PSN hysteria "a lot of wind and p**s"

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 29 April, 2011

Gravity Crash dev unfazed by hack.

Just Add Water boss Stewart Gilray has described the hysteria surrounding the PlayStation Network hack as "a lot of wind and p**s".

The Gravity Crash developer slammed the press reaction to the security breach, which has seen some 77 million PSN accounts compromised.

"I have to say, the press yesterday ripped Sony a new one wider than the Channel Tunnel," Gilray told Eurogamer at the GameCityNights event in Nottingham last night.

"Yes, it's up to 77 million PSN IDs, or 35 million master accounts – the rest are sub accounts. It's bad. But to look at it laterally, you're now one of 35 million people who could get their details leaked out and used by somebody else.

"But when you look at things like Play.com for example, which had 1.4 million details ripped last year, you're one in 1.4 million. There's a much higher chance of your stuff being used from Play than there is of your stuff being used from the PlayStation hack.

"I'm not saying it's good. It's bad. But I don't think half the criticism they've got has been deserved. They have gone about it the right way."

Some developers have expressed concern that the hack, which has hit headlines across the globe this week, will have a damning effect on PSN game sales.

But Gilray, who is currently working on PSN games Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee HD and Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD, said developers have little to worry about.

"To use a phrase my dad used to say, it's a lot of wind and p**s," he said.

"Dylan Cuthbert from Q-Games has said it will affect their business slightly, but their games launched a while ago. With anything digital, your biggest sales come from your first two weeks of publishing. After that it drops through the floor. Yeah, you'll get a steady flow, but it won't be as high as that first week.

"If this happened in the first week of a game coming out, then yeah, sure, fine, you're going to hurt pretty bad, especially when you're reliant on that first payment check after the first month. But after that it drops off pretty much.

"Right now we're not worried about it. I don't think there are many games released recently. I know the Telltale guys are meant to be doing Episode 2 of Back to the Future."

The PSN leak has seen the theft of personal data, including home addresses and passwords, on a massive scale.

Sony says it has found no evidence to suggest credit card data, which it insists was encrypted, has also been stolen, but it can't rule the possibility out.

A security expert this morning claimed that "low-level cyber criminals" are currently shopping around lists containing the credit card details of 2.2 million PSN members.

The claim is at this stage unsubstantiated, and conflicts with Sony's reassurance that credit card security codes were not held by PSN.

True or not, it is the threat of identity theft that has left some analysts predicting Sony could be in for a huge financial hit following the furore – and, potentially, a mass exodus from the service.

Gilray, however, is doubtful that PSN will suffer irrevocable damage.

"I can't see 35 million people unsubscribing from PSN. And games don't sell 35 million copies. They maybe sell between 15,000 and 100,000 copies depending on the size of it in the first six to 12 months. When a game does come out, people will still buy it.

"35 million accounts, or 77 million global accounts, you're not going to get all those not buying any more. You only sell to less than one per cent of the entire user base anyway. Unless, suddenly, 60 million people unsubscribe, which I really can't see, we should be fine.

"Yes, the confidence thing will hit a few people. But now Sony has said credit card information wasn't breached, and the security number wasn't breached at all, the worst that will happen is you'll get a few people who will unsubscribe and sell their consoles. Next you'll get people switching to PSN cards."

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (106) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • MaxiSleep #1 1 year ago

    This guy is a total sony apologist. Wont be buying anything from his company going forward

  • lcmnick #2 1 year ago

    Post deleted at 12:48:44 14-04-2012

  • butler` #3 1 year ago

    Talk about biased.

  • cloud_ix #4 1 year ago

    finally a sensible and rational mind

  • grayn #5 1 year ago

    Why do people think he's biased? Honest question.

  • inutaihanyou #6 1 year ago

    Its big for a global company like Sony. Their response was appalling, almost a week with no definitive information whatsoever. Now if it was worse than what we're seeing now (about 2.2 million compromised) then we would never have known about it until it was too late
    Edited by inutaihanyou at 29/04/11 @ 15:12

  • Machiavellian #7 1 year ago

    This guy is missing the bigger picture. One thing Sony wants to grow is PSn as a service. Losing customer confidense effects Sony plans big time. Websites, TV stations and other places are talking about this screw up. I walked into a Gamestop yesterday and people in the store was talking about this issue. Just when PSN was gaining momentun something like this hits to cause those people he feel are uninportant stay uninportant because now they do not trust the service.

  • yupyup #8 1 year ago

    "I'm not saying it's good. It's bad. But I don't think half the criticism they've got has been deserved. They have gone about it the right way."

    Waiting a week sure was a great way of doing it. I heard about it through online news and then national and international media days before I received an email from Sony.

  • stephenb #9 1 year ago

    Can I just preempt right here and now and say coolbrittania is a twit?

  • ianegg #10 1 year ago

    35 million accounts? where did that number come from?

    Didn't some analyst say it would cost Sony $50 million in marketing? Why not give each of the 35 million people with stolen details a million dollars each, and save some money?

  • MattEdWithCheese #11 1 year ago

    "But Gilray, who is currently working on PSN games..."

    Err, why are you giving him free publicity?

  • captain_Carl #12 1 year ago

    Well said

  • orren #13 1 year ago

    "This guy is a total sony apologist"
    .
    Maybe, but then he is absolutely right that the press overblows ANYTHING way out of proportion and generally spreads panic and fear from the slightest of negative news, because they live from selling advertisements, and sensational stories=more webpage hits=more ads sold=more $$$. Talk about unbiased news reporting.

    I am SO sick of that crap.

  • archangel1009 #14 1 year ago

    I don't think he'd be as uncaring if they had released a game on the day of the PSN going down -_-

  • fabiosooner #15 1 year ago

    I'm with him. While this is bad, I suspect that a lot of the flak Sony's getting comes thanks to the US gaming press bias towards the system that's manufactured in the US.

    And no, I'm not a fanboy - I have all systems and not coincidentally, I'm playing 3 different Xbox games this week (Fable II, Left 4 Dead 2, Fallout: New Vegas). This is just a fact of life; the japanese gaming press is also biased towards the PS3 for the same reasons. It's only natural since each company can make more of a direct marketing presence in its home country.

  • jonbwfc #16 1 year ago

    "35 million accounts? where did that number come from? "
    35 million master accounts, 77 million total accounts. Each PS3 Master account can have several sub accounts, but only the master account can have a CC stored against it. IIRC it's meant for Mum(&/or Dad) to have a PSN account and each of the kids have their own sub account, so they can have their own friends list and saved games, but all purchases are done against Mum/Dads credit card, and they have to 'buy' credit to apply to any of the kid's accounts.

    "Didn't some analyst say it would cost Sony $50 million in marketing? Why not give each of the 35 million people with stolen details a million dollars each, and save some money?"
    Err.. because that would be 35 BILLION dollars? Which is actually quite a lot of money and an awful lot more than $50m. They coudl give each of the 35 million master account about $1.50 each but I suspect that won't be considered a great deal on compensation by most people.

  • Xardan #17 1 year ago

    When does these PSN articles stop for gods sake.

  • Machiavellian #18 1 year ago

    As far as PSN goes, I will say Sony is doing the right thing. They need to take the heat and make sure that they restructure their network and make it more secure than what they have now. Putting up the service without properly plugging their wholes would be even worst and would make the RROD fiasco from MS seem like a college prank.

    I will say this, if Sony get their services back up and they have even a small hack where someone was able to modify some pages it probably would be blown so far out of proportion that it would take years for Sony to recover.

  • ianegg #19 1 year ago

    Err.. because that would be 35 BILLION dollars?

    Ah, that would explain it... And to think, maths was my best subject at school.

  • preacherman69 #20 1 year ago

    Actually its piss and wind not wind and piss

  • SlightlyMagic #21 1 year ago

    I don't even recall the 1.4 Million Play accounts being stolen, so that would be the 2nd major data loss where my details would have been nicked and nothing came of it. PSN will be the third, we'll see what happens with that over time I guess.
    Edited by SlightlyMagic at 29/04/11 @ 15:37

  • chessboxer #22 1 year ago

    Interesting... I didn't know Play.com was hacked last year. That was kept quiet. It looks like another site will now not be used by those on here who claim that Sony can no longer be trusted, unless they're full of shit and won't stand by their words...

  • George-Roper #23 1 year ago

    Oh fuck off, you obvious Sony apologist.

  • HyperTails #24 1 year ago

    Yeah, I would agree that the situation has been completely out of control. Yes, Sony must shoulder some responsibility, but for the love of God, there's a little thing you can do called 'cancel your card' if you are really worried.

    But the press, shit stirring? Well I never!

  • Walkerj #25 1 year ago

    Hey guys Um..."Err.. because that would be 35 BILLION dollars? "

    Not for nothing, but it would actually be 35 TRILLION dollars.
    35,000,000 * 1,000,000 = 35,000,000,000,000.

    I don't think Sony has 35 trillion dollars on hand, Especially considering there is only about 8-10 trillion dollars of actual currency on the entire planet.

  • George-Roper #26 1 year ago

    Yeah, I would agree that the situation has been completely out of control. Yes, Sony must shoulder some responsibility, but for the love of God, there's a little thing you can do called 'cancel your card' if you are really worried.

    Are you dense? How would you suggest I get my date of birth changed? Or my address? Or my telephone number? Or my password reminder question?

  • Dan234 #27 1 year ago

    Bloke's talking up the service he depends on to keep his company afloat. Online fraud tends to be automated with scripts hitting holes in APIs on e.g. Amazon and Paypal servers, you don't have master craftsman in workshops laboriously hammering out credit cards and if you're customer number 1,399,999 then they'll never get up to you.

  • HyperTails #28 1 year ago

    "Are you dense? How would you suggest I get my date of birth changed? Or my address? Or my telephone number? Or my password reminder question?"

    I was referring to card details being nicked. I'm not exactly dancing with joy at the fact someones got all my details either. Just that people who are really worried can cancel their cards.

  • pokota #29 1 year ago

    There is a lot of truth in what he said. Many of the comments users are posting around the web are full of speculation, assumptions, and flat out misinformation. A lot of media outlets have been speed-posting any scrap of rumor they can find, without any research or responsible reporting at all. Two days ago people were howling because "THE CREDIT CARD DATA WAS UNENCRYPTED WTH". No one knows much of anything at the moment.

    I'm also reading a lot of "I'll never trust Sony again" posts by people whose previous comments mark them as fanboys for rival console manufacturers, which i can't help but find amusing.

  • George-Roper #30 1 year ago

    I was referring to card details being nicked. I'm not exactly dancing with joy at the fact someones got all my details either. Just that people who are really worried can cancel their cards.

    But as has been widely acknowledged, the banks are all over the card situation.

    The main thing that we should all be concerned about is that personal details that cannot be simply 'blocked' with a phone call are now potentially out there for nefarious types to use as they will. Nothing can remedy that now. That's why this is such a fucking disaster.

  • vagabond #31 1 year ago

    Who is this idiot?

    How dare he make light of the fact that my credit card details (and more importantly) my I.D has potentially been stolen and in the hands of crooks.

    I'll make sure never to buy anything from the company he works for. Arrogant little shit, that'll teach you for making such retarded comments in public.

  • silversun #32 1 year ago

    On the personal info issue , its always something to take seriously as when its personal info care should be taken , at least thats what i belive.
    If a company loses that info fair enough probley not much that could have prevented that, but they also lose a bit of trust as well.
    I will use psn but i probley will only buy from the store using psn cards that i buy from other places from now on .

    I probley am unquie and i doubt ever one else effected by this will change way, they buy on playstation network.

    EDIT- i guess another thing i would not mind see both on xbox and playstation and nintendo consoles is option to pay by paypal.
    Edited by silversun at 29/04/11 @ 22:31

  • jonbwfc #33 1 year ago

    "Not for nothing, but it would actually be 35 TRILLION dollars. "
    Depends who you ask. Traditionally, the British meaning is that a billion is a million million and a trillion is a billion billion, just like a million is a thousand thousand. The Americans just go up in thousands, so to them a billion is a thousand million and a trillion is a thousand billion (and therefore as you say, a million million is a trillion). So by US standard you're correct but by traditional British standard I'm correct. I don't know which is taught in school these days but the American model is actually closer to the SI model or mainland European norms, so it may well be that one these days.

  • pantherjag #34 1 year ago

    This guy is right, the whole thing has been blown out off proportion. This is the third time in a few years that a database containing all my personal detail has gone amiss and thats only the ones i know about. The MOD lost them 3 years ago, the goverment last year and now PSN.

    Infact rather brilliantly the MOD lost a security questionaire i filled in that had far more personal details including pictures than what PSN may have lost. For all i know some guy may be out there posing as me doing all sorts off things but what can i do and honestly do i care........not really.

    Actually think about all the things you have entered personal detail into over the last few years. Forums, social websites, competitions, job applications, PSN, online retailers........The list goes on. If you dont think that that info then ends up in the wrong hands occasionally then your life has been far to sheltered

  • mousearmyone #35 1 year ago

    I don't think it works quite how Mr. Gilray thinks it works. It's not a lottery.

  • enzima #36 1 year ago

    I just read some comments, and I wonder how many of these people had their datas stolen. I did, and I am f***ing pissed. I really don't understand this "out of proportion" theory. If you think its not so bad, then please post here your cc number, name, last name, home address, email, PSN id and password. Then i'll believe you.
    I know i'll never buy from PSN again.
    Neg me all you want, but that's just how it is.

  • strangerism #37 1 year ago

    you don't need to make market analysis or crunch numbers to come out to the conclusion that sales won't be affected much by this debacle. For the simple reason that most people are sheep and they'll buy any PR propaganda, or simply the realization that things cannot be changed and we subdued in to accept any crime or unlawful action perpetrated by these big corporations. If is not possible to close our eyes then we will ready to accept any scapegoat they throw at us, see Bernard Maddof case. SONY make you believe.

  • Sevens #38 1 year ago

    Good comment, Stewart Gilray.

  • vagabond #39 1 year ago

    @pantherjag, do you work for Sony?

    Do you post your house number, full address, date of birth and memorable information on social media sites and forums? I really don't understand how people keep making this retarded comparison. If you have all this info on your facebook page then you're clearly not mentally together.

    And yes of course we do give some I.D info to online retailers, and if we were to find out they lost our data to thieves we would be giving them shit. In this case Sony has massively lost our trust and people will now be looking over their shoulder with regards to ID theft for years to come.

    Sony deserve any and all criticism that they get.

  • coolbritannia #40 1 year ago

    Only 35 million master accounts? Ouch, do Sony know he's leaking that data?

  • Haroldinho41 #41 1 year ago

    Lol, I totally forgot play.com lost my details, Gawker media and sony have lost my details now... Meh it happens, i'll still sleep easy.

  • Bigglesworth #42 1 year ago

    This is undeniably a huge failing on Sony's part but this guy is right - completely sensationalised by the gaming press, exemplified by this site, who have even managed to put the tabloid press to shame. Comparing this hack to the Deepwater Horzion disaster was particularly disgusting.

  • NewbieZilla #43 1 year ago

    As far as the gaming press goes? Of course they'd make a big deal about this. Play.com is tangentially related to gaming in that you can buy games from them. As for the more general media? Is he surprised they make a bigger deal of the PS3 case than the Play.com one? Really? A 77 million figure can be thrown out, 1.4 million... Hmmm... Not to mention which would be biiger news, Play.com or Sony.

    ""Dylan Cuthbert from Q-Games has said it will affect their business slightly, but their games launched a while ago."

    That basically amounts to it'll effect people, but I'm getting out of it a bit better.

    It is clearly ignoring an important aspect though Sales will be effected. Its all well and good to talk about sales when PSN is operating fine, but when it comes back up, there will be a backlog of games come out at once. There will suddenly be a lot of games out at one time, and that'll hurt sales.

    I'm friends with the CEO of a small indie company, though they are coming out with Mad Blocker Alpha or its been released, we're friends but not in contact that much. I do understand they promised to keep the advertising on it going for longer as a result of this. But they may have made just such promises to lots of people, and his is a small company depending on sales.

  • Rajin #44 1 year ago

    The thing i hate; when reading through all the comments, is that they think if they stop buying on PSN sony will be the one getting hurt.

    Maybe, just MAYBE you forgot they're plenty of other developers putting games on psn who have like.... 0 to do with this bloody hack?

    Switch over to PSN cards, that's my advice on this, keep a lookout on supicious things regarding your i.d bank etc, although some people here seem to assume that being paranoid is going to help them......

    EDIT: Removed the part about you enzima, i guess you could have calledl that part '' over-the-top sarcasm''. Apologys for that
    Edited by Rajin at 29/04/11 @ 20:55

  • simon50 #45 1 year ago

    Wind and piss.

  • man.the.king #46 1 year ago

    @MaxiSleep

    "Wont be buying anything from his company going forward "

    I doubt you ever did.

  • TheTrueSpin #47 1 year ago

    Wait, wait, wait... is this guy seriously saying that, because so many accounts got stolen, the likelihood of your bank account being emptied is low and therefore this is a non-issue?

    So, by this logic, one lost account = very bad, but 77 million is fine? Seriously!

    All I know is that a week has past since the incident and Sony have told me very little. I still don't know whether my credit card details have been stolen.

  • George-Roper #48 1 year ago

    This is undeniably a huge failing on Sony's part but this guy is right - completely sensationalised by the gaming press, exemplified by this site, who have even managed to put the tabloid press to shame. Comparing this hack to the Deepwater Horzion disaster was particularly disgusting.

    Nobody is comparing the effects of this to the effects of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. What they're comparing is the amount of time between the incident itself and information then being made available to the public.

    And here you are, whinging about sensationalism! Priceless....

  • man.the.king #49 1 year ago

    @ianegg

    "Why not give each of the 35 million people with stolen details a million dollars each, and save some money? "

    While I have been taking steps to safeguard myself since the incident, 1 mil would go down VERY WELL with me.

    One can hope and wish, right? ;)
    Edited by man.the.king at 29/04/11 @ 16:58

  • enzima #50 1 year ago

    @Rajin

    I don't know why you'd think that I wont buy from PSN to "hurt" Sony. That's just YOUR point of view. I really don't think that my 50-60 euros will make Sony bankrupt. I'll buy Uncharted 3 and other games I want, from a shop. Its obvious I can't rely on Sony to keep my personal and private data in their hand. That's why I'll not use PSN anymore. Don't offer a service if you can't guarantee its secure. That hard to understand, or are you just in to defend Sony no matter what?

  • George-Roper #51 1 year ago

    You can change your telephone number if you're THAT concerned, not that I've ever heard of large scale fraud being committed because somebody went through a phone book and got your name, address and telephone number from it. Even if they did I'm sure when you received a phone call from the Nigerian Crown Prince you'd probably have a clue something was up.

    And don't tell me you put your mother's ACTUAL maiden name in online forms, you do know you can put anything you want in there don't you?

    Yes but you're obviously and purposefully missing the entire point of the post, which is that sorting all the ID stuff out is not as simple as just making a single call to the CC company.

    What do you mean, 'don't tell you I put my mothers ACTUAL maiden name in online forms'?. If I had, what difference does that make? I don't even remember what the password reminder was, but if Sony had presented my mothers maiden name as the first choice, why should I put something else when I'm supposedly using a 'secure' system?

    Your entire response reeks of this being the fault of the account holder, not the company who was entrusted to keep whatever details are used, safe.
    Edited by George-Roper at 29/04/11 @ 17:03

  • Rajin #52 1 year ago

    @Enzima

    It did sound that way, besides i am not sony's defendant, if you've read my previous comments regarding this issue you would know that.

    Of course i think this is bad, terrible and such, the thing is nobody can guarantee that your information is save. I'm awaiting the details regarding sony's way of protecting our data, untill then i don't see that there's any difference from psn regarding live, steam etc.

    If however it becomes known that they made serious mistakes regarding their protection(like personal data on blank text) I will be pissed.

  • George-Roper #53 1 year ago

    I do believe that the ones who are shouting and longest about Sony being shit are the ones who have always shouted the loudest and longest about Sony being shit.

    I don't think they'll be too disappointed to hear coolbritannia, George Roper and des will be withdrawing their support forthwith.

    This could have been Microsoft or Steam, I'd be just as pissed as I am now with Sony.

    Take your obvious fanboy bias to somewhere where you can enjoy mutual masturbation. That shit has zero to do with this.

  • enzima #54 1 year ago

    @Rajin

    I see your point, and I have nothing against it. I was just posting my disappointment. I'm an "old" gamer (over 30...) so I grew up with Nintendo first, and Sony after. Its just that my resentment is pretty rational, I have no other reason. Take care, and enjoy good games ;)

  • AOFanboi #55 1 year ago

    <em>Maybe, just MAYBE you forgot they're plenty of other developers putting games on psn who have like.... 0 to do with this bloody hack?</em>

    The developers should feel free to develop for a platform/channel that is actually trustworthy if they want to make business. There is no entitlement to success, if the developers indirectly "get hurt" (really, they cannot "get hurt", though they may take losses through less sales than estimated) because a platform is abandoned they just need to look for another venue.

  • Bigglesworth #56 1 year ago

    @George Roper
    You're right about one thing. No one really is comparing this situation to Deepwater Horizon. Didn't stop EG bringing it up in their article though.

  • DarkSeptember #57 1 year ago

    I'm a XBL user and a PSN+ user , and while I have lost a little faith in Sony , I'm not going mad about it . These things happen .If you put your details on the internet there will ALWAYS be a risk of that data being compromised . There's no such thing as a 100% secure network . As long as the user has to enter a username and password there's always going to be a risk . I'm 100% sure that XBL has had some attacks over the years and Microsoft has managed to get to the attacks before it was too late .

  • randompanda #58 1 year ago

    George Roper

    "Nobody is comparing the effects of this to the effects of the Deepwater Horizon disaster.."

    Unfortunately, they have - Eurogamer wrote an article on it recently using pretty much those exact words.

  • Jamiesan #59 1 year ago

    The Play.com leak originated from a third party, who send out play's marketing emails. The hackers got people's names and email addys. Play then emailed all customers quickly, informing them of what happened, took responsibility and even detailed the kind of phishing scams that might be used with our info, how to spot them, etc.

    Sony did not respond quickly, did not have even a basic level of security on people's personal info, like your DoB, password, address. This kind of information doesn't only leave you open to phishing scams, but real identity fraud via social engineering.
    Sony still won't say (or can't tell. They don't seem to be able to tell what the hell is happening on their network) whether your CC details have been nabbed, only that it was "encrypted". Well, they seem to give an infinitely higher level of a shit about the PS3 master key staying safe than your personal info - and look how easy that was to break!

    From what I've read, they were running on servers with security flaws that were known about since mid-february, yet they say your plain-text password was stored very securely. It shouldn't have been stored at all! Even free web software uses password hashing.

    So yes, I believe the fuss over this is entirely justified. There is a reason that this kind of mis-management of customer's personal data is illegal.

  • George-Roper #60 1 year ago

    Unfortunately, they have - Eurogamer wrote an article on it recently using pretty much those exact words.

    Link please.

    I'd like to see where EG specifically state that an ecological disaster of the proportions of DH are the same as identity and CC detail theft.

  • Ryze #61 1 year ago

    Yeah - none of this matters - it was much worse when just my EMAIL was taken from Play.com

    BOLLOCKS.

  • DVR #62 1 year ago

    Anyone who is using the whole "x" lost/gave away or was hacked for your personal info so why is this instance bad, please see Tu quoque. Next time you see anyone using this logical fallacy as an argument highlight it by linking to Wikipedia :) I honestly have never seen this particular logical fallacy used as often and as blatantly, as I have on these comment sections!

  • Goodfella #63 1 year ago

    @George Roper

    It really wasn't hard to find using the power of Google.

    http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-0...

  • GreyBeard #64 1 year ago

    [link url=http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/28/us-sony-stolendata-idUSTRE73R6XI20110428
    ]http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/2...[/link]

    Very interesting article.

  • man.the.king #65 1 year ago

    @George Roper

    "Nobody is comparing the effects of this to the effects of the Deepwater Horizon disaster...And here you are, whinging about sensationalism! Priceless"

    http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-04-27-psn-the-pr-disaster-opinion?page=2 - (1) paragraph 10 and (2) the large text on left-hand-side

  • chris_ace #66 1 year ago

    Post deleted at 11:55:13 13-12-2011

  • eviroboy #67 1 year ago

    Ah, so someone speaking rationally about the whole Sony debacle is a Sony apologist? I'm fine with that. Common sense, morons.

  • George-Roper #68 1 year ago

    Fuck me, people really do see only what they want to see, don't they?

    Quoted from this apparent article where EG compared the ecological disaster of DH to this...

    Some are already calling this Sony's "Deepwater Horizon moment", in reference to the oil rig explosion and the subsequent handling of it by BP that caused the company's reputation so much damage.

    Key words....'subsequent' and 'handling'. Zero mention of the actual effects of the oil leak into the environment.

    There, clear as day. If you don't have an agenda for Sony damage control.

  • stanthaman #69 1 year ago

    I just want to chime in and say...
    Very entertaining debate!

  • Kaminari #70 1 year ago

    Stewart Gilray is talking out of his ass. Play.com "details" were not compromised. A third-party partner sold their customer email database, which was completely unrelated to CC data. All that resulted from this was more spam than usual. This just can't be compared with the Sony fiasco.
    Edited by Kaminari at 29/04/11 @ 18:21

  • man.the.king #71 1 year ago

    @George Roper

    "Key words....'subsequent' and 'handling'. Zero mention of the actual effects of the oil leak into the environment....There, clear as day. If you don't have an agenda for Sony damage control. "

    So I guess this doesn't mean anything? Some are already calling this Sony's "Deepwater Horizon moment", in reference to the oil rig explosion...

    "people really do see only what they want to see, don't they?"

    Or DON'T see something they DON'T want to see. Like EG/press resorting to sensationalism.

  • Goodfella #72 1 year ago

    Key words....'subsequent' and 'handling'. Zero mention of the actual effects of the oil leak into the environment.

    Now who's being dense, did you actually think it compared the environmental damage to the damage resulting from the PSN crackers?

  • pantherjag #73 1 year ago

    @vagabond

    No i dont work for sony unfortunately, i do however live in the real world or maybe it would be better put that i know how the real world works. Not going to say anymore than that, i said pretty much everything i had to say on my first post.

  • George-Roper #74 1 year ago

    @man.the.king

    You and others are simply making incorrect assumptions.

    Nobody at EG is comparing this PSN disaster (ID theft) to the Deepwater Horizon ecological disaster. Nobody is comparing my email address being stolen to 2000 sea birds being killed, every day. Nobody is comparing my date of birth being stolen with sealife being poisoned for the next 5 years. Nobody is comparing my forgotten password reminder to the damage that has been inflicted in that area.

    The only reason this was mentioned was because of the similarity in the way that Sony and BP reacted in terms of time-lines, admittance of fault and the general PR angle of it all. And also how the companies may well be affected further down the line, in terms of being trusted again.

    Thats the key point. Thats the entire context. For anyone to think that EG would go on record as stating this is 'as bad' as the Deepwater Horizon incident, in real, tangible terms is stark, raving bonkers or is doing it in an attempt to discredit EG, to downplay all the negative press they're rightly giving Sony.

  • George-Roper #75 1 year ago

    Now who's being dense, did you actually think it compared the environmental damage to the damage resulting from the PSN crackers?

    No.

    Now go back and read through the comments properly you fucking retard.

  • Goodfella #76 1 year ago

    Ooh, verbal abuse, clever.

  • Bigglesworth #77 1 year ago

    @George Roper
    Its truly ironic that you write vehemently about how people only see what they want to see, and make assumptions that support only their argument at the expense of everything else, and yet you can't see that you're doing the exact same thing.

    The fact remains that the comparison was made purely for sensationalism.

  • George-Roper #78 1 year ago

    The fact remains that the comparison was made purely for sensationalism.

    In your opinion.

    In my opinion it was a good comparison and justified in usage.

  • man.the.king #79 1 year ago

    @George Roper

    "The only reason this was mentioned was because of the similarity in the way that Sony and BP reacted in terms of time-lines, admittance of fault and the general PR angle of it all."

    Since you ignored this, I'll post this again: "Some are already calling this Sony's "Deepwater Horizon moment", in reference to the oil rig explosion... "

    "doing it in an attempt to discredit EG, to downplay all the negative press they're rightly giving Sony. "

    Accusing others disagreeing with you of having an "agenda for Sony damage control" is quite myopic, to say the least when you are so clearly seeing what you want to see while ignoring things which don't argue in your favor, like what I re-posted above this line.

  • George-Roper #80 1 year ago

    Since you ignored this, I'll post this again: "Some are already calling this Sony's "Deepwater Horizon moment", in reference to the oil rig explosion... "

    And? You've highlighted that the 'Deepwater Horizon moment' was an oil rig explosion. What does that have to do with anything, beyond explaining what DH was about for people who don't know?

    Grasping at straws now.

  • curtlikesmeat #81 1 year ago

    I didn't know about the Play thing :S

  • Goodfella #82 1 year ago

    @George Roper

    You're grasping at straws if you think the PR disaster / 'response time' of both events is comparable.

    From what I've read Sony followed procedure by the book, given how events unfolded. It wasn't like ID or CC fraud was rife and out of control during Sony's 'silence'. Trying to compare that to Deepwater Horizon, an event with obvious immediate consequences, is laughable.

  • Raiten #83 1 year ago

    btw enzima, regardless if you'd have never used psn your personal information like your name, street addresses etc. can be found from intternet or with a few phone calls easily anyway, no one realy needs to graduate from a school of hacking to find that kind of a information. Just a weird and possibly one of the simplest examples there is, liek omigosh i can locate a random persons house, street addres, surname and what not from googlemapthingies! fear teh evul intternet!

    But yeah, it's been funny beyond beliefe to observe this whole circus. I've never seen people get so outraged towards banks or other companies when some hacker has breached their security and tossed around the information around intternet, nor have i seen them blame em to the extent people have gone about blaming sony. Even the press doesn't make such a huge fuss over a bank security being compromised by a hacker and cases like those are far worse than what hapened with psn.
    But then again, this is eurogamer, and we've a large amounts of anti-sony/ms groupies spouting utter nonsence at a daily basis anyways. Not to mention the press just loves to dig trough such gaming related scoops.

  • man.the.king #84 1 year ago

    @George Roper

    "And? You've highlighted that the 'Deepwater Horizon moment' was an oil rig explosion. What does that have to do with anything, beyond explaining what DH was about for people who don't know?
    Grasping at straws now."

    No - You are AGAIN ignoring things - "Some are already calling this Sony's "Deepwater Horizon moment", in reference to the oil rig explosion... "

    So - Sony's DH moment in reference to oil rig explosion? SONY'S DH MOMENT IN REFERENCE TO THE OIL RIG EXPLOSION? BTW, if you do not understand, that comparison EG made was a "magnitude" comparison.

    You seem to think anybody who is not baying for Sony blood like you has an agenda. To that extent, you are willfully ignoring ridiculous connections EG tried to make and are somehow trying to justify them by ignoring parts of sentences that do not support your defense of EG.

    Try to grasp at stronger straws next time.

  • George-Roper #85 1 year ago

    btw enzima, regardless if you'd have never used psn your personal information like your name, street addresses etc. can be found from intternet or with a few phone calls easily anyway, no one realy needs to graduate from a school of hacking to find that kind of a information. Just a weird and possibly one of the simplest examples there is, liek omigosh i can locate a random persons house, street addres, surname and what not from googlemapthingies! fear teh evul intternet!

    And yet you wouldn't put your money where your mouth is and enter all the details that have been leaked, onto your next post.

    Would you.

  • George-Roper #86 1 year ago

    No - You are AGAIN ignoring things - "Some are already calling this Sony's "Deepwater Horizon moment", in reference to the oil rig explosion... "

    So - Sony's DH moment in reference to oil rig explosion? SONY'S DH MOMENT IN REFERENCE TO THE OIL RIG EXPLOSION? BTW, if you do not understand, that comparison EG made was a "magnitude" comparison.

    No, for two reasons....

    1) It was an explanation of what DH actually was about. Not everyone knows what 'Deepwater Horizon' is, you do realise?

    2) The explosion itself may have been the doorway for the disaster to occur but was not in of itself responsible for all damage caused. If EG were actually trying to compare like for like they would have stated ""Some are already calling this Sony's "Deepwater Horizon moment", in reference to the oil rig explosion that resulted in one of the biggest ecological disasters of our time" . They didn't.

    No, you're just trying to make mountains out of molehills. I think every sane person here would agree that to compare what's happened with DH to ID theft is morally reprehensible and I don't believe for a second that the EG staffers would 'use' DH in such a way.

    Edit: And just to be crystal clear on the full statement that EG made, regards DH..

    "Some are already calling this Sony's "Deepwater Horizon moment", in reference to the oil rig explosion and the subsequent handling of it by BP that caused the company's reputation so much damage."

    Read that in its entirety and it doesn't compare the two, it highlights the way in which the disasters were managed by the respective businesses as being the key factor for comparison.
    Edited by George-Roper at 29/04/11 @ 19:50

  • Freek #87 1 year ago

    That doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Play.com got e-mail adresses stolen via a third party marketing firm, not their main servers. That isn't nearly on the scale of having every acount on PSN stolen and the whole system taken down for a complete rebuild.
    Gawker was also pretty bad but that diden't potentially involve your creditcard info.
    Sony is still way worse off.

    And most importantly: other networks being hacked doesn't ever make it okay, or reason to go "well what ever".
    Edited by Freek at 29/04/11 @ 19:47

  • Hungry_Horace #88 1 year ago

    Stewart Gilray is the one full of wind and piss. Fucking Sony apologist.

  • DVR #89 1 year ago

    @Raiten post number 89: Tu quoque much :)

    Also to those whose arguments rely on the partial quotations of articles which support their own argument when taken out of context, see this

  • preacherman69 #90 1 year ago

    Piss and wind

  • MaxiSleep #91 1 year ago

    man.the.king
    "I doubt you ever did"

    How exactly is that relevant. I bought about 20 games on PSN over the years, but this guys disregard of the importance of data security means I would not want to buy from him in future. How do you know what his app is phoning home with?

    The more people attempt downplay the importance of this the angrier I get. Particularly since I recommended Qriocity to friends who are now also in harms way thanks to my recommendation.

    People who do not understand the shear biblical levels of
    (a) incompetance
    (b) arrogance
    (c) complacency

    that sony have displayed are in my opinion naive fanboys or paid for mouth pieces. If you worked in the industry you would know just how dangerous and moronically stupid what sony allowed to happen was.

  • bluetoothion #92 1 year ago

    @Roper

    Obviously the comparison doesn't relate to the impact made or the damage of DH.... i think it relates mostly to the corporate's image damage. No body said a foney name or any actual piece of info is compared to an ecological disaster.... ( on the other hand if you lose your wallet with your CC and ID in it you ll not be comforted that dying whales is a bigger issue- dark jokh)

    Also EG has proven that is not quality filtering their information and has made/would make an article from everything that has the keyphrase Sony ID hack even if it were spelled from my 7year old cousin... you might think people are defending sony but the case here is that EG is very far from journalistic balance ESPECIALLY considering that still the level of compromise has not been confirmed or if actual damage has occured and they are treating it like pandoras box for sony.

    Also in the real world without disclaimers( some times and in spite of them too) any quote one makes can be considered quiet endorsement and since you went in to the context of things...well just look and count how many pointless articles rehashing the same thing have been in the last couple of days and you will see that its overblown over-reacting exaggerating proportions this has taken. the Deepwater quote was intented for the numerous fanboys here.

    The blame is first and foremost to hackers for their intent then to insert name of company its has had or will occur...

    as for consumer consiousness , as it seems from forums is limited , thats actually our own blame but i think uttering that could get me negged a bit.

  • Goodfella #93 1 year ago

    If you worked in the industry you would know just how dangerous and moronically stupid what sony allowed to happen was.

    Tell that to Stewart Gilray.

  • bebox2010 #94 1 year ago

    I take it he's got a company credit card linked to his Psn id...must be nice!

  • SavageEvil #95 1 year ago

    While many may think he is making light of the subject at hand, he isn't. He is making a conjecture based on probability of your info being used is much lower than that of an incident with considerably less numbers stolen. Some idiot posted something about 77m is not as bad at 1, lol, retard. With such debate skills as those you should be head of your team at the local watering hole.

    On to people talking about their personal information, really? I swear it's like everyone all of a sudden forgets that we only just got to this digital age, your information has been written down countless times and many organizations have it. Every signed up for magazines? had it delivered to your front door? I wonder who's name that is with address and everything on the front cover, wow? Holy Unicorns and rainbows batman, you can find your details online. There are data collection sites that have your address, age, DOB, siblings, parents go figure. Whilst this theft seems like a really bad thing, you people make me sick acting like your personal details weren't already floating around waiting to be snatched.

    It's incredibly funny to me, as many people on here are using the internet and think that they are "safe", right I heard of a guy who could hack into someone's PC using MS own remote pc function and control it. News is news, while Sony made a big mess up with not encrypting the data as that would have calmed the fears of the agoraphobes running loose on here.

    I am enjoying this debacle as it brings to light all the bs artists running around on here, full of fail and god knows what else. I always new something was wrong with some folks on here, but man some of them are seething with rage and hate, just check out coolbrittania's post on the first page, utterly priceless. What a guy, extremely devoted in getting the word out that Sony is the scum of the earth. Gotta love dedication like that. I'm bored on a friday evening, foot in a cast so I am going to peruse EG for more exciting news :)

  • SpaceMidget75 Verified Senior Software Developer, Minerva Computer Services #96 1 year ago

    "I can't see 35 million people unsubscribing from PSN. And games don't sell 35 million copies. They maybe sell between 15,000 and 100,000 copies depending on the size of it in the first six to 12 months."

    What the fuck is wrong with this guys maths??

    If 10% of those 35 million people decide not to buy on PSN anymore, then that 10% applies (potentially) to your 15,000 - 100,000 copies of a game sold too!

  • Gastrian #97 1 year ago

    Post deleted at 17:56:43 13-04-2012

  • lagoonalight #98 1 year ago

    This is what I get. Cards are stolen all the time. You call the bank, they X out the card and do an investigation. You get your money back almost every time. I have literally 'lost' my card, filled up with gas, and reported the card as stolen. And I got my money back. You people are sheeple. In fact, the whole entire world is turning into a bunch of unhealthy, loud, and obnoxious bunch of sheeple unable to help themselves separate fact from fiction. Mass hysteria abounds much too much these days. It's how the world is controlled. Create fear. Let them destroy themselves. The power lies inside. So shut the **** up and think about it to your self before sounding like you are 14 all the time.

    Like, OMG, identity theft. Let's make it news for the next two weeks so we can't bear to think about anything important. Like dancing with the stars. People spend too much time watching TV, gaming, and doing things that generally keep them away from the truth of the world. Grow up.
    Edited by lagoonalight at 30/04/11 @ 06:48

  • Goodfella #99 1 year ago

    @lagoonalight

    Well said.

    Life is full of trials and tribulations, but all of a sudden this PSN 'disaster' has caused mass hysteria, anger and much frothing at the mouth.

    It really is quite pathetic to behold. What a sad reflection of society today.

  • The-Jack-Burton #100 1 year ago

    How does all of this affect me?

    Simply put, PSN will be down for a week or so.

    Thats it, that is the entirety of what all of this means.

  • MaxiSleep #101 1 year ago

    People are angry because Sony did a shit job protecting something which belonged to someone else which they were morally and legally obliged to do. If you don't think I am angry - why? And if u don't think I should be angry - why? It was my data that was stolen after all.

  • Jamiesan #102 1 year ago

    Tell that to Stewart Gilray.

    He claims that this is a less important leak than Play's, because Sony lost about 55x more customer's info! I think he may have an interest in everybody staying on PSN, possibly to buy his games when they are released.

    While I can tell you from experience that what he says about the first week or two of downloadblae game sales is absolutely true(whatever sales graph you are imagining, it's way steeper), a loss of trust in the platform holder is obviously bad for everyone releasing content on that platform.

    And while I'm on my high horse, They have gone about it the right way. Really?! Surely, "the right way" would have been to encrypt customer data, hash passwords, and keep your server security up to date? If those february IRC logs are real, then even a script kiddy could have got in with tools they found on google.

    And, lastly, it's been reported than Sony have enlisted various federal agencies around the world to help catch the people responsible for the break-in. Just like with GeoHotz, they seem more interested in who, rather than how or even why

  • cornishflipper #103 1 year ago

    I think because this is on a bigger scale it's hit people. I agree (other) companies probably store the same details and we place our trust in the whole system. We've grown over the years used to buying and submitting our details. We expect them to be secure and these things happen. What the problem is now, do we trust them? Do we know how they deal with our details and by telling us "they are going to make it better" is that enough? For me, it's sadly a No. Do I blame Sony? Yes, they need to take some accountability for it. As do the person(s) that caused this? That's a different story, we will never know who and do we trust what we get told? It boils down to trust. For someone like this guy to come along isn't going to make me change my approach to Sony and other companies. TBH, it makes things worse. It doesn't reassure me in the slightest.

  • PixelPirate #104 1 year ago

    The one thing i will say.

    Any of you who have a linkedIn account, just think what you posted publicly on there.

    Names, family, your school you attended, places you worked, your postal address, telephone number, all sorts.

    the PSN hack was a bad bad thing, but Sony were sensible to secure the credit card details, which was the main concern.

    Most people willingly post more personal information all over the interwebs than what the hackers got ;-)

  • technotica #105 1 year ago

    So piss is censored in the media? Or did they mean another word?

  • Collymilad #106 1 year ago

    Basically the opinions seem to be split based on how much you like/are invest in Sony.

    If credit card details were stolen, it's not "wind and piss" - whether they are used or not.

    What an idiot. Seriously, I never knew the Sony fanboy count was so damn high on EG. Whatever your opinion about this, negging people for saying that credit card details possibly being stolen is a big deal just proves you're a massive Sony fanboy and you know it.

    The simple fact is if this kind of stuff happened all the time your bank wouldn't offer you the protection many of you seem to love going on about.
    Edited by Collymilad at 02/05/11 @ 16:26