The last two weeks have been a difficult time for Sony. The PlayStation Network has suffered some two weeks of downtime, initially thought to be some form of emergency system maintenance. The followed the announcement that the Network had been hacked, exposing the personal details and passwords of some 77 million gamers and users of the Qriocity streaming service.
More recently it was announced that Sony Online Entertainment had also been hacked, with the details of nearly 25 million players of games like EverQuest, Star Wars Galaxies and Vanguard being stolen. All SoE MMO games are currently offline and are likely to remain so until additional security is implemented.
For Sony the next few months will be a hard slog for them as they attempt to win back the trust of their customers. While offers of compensation or free game time will help to placate some, it’s Sony’s future customers that are going to be the hardest to win over. A rough Twitter poll broke players down into roughly three camps.