirts
with another guy and you wind up with the clap..we you get the picture..but hey it took her a few days to find out for sure she had the clap....she didn't want to jump to conclusions...

[Burning_Finger]

Article by LONER.. NEXT!!

[badboy888]

Sony should come with all new revamped FREE online service with the works cross game chat,in game music,better internet browser etc. And all will be forgiven.

[sleepy3]

all iw ant is in game music like i did with my xbox before it died. Why cant i play stream music from my pc during fifa or any other game i feel like? This would be worth the 70 million CC's as far as i am concerned.

[PSK22]

Hey think of it as a PS/PS2 era, just play some games offline and if you want multi player, tell a friend to come over.

Whats done is done, as for any personal information being leaked out, just be on guard and don't answer to any unexpected emails, mails or messages.

As for any credit/debit information, cancel your card and request a new one. In most cases though, your bank will notify you for any suspicious transactions.

[cyclonus007]

Yes. Here's why:

Someone posted these on Kotaku. Very relevant.

http://news.cnet.com/Bank-o...

http://www.nytimes.com/2005...

http://www.information-age....

http://i.joystiq.com/2011/0...

You can be angry with Sony but you must realize that no information is safe anywhere. Ever. Sleep well tonight.

[psnplus_not]

it some people think a revamped system with cross game chat in game music better internet browser..etc will make things ok...seems some people have more to lose from compromised financial information then others...or no concept of money..so you might as well start charging for the service..it might pay for some decent management...proactive security...lots of coffee for public relations

[psnplus_not]

dear Sony..hacks happen....i admire the way you go after people who try to mess with your bottom line...your very proactive..security updates..court...you making a stance..which you should..i see your point...so i glad were on the same page because i don't want you to take it the wrong way and get your feelings hurt when i have to take the same stance because of piss poor management that might affect my bottom line. You can say your sorry all you want but i would be as much to blame as you would be if i made such a piss poor decision to leave you with the responsibility of affecting my funds...ps when signing in to network ...down for maintenance might be interpreted differently as let say...down due to security breach..an email would be nice considering you still have that information. nothing left to say..consumer down for maintenance. lol and your trying to sell plus...sure hope public relations department learns from mistakes

[Spawn-KING]

Im starting to hate video games .

[blackburn5]

ComboBreaker I think that is a very good point. I believe that Sony has stopped listening to the naysayers a long time ago. No matter how Sony handled the attack, even if they told everyone that their info might have been compromised, everyone would have torn into them no matter what. I mean who does anyone think they are fooling. If Sony said 'Your info may be at risk and we won't get PSN back up and running until the next weekend' that everyone would have responded differently? Nope.All these articles would still be here and Sony's reputation would be tarnished by all these articles.

If Sony listened to every threats, putdown and Sony is doomed prediction they got they wouldn't be here with 50 million owners and a stellar line up but would at the feet of the other consoles making video games for them like Sega. @ cyclonus007. Thanks for that.

[MrBeatdown]

If Microsoft could recover from RROD, Sony can recover from this.

Sure, fanboys will drag anything they can on for years, and be sure to remind anyone of anything they can that paints the competing console in a negative light, but most people won't care once the problem is fixed and they are once again back to enjoying their system.

[etowntwo]

Cool .... Now the PS3 can go down in history for largest online security breach.

Still though, what's worse?
Rrod or psn security breach .... As if now rrod still takes the cake biggest fcuk up this gen, but that can soon change if massive fraud starts because it the psn breach.

[Mr-Dude]

Im a little shocked to see people complaining about Sony
MS had the same problem, there where 6 million creditcard information hacked from xbox live so it could happen to an company.

Not so long ago here in Holland the IGN bank was hacked and a lot people lost a good amount of money.

I trust Sony, and in a week or so we all are playing again the games we love...And watch the E3 show like we do every year... and then laugh at xbox because we have more games... :-/

[undercovrr]

I trusted Sony too before this. Now I don't trust any corporation anymore, which Is what I should have done in the first place. You shouldn't continue to put your trust in a company who's faulty security could have potentially exposed your personal/credit card information to hackers

[IHateYouFanboys]

epic lulz at people comparing Sonys problem to Xbox Lives trouble in 2007/2008.

how many peoples personal and private information were compromised by SOME people having intermittent connection issues to Live? 0.

how many peoples personal an private information were compromised by the PSN begin attacked? a possible 70+ million.

see the difference?

Live was NEVER down. some people had connection issues, while millions and millions didnt experience a single problem over the entire 2 weeks. thats all it was - the people on here going on about Xbox live being down and offline for 2 weeks are clearly people who didnt actually have an Xbox at the time. i did, and over the 2 weeks i didnt have a single connection problem. not one. i played COD online, i played Halo 3 online, I played Gears of War online. no problems at all. Microsoft still gave me a free month of Live and a free XBLA game too.

the PSN is 100% down, and has been for 6 days. XBox Live has never even been 100% down for 24 hours. its never even been 25% down for 24 hours. hell, its never even been 10% down for 24 hours. not a single person in the entire world has been able to login to the PSN for 6 whole days.

to even suggest that this PSN outage is even remotely the same as Xbox Lives problems is utter garbage.

[CtrlAltDel]

If they are SMART...they will announce a permanent subscription fee for PSN which pay for:

1. The work required to investigate & upgrade the network security as currently being performed.

2. Future upgrades and features (like x game chat).

3. The money for the inevitable losses they will suffer from the lawsuits of people whose IDs were stolen.

Sony entered the online console game the same year (2002)as Microsoft and I clearly remember them saying that MS's formula to charge a subscription fee and have broadband only was not going to work.

Almost 10 years later, Sony has not only been stumbling on all levels, playing catch up (weekly firmware updates, avatar implementations, gamercards, trophies, etc.) and now it has come to light that people's information was not properly secured.

MS has only had hiccups during this time with the biggest one due to bandwidth, when more users than expected joined XBL (still not causing or shutting down their ENTIRE network worldwide for days or weeks). Every year, MS was taking down XBL and upgrading/adding features and tightening their system.

For example, they had to update their network to account for more users, using routers. This is why some have NAT issues. This was no such thing as NAT issues from 2002-2004. But SOME people questioned where their $50 per year went to. How about 'Improved Security'. A feature you don't see or are aware of, until it gets hacked.

Even devs complained of MS's strict rules and regulations with regards to their network. Now you see why! Better safe than sorry, huh?

Those with multiple PSN accounts should probably be scared the most cause they probably have most of their info (passwords, emails, etc.) out there.

[earbus]

Ylod tarnished it for me but im really happy with my sony bravia.

[Optical_Matrix]

The same way Microsoft has bounced back from the red-ring fiasco, which imo is just as bad, Sony will bounce back from this. The moral panic and tabloid sensationalism that surrounds this story need to stop. Only 10 minutes ago, I was reading the daily mails online headlines and one of them was '77 Million credit card details possibly stolen from PSN users'...last time I checked, it was 77 million credit card details were at risk. So..you know.

[ndl1531]

you gotta be a complete FOOL or a 360 fantard to blame sony at this point THEY GOT HACKED and they are working on a fix what part of that do people not understand ? play some single player games the wole library of them is available to you . so much for gamers cant even stop whining and you call yoursealves "hardcore" when you all cant find somethig else to play while it gets fixed. hope they find the trash who did this

[ERMAC_]

Sony was on life support at launch for a good while. Look where they are now up until this hack. Doing just fine and catching up.

It'll hurt, but they'll recover, and continue releasing the games I want.