Here we go again%26hellip;
Aside from the gross screw-up here (and this is a massive, massive mess), this is far worse for Sony because there’s a precedent. It doesn’t matter that the precedent isn’tin relation toany previous hacking or public security event. The problem is that Sony has always had a reputation for being terminally cack-handed when it comes to online.
With a reputation like that, unrelated incidents become related in the mind of ones' audience. The ApocalyPS3 event last year, when internal clock issues borked PSN connectivity for a whole lot of people? “Sony can’t handle online”. Over-frequent updates and patches for the console and its games, that take unacceptably long to implement? “Sony can’t handle online”. A spate of hacking, culminating in the PS3 being cracked wide open for homebrew and piracy, and the clueless complicity ofSony’s own Twitter mouthpiece? “Sony can’t handle security, or online”
And now this. Boom. Oh dear. In fact in context, oh fucking dear.
Above: Not a great track record
Linked issues or not, I’m not sure a corporate reputation can recover from an escalation of goofs like this, when said goofs all relate to the same area of its operation.
But something else links all of the above. A culture of non-disclosure. Whenever something has gone wrong, Sony has historically been about as talkative as a dead rock. In this connected, communicative age, in which technology audiences are often as clued up as those making the technology, to conduct oneself in such a way is a major act of naïveté. Once the (largely correct) theories start to fly around online, as indeed they did this time, almost the instant that PSN “maintenance” was announced, silence starts to make a company look frankly clueless. It’s one thing to have a security breach or technical fault. It’s another entirely to give the impression that you were the last to know about it.
Remember whenthe worst case scenario from Sony was that the PSN outage could last “a full day or two”? That was on the 21st of April, nearly a full week ago, and two full days after Sony knew the PSN had been compromised and had shutit downfor investigation.
Possible outcomes
Where does this leave Sony? Not in a good place. While it cannot be blamed for the hack, its response time, particularly its public response time, has been unforgivably slow. Whether the delay came about as a result of a lack of preparation or simply Sony’s tradition of panicked huddling in the face of trouble cannot currently be known, but a combination of both is entirely possible. One thing is sure though. If you even suspect a nuclear meltdown might be on the cards, you don’t wait until things start glowing. You tell the people to get the hell out of town.
The fact that Sony didn’t do that, and instead once again chose to remain silent, is going to leave a bad taste for a very very long time with many people. Technology is fickle and can be forgiven its failings, but issues resulting from a corporate philosophy driven by human thinking are much harder to let go.
Above: It might be free, but it does have monetry value, both to Sony and to its customers
What does Sony owe its customers? We’ll have to wait and see what it decides when this is all cleaned up. Some will argue nothing, given that the PSN is a free service, but things aren’t as simple as that. Many choose to buy a PS3 over an Xbox 360 because of the PSN’s lack of subscription fees, so inherently have paid for it by way of their choice of console brand. The PSN is a selling point, and people have bought it.
But that situation would apply even if this was simply a service outage. It isn’t. It’s a service outage which has put the personal security of Sony’s customers – 70 million of them – at risk, and which has been exacerbated by poor management. I’m really not sure what Sony is going to do to make up for it.
Maybe the best thing it can do is just be better in the future. Better security. Better online infrastructure. Better methods of maintaining its system. And above all, better communication. And hopefully, by way of all those, better reputation. Because Sony really needs that now. It’s gone about as far as it can go in its current direction.
April 27th, 2011
