Certainly by now, we’ve had our fill of Playstation Network hacking and information-stealing news. We know it’s bad… really bad. And, we know that personal information was leaked, to the extent of which we hope ends at addresses and birth dates. If you happened to be sitting near any mobile device yesterday then you noticed the incredible voracity for complaints and anger aimed at Sony.
Sony’s slowly revealing information about the plan, which includes a complete rebuild and relocation of their network security. But what happens now? How and when will Sony recover?
We have a few questions that we hope can get answered in the days, weeks and months to come.
What’s the mood in Japan?
In the US and Europe, gamers were beyond angry. Over 70 million users had their information infiltrated. However, we’ve heard nary a squeak out of the Japanese gaming world. Is this a Western concern more than anything? Are Japanese gamers less worried about the issue than we are?
What happens to Sony’s brands?
The word “Playstation” is now tarnished, let alone the words “Playstation Network”. While Sony was king of the gaming hill for a decade, they’ve fallen, hard, since the release of the Playstation 3. Pricing issues, a slower-than predicted adoption of Blu Ray, loss of exclusivity, and a general feeling of “me too” (Move?) have hurt the console. This latest issue piles on top of the growing shift of gamers from Sony brands to Nintendo and Xbox. “Playstation” no longer means “gaming”.
Will consumers turn away?
The PS3 is still the most powerful console on the market, technically speaking. It’s the most versatile Blu Ray player as well, and has some great multi-platform and exclusive games. These points may still serve the casual technophile, but for the core gamer, and those concerned with online privacy and security, a slow exodus may start to occur. Kinect is winning over Move, Netflix and Hulu are on the Xbox, and the price of a low-SKU 360 is still considerably less than the lowest PS3. Sales won’t come to a screeching halt, but they may be damaged these next few months, and that may allow Microsoft to gain even more momentum going into the latter half of the year.
Will developers/publishers turn away?
No. There is still a considerably large installed-base for the PS3, and outright avoiding it would damage any bottom lines. What we may see occur, however, is a further shift away from exclusives for the platform from third parties, especially on the downloadable side. If sales will be hurt on PSN’s store and consumers are hesitant to buy content there, why sell titles exclusively there? Will companies like Valve, who just invested massively in creating a functioning Steam for PS3, slow down those efforts?
What will Sony do to reimburse those affected?
We can separate “those affected” into two groups: current PSN users, and potential PS3 purchasers. In the former, most users are crying for some sort of reimbursement/free download as well as the re-assurance that it will never happen again. For the latter, Sony may need to drop the price of the Playstation 3 to re-ignite sales… because they WILL slump, potentially severely.
Regardless of how these questions are answered, Sony faces an immense task ahead of them. This year’s E3 Expo may become a turning point for the product, and company, as a whole.
No Comments