Topic: PSN = Privacy? Security? Never!

[Chozo Ghost]

A long time ago before they entered video games Sony used to be regarded as a quality brand.

[GoldenPhoenix]

I smell the end of the PlayStation nearing.

Or at least the PS3 anyway. It should still have years more of life in it because of how powerful it is, but its so severely compromised at this point that its a joke and there's little Sony can do about it. I'm betting this may cause Sony to rush out a more "secure" PS4 and prevent the PS3 from having the 10 year life that they claimed it would.

There were rumors of a PS3.5, this might help make it a reality, but I guess we should see what Nintendo has planned @ E3 before Sony sets anything in motion.

Of course they will, Sony has to let Nintendo innovate for them before they do anything.

Seriously, I am not sure what this will do to the brand name of Playstation or Sony. People can have very short memories so while it may hurt in the short term, but long term it is anyone's guess.

[Ceric]

I honestly think before this Sony needed to start letting their brands go Sony-less so just Bravia, Playstation, Walkman, etc.

[broodwars]

Lucky for them, Playstation Network wasn't a great name anyway.

True 'nuf that.  It was a functional name, but doesn't have the catchiness of something like "XBox Live" even if "PSN" was nice and easy to say.  I still like it better than "Wii Shop Channel", though.   : :

[Chozo Ghost]

I think even the name "Sony" could probably be turned around due to their products in home video and electronics.

But after seeing how little regard Sony has for either its customers or its employees, the question is do we even want them to be able to turn around?

[Stogi]

Am I the only one that pronounces PSN, pissin'?

[Chozo Ghost]

Am I the only one that pronounces PSN, pissin'?

I always pronounce the PSP as "Pissp" (a fitting name for a Piss Poor system).

[Stogi]

Ah the PSP is not so bad. It's been my VC console for years.

[broodwars]

Ah the PSP is not so bad. It's been my VC console for years.

Having recently purchased one, I agree.  I've found the handful of notable games it has quite entertaining (KH: Birth By Sleep being my favorite so far).

As for whether we "want" Sony to return, I certainly do.  I really enjoy their 1st party franchises, and even if I wasn't a fan of the company's products I still think the competition they bring is good for the industry.

[Chozo Ghost]

But one good thing that may happen if Sony disappeared is that it would open up the market enough for a new competitor to enter, such as Sega. Sony was largely responsible for Sega's demise, and Sony badly hurt Nintendo as well. They destroyed the golden age of gaming which was Nintendo/Sega.

[broodwars]

But one good thing that may happen if Sony disappeared is that it would open up the market enough for a new competitor to enter, such as Sega. Sony was largely responsible for Sega's demise, and Sony badly hurt Nintendo as well. They destroyed the golden age of gaming which was Nintendo/Sega.

Oh please, Sega's incompetence was largely responsible for Sega's demise, with their frequent release of new consoles and lack of support for existing ones.  Sony only hastened the inevitable.

[Morari]

The only Sega console that quickly lost support was the Saturn. And that was largely due to developer reluctance (high prices didn't help the market either). Beyond that, there were a few Genesis add-ons that weren't particularly utilized. The Dreamcast is still the best home console ever produced, both from a hardware and software standpoint. The only reason it failed was due to consumers' hard feelings over the prior Saturn and (more so) Sony's outright lies and FUD over what the upcoming PS2 would be capable of.

I'd welcome Sega back with open arms. Of course, the management that existed during the Dreamcast era is long gone (and actually helped to make the Xbox what it is). Sony hasn't really done much for the gaming community other than bring frat boys in.

[Ian Sane]

Nintendo and Sega destroyed the golden age with their incredibly stupid decisions.  The Saturn and N64 were doomed from the start.  All Sony really did was be merely competent and thus win by default.

I don't care for Sony much but I do think competition is good for the industry.  And there is the expression "better the devil you know".  We've seen how the videogame industry works with Sony on top and honestly it was not that bad.  If they went under it might open the market up to someone else who we don't know who would like even less.

Plus Sony is a better foe for Microsoft.  I don't want Microsoft on top so it is good that there is another big multimedia corporation competing with them.  Nintendo is small potatoes in comparison.  If it was just Nintendo vs. MS I think it would give MS too big of an advantage and would allow for an easier MS monopoly.  They can't out-muscle Sony so easily or out-muscle two competitors at once.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Lucky for them, Playstation Network wasn't a great name anyway.

True 'nuf that.  It was a functional name, but doesn't have the catchiness of something like "XBox Live" even if "PSN" was nice and easy to say.  I still like it better than "Wii Shop Channel", though.   : :

Has anyone noticed that Nintendo's new eShop could be abbreviated as NeS?

[Chozo Ghost]

Oh please, Sega's incompetence was largely responsible for Sega's demise, with their frequent release of new consoles and lack of support for existing ones.

You want to talk about incompetence? How about Sony's incompetence this entire generation so far? Sure, Sega made some mistakes, but they didn't intentionally screw consumers over. They didn't deserve to be driven out of the market. Sony's lies and underhanded tactics brought about their demise. If you do that to an individual person its called murder. They almost did the same thing to Nintendo.

Sony only hastened the inevitable.

Maybe whoever hacked PSN is hastening the inevitable too?

[broodwars]

Oh please, Sega's incompetence was largely responsible for Sega's demise, with their frequent release of new consoles and lack of support for existing ones.

You want to talk about incompetence? How about Sony's incompetence this entire generation so far? Sure, Sega made some mistakes, but they didn't intentionally screw consumers over. They didn't deserve to be driven out of the market. Sony's lies and underhanded tactics brought about their demise. If you do that to an individual person its called murder. They almost did the same thing to Nintendo.

Nice try, but we're not talking about Sony on this, but Sega and how you believe that "Sony was LARGELY responsible" (emphasis on "largely") for Sega's demise.  I only have to spend 5 seconds looking at the pitiful excuse for marketing that Sega does and the Tower of Power to say definitively that they deserve to be where they are.  They are the ones who decided to confuse and flood their audience with expensive peripherals and add-ons that saw little support and had a very short lifespan.  Sega killed themselves.  Sony was just the then-competent company that stepped in and took their rightful place as Nintendo's main competitor and eventually market leader.  And it's not like Sega's gotten any better, as look at their nonexistent marketing whenever they try and push something that's not Sonic.

I don't excuse any of the screw-ups that Sony's done this generation.  If they are now permanently in 3rd place or have to leave the console market, they only have themselves to blame.  But let's not pretend that Sega of old was this valiant knight on a shining white horse who did nothing wrong and got beaten to death by a 50 ft. ogre.  Sega did that to themselves.

[Morari]

They are the ones who decided to confuse and flood their audience with expensive peripherals and add-ons that saw little support and had a very short lifespan.

Huh? You mean Nintendo and the Wii? Classic Controller, Classic Controller Pro. WiiSpeak, Wheels, Zappers, etc. I thought we were talking about Sega. They do what Ninten-don't!

The only time Sega was releasing peripherals left and right in such a manner was when they were on top of the world with the Genesis. Even then, some greats things came from their diversions. The CD add-on, for example, had a handful of games that still holdup as greats titles today.

[broodwars]

They are the ones who decided to confuse and flood their audience with expensive peripherals and add-ons that saw little support and had a very short lifespan.

Huh? You mean Nintendo and the Wii? Classic Controller, Classic Controller Pro. WiiSpeak, Wheels, Zappers, etc. I thought we were talking about Sega.

Yeah seriously, don't remind me.  That's one of my biggest gripes with Nintendo this generation.

[NWR_insanolord]

Sega's history was a big part of its demise, even though they'd gotten past that with the Dreamcast, because people were still wary from the Sega CDx/32X/Saturn. But the bullshit Sony was spewing about the PS2, most of which isn't even true about the PS3, took a lot away from the early hype for the Dreamcast. Sega fucked themselves, and Sony made sure they couldn't redeem themselves, which is something I'll never forgive them for.

[broodwars]

Back to actual news: Sony just put up a press release on their blog detailing something they should have been offering in that first week PSN went down: complimentary enrollment in an Identity Theft protection program through a company called Debix.  This has been needing to happen for a long time now, so it's great to see them finally taking this step.  Unfortunately, this program is only available to PSN members in North America.

EDIT:

Update - The PS Blog has been updated with a letter from Howard Stringer and a notice that the new Playstation Network has entered "final testing".  If you believe Stringer's letter, they expect PSN to go back online within a couple of days.  I'd like to believe that, but they've said that several times now so I'll believe it when I see it.

[Chozo Ghost]

Hopefully this Stringer guy isn't just Stringing us along.

[NWR_insanolord]

If I weren't about to go to bed, and had access to my computer with Photoshop, I'd make an awesome gif mashup of Howard Stringer and Stringer Bell from The Wire, with some clever text. But I have practicum in the morning, so someone else has to do that. BnM?

[BranDonk Kong]

I think we'll read about Howard Stringer killing himself in the next few weeks.

[broodwars]

I think we'll read about Howard Stringer killing himself in the next few weeks.

Hey now, let's not be morbid.  Whatever you may think of Sony as a company, let's not start forecasting/wishing the death of the people in the company (especially if we don't have evidence of Stringer being involved with the former design of PSN).

[SupaKirb]

Another Hacking Problem For Sony?

image removed by the evil censors*

I know there have already been rumors about this, but here is some information to feed this one.

A report by Cnet indicates that hackers are planning out another massive attack to be directed at Sony. The claim was made by a viewer of a chat channel, where hackers were supposedly planning out an attack being executed this weekend. Whether this is just someone trying to draw attention to themselves, or a true report, it wouldn’t be unthinkable at this point.

As of right now, it is uncertain whether or not these suspected hackers are with the  group know as, “Anonymous”, who have, “for the record”, stated that they had no involvement in the attacks that brought the PlayStation Network down this past April. (Which is supposed to be back up sometime this week if all goes to plan.) It has also been reported that said hackers, already have access to Sony servers, and have threatened to release the personal information they may find during their raid on Sony.

I guess that’s it for now, all you Sony users be weary. It may just be a scare, but we will have to wait to find out.

Source: (In-Game) http://ingame.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/05/05/6593542-report-hackers-plan-third-attack-on-sony