Stringer: PSN bouncing back after this year's attack

by Richard Mitchell on Sep 2nd 2011 10:00PM

PlayStation Network has had a hell of a time with public relations this year. After the well-publicized attack on the service (which potentially exposed the personal information of millions of users), Sony has done everything it can to regain the trust and goodwill of its customers. It would seem those efforts appear are paying off, according to claims conveyed by CNET.

The site reports that Sony CEO Howard Stringer recently addressed the subject at the IFA conference in Berlin, saying that PlayStation Network is "more secure and better than ever." He added that the company is working to expand the service, which has added 3 million new customers since the attack. Furthermore, Stringer noted that PSN sales have actually increased relative to pre-attack levels.

According to Stringer, "the summer of our discontent is behind us."

Source: CNET

Tags: business, howard-stringer, playstation, playstation-network, ps3, psn, psn-outage-2011

Reader Comments (39)

-PSN ATTACKED-
Consumers - Damn, now how am I going to game this weekend???!?!

-PERSONAL INFO POSSIBLY STOLEN-
Consumers - WTF SONY, YOU F$%$&^& ASSHOLES, NOW IM GONNA BE IN DEBT, MY CREDIT CARDS BEEN STOLEN

-PSN BACK UP, SONY ANNOUNCED 'WELCOME BACK PROGRAM'-
Consumers - Its gonna have to include A LOT to regain MY trust! *realises it has free shit* I LOVE YOU SONY! OMG I GET FREE GAMES NOW

The moral of this story: give people free stuff, people will forget :D

@jackdan594
Nothing really came out of the network/database compromise. The outrage most people had came mainly from stressing over worst-case scenario fears. This was the first time some people had this happen to them, and they calmed down once the initial media frenzy cooled off. It also didn't hurt that a good portion of the games industry all suffered some sort of compromise as well not long after. I think that's when the public opinion turned to gamers versus hackers.

@jackdan594 It's sad, but oh so true.

@ruibing
Totally agree, it was a bit of an overreaction from the consumers, when it was stated CC info was encrypted anyway

Fingers crossed this is the last I have to hear of this.

To be honest, i forgot all about this...

Sony has its problems, just like every company, but one thing I will say is that they take care of their customers. True, PSN was down for a month, but it has also been entirely free for the last 4-some years, and they even offered free games and PSN+ membership as compensation for the down time. They're not perfect, and they could have done a lot more to prevent such events from happening to begin with, but they're moving on and so should we. Keep up the good work. Playstation for the win.

@MW49350 This

@MW49350

Meanwhile Nintendo execs take pay cuts because their game system didn't meet sales expectations. Point Nintendo.

@Co
Are you talking about the 3DS? Cause thats their fault it didn't sell well, they flooded the market with too many types of DS'.

@Co

Don't see the correlation between that and what he said.

@MW49350 The thing I'd be pissed about is if my personal info was stolen and Sony delayed to tell its customers the info. Otherwise, Sony handled it fine.

@Co
White knighting Nintendo on a completely unrelated article.

Wat.

@Co Point Nintendo? Really? Let me just go ahead and ignore the fact that you're crusading for Nintendo on a totally unrelated article for basically no reason, but regardless, let me remind you that Nintendo did little more than take pay cuts and offer some archaic games as compensation for the incredible lack of any worthwhile content on their game system. That was also their choice- Sony had no choice whatsoever because they were attacked, but they still gave their customers free MODERN games as well as a month of PSN. Point Sony.

They tried very hard to compensate for the attacks, so good to hear that PSN has recovered.

what? sony got hacked?

Where is Ezio?

@Ainwaith I think i see his head bobbing just out of frame below that dudes waist.

Good. I'm glad that after the Crash and everything Spyroling out of control, they Ratchet'd up security and Jak'd us a few free games. That's quite the Sly move.

@mikeburnfire

A little iffy on the Spyroling

@mikeburnfire

Yeah, Sony certainly ventured into Uncharted teritory with their networking thing and while they're now inFAMOUS for being the victims of the biggest hack ever and their servers becoming a Killzone, they're better for it. Sure, they could've put up a bit more Resistance, but it's in the past now, things are forgotten and free shit was sweeeeeet.

I apologise, I had to do it.

@mikeburnfire Yeah, I'm really glad The Mark of Kri made a nice Shadow of the Colossus. I was tempted to just Twisted Metal and not Dark Cloud anymore, but they made Primal and everything was God of War again. Even though the LocoRoco wasn't for LittleBigPlanet, I still thought it was a Patapon move. They built up a lot of their MediEvil back with Gran Turismo, perhaps even ICO than they had Legend of Dragoon. If Patchwork Heroes gets Warhawked again, I don't think it will be this Rise of Kasai and SOCOM again though.

@Epoque

What is this I don't even.

@That One Guy

It got me to subscribe.

Even speaking as a non-PS3 gamer, I get the feeling that most PS3 gamers have forgotten about the PSN hack fiasco and/or have forgiven them. I wonder how many stood by their word, where they said they'd ditch the PS3 for the 360 because of how Sony handled the issue.

Hate to disagree, but the outrage was never over the fact that it got hacked, but rather Sony's lack responsibility in securing the data as much as possible. Anytime you don't encrypt data and don't put firewalls in front of data shows a complete disregard for it users. And everyone else getting hacked included emails, not credit card info.

@weiweihh
Looks legit.

I wonder how many people loss their information willingly like this.

And this assures in Sony's cockiness.

Give it a year or two and they'll be attacked again. With that attitude anyway

@Apsac D
This story is but a fable...

...oh wait

HA HA Poor hackers & haters can't stop the PS3! ! ! :D

They may have improved secuirty but come on psn how many years will it take to get cross game chat..such an important feature. i sold my ps3 after the way sony handled it...Never really been impressed by their online multiplayer games dont seem as smooth as 360...from a network point of view....
free games didnt tempt me id prefer to know my credit card and personal info is safe... So lazy how they could have got into this situation in the first place...
Overall im glad everyone got something free from sony for a change....
if consistant muliplayer is your bag i know which service i would pay for,,,,

@soulseekerUK

Who really gives a sh$t about cross game chat anymore? Why would someone want to talk to someone whos not playing the same game?

Here's a re-creation of what a cross game chat might look like:

Bill: Hey whats up man
Bob: not much just playing MW2. You?
Bill: just playing BC2.
Bob: cool
Bill: cool
Bob: *crickets*
Bill *crickets*

LAME. Have you ever heard of this new cutting edge technology called a CELL PHONE? amazingly it will let you call OR text anyone you want. I think it uses voodoo to pull this off.

@(Unverified)

Without a headset, it's kind of hard to play games and talk in a cell phone.

Cell phones also cost money. Minutes cost money. Plans cost money. So on the whole money front, Item you have to pay for, and use up units which cost money unless on an unlimited plan < Free in-game chat.

Good news to hear. Keep it up, Sony.

Almost bought a PS3, then PSN got hacked, now I don't think I will ever buy one. That isn't changing.

Is there a meme with that picture already?

There should be.

Jack, I won't forget so easily, if ever.

I'd feel dirty even thinking about buying anything on PSN after that debacle.

Glad to hear things are looking up for PSN. However, I still prefer to buy my PSN Money at other retailers. Y'know. Just in case.

LOL...and we expected him to say any different? Kinda amazing to say you've really fully recovered from an attack just 3 months ago, of this magnitude, but hey...there are no consequences for zealots.

Stringer: PSN bouncing back after this year's attack

Reader Comments (39)

Posted: Sep 2nd 2011 10:16PM jackdan594 said

Posted: Sep 2nd 2011 11:48PM ruibing said

Posted: Sep 3rd 2011 12:00AM Oopacsunoo said

Posted: Sep 3rd 2011 1:53AM jackdan594 said

Posted: Sep 2nd 2011 10:18PM Cavall said

Posted: Sep 2nd 2011 10:21PM CleanUndies said

Posted: Sep 2nd 2011 10:25PM MW49350 said

Posted: Sep 2nd 2011 10:51PM jackdan594 said

Posted: Sep 2nd 2011 10:52PM Co said

Posted: Sep 2nd 2011 11:10PM Doctor Who said

Posted: Sep 2nd 2011 11:22PM Vidikron said

Posted: Sep 2nd 2011 11:48PM nerdydesi1 said

Posted: Sep 2nd 2011 11:52PM PointlessPuppies said

Posted: Sep 3rd 2011 2:24AM MW49350 said

Posted: Sep 2nd 2011 10:31PM BPMOmega XBL PSN Steam said

Posted: Sep 2nd 2011 10:34PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Sep 2nd 2011 11:28PM Ainwaith said

Posted: Sep 4th 2011 12:41AM AFATALERR0R said

Posted: Sep 2nd 2011 11:32PM mikeburnfire said

Posted: Sep 2nd 2011 11:48PM Enosoma said

Posted: Sep 3rd 2011 2:00AM Apsac D said

Posted: Sep 3rd 2011 9:46AM Epoque said

Posted: Sep 3rd 2011 10:48AM This Little Man Says His Name Is said

Posted: Sep 2nd 2011 11:37PM FreshBryce said

Posted: Sep 2nd 2011 11:47PM nerdydesi1 said

Posted: Sep 2nd 2011 11:55PM LexStewther said

Posted: Sep 2nd 2011 11:50PM ruibing said

Posted: Sep 3rd 2011 1:25AM Zelgon said

Posted: Sep 3rd 2011 2:20AM arucious said

Posted: Sep 3rd 2011 5:29AM RealityCheck2011 said

Posted: Sep 3rd 2011 6:12AM soulseekerUK said

Posted: Sep 3rd 2011 1:19PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Sep 3rd 2011 2:52PM Drakkenfyre said

Posted: Sep 3rd 2011 10:50AM TCJJ said

Posted: Sep 3rd 2011 11:18AM mguniverse said

Posted: Sep 3rd 2011 12:48PM WeRequireMOARMinerals said

Posted: Sep 3rd 2011 1:58PM tepster said

Posted: Sep 3rd 2011 3:08PM AxelSteelBMX said

Posted: Sep 3rd 2011 10:50PM hiruuamon said

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