The Sony PS3 hacker debacle and their Welcome Back plan
The recent Hacker attacks on Sony by groups called “Anonymous” and “Lulz Security” have been well documented by the media.
While the terrible publicity for Sony and its impact on their business can hardly be measured, it’s been reported that these nefarious groups of nerd criminals stole over 75 million users’ data from the Sony Playstation Network, including credit card numbers, and the most recent attack claimed to have over 1 million user passwords from the Sony Pictures Web site.
For gamers, the result of the first attack has been over a month without access to the Playstation Network, which equates to no more online games, and an unwanted break from the other benefits of PSN, including PS3 game add-ons, demos, downloads, and streaming videos.
Enter today, where as a PS3 gamer I received some “Welcome” news. Sony launched a “Welcome Back” campaign aimed at getting people like myself back to use their products and alerted me through email about their special offer. The company is offering a bunch of freebies to gamers in the hopes that they will forget this past month of embarrasment and resume business as usual.
The list of free stuff includes:
- 2 free games that can be downloaded in the Playstation Store. Gamers can choose from the following downloadable games: Dead Nation; inFAMOUS; LittleBigPlanet; Super Stardust HD; or Wipeout HD Fury. Though I don’t own one, the offer is also good for PSP users, with the free games as follows: LittleBigPlanet; ModNation Racers; Pursuit Force; or Killzone Liberation.
- A free 30-day trial of Playstation Plus , which gives access to game downloads and discounts. The only game that was recognizable to me was Sonic the Hedgehog, but there are others.
- Access to 3 free steaming movies– Ghostbusters, Bad Boys, and Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. There will also be movies available for free rental throughout the weekend with a note that says “On Us.”
Upon signing back in to Playstation Network after my 1+ month hiatus I was asked to change my password (obviously, since it was probably stolen with 1 million other passwords). Unfortunately I was met with “connection” errors throughout this process, and it took several attempts before I was successful. From what I could tell it seemed like the service may have been suffering from load issues (too many simultaneous requests from users). That’s the only explanation I would have for the fact that it didn’t work a couple of times and then did with no changes on my end.
Once I was back on the PSN with my new credentials I promptly took advantage of the offers and tried to download Dead Nation to shoot some zombies on a sunny weekend afternoon. Unfortunately I was met with connection errors throughout this process as well. The good news is that after a few tries the download began and I was on my way.
All in all this is a pretty giant embarrassment for Sony, and as a lifelong PS3 user and advocate (I refuse to buy an XBox, and still feel vindicated about my decision to continue with Sony given how the Blu-Ray vs. HD DVD battle turned out) I’m having trouble defending a product and brand that I’ve stood by for something like 15 years.
The Sony security debacle hasn’t impacted my allegiance to PS3, but it does make me worry about how successful the console will be going forward. I really don’t want an XBox when the next generation systems are released. Then again, all it takes is an attack on the Xbox console to make things even. My guess is maybe 2 weeks until that happens.
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