Anonymous Sony Centre protest flops

Sony reportedly tasked police with protecting its stores from protests by supporters of the hacker group Anonymous – but hardly anyone turned up.

Anonymous had threatened Sony with a protest that would involve supporters sitting in its Sony Centres and returning Sony products.

But reports on the protest's Facebook page (via VGChartz) show the planned "Sony Operation" flopped.

"Just went to a Sony store for the first time in my life!" wrote one anonymous attendee. "Bought a Bravia :)"

Despite the failure, Anonymous vowed to fight on.

"Operation Sony success," wrote the author of the page. "Sony closed UK stores during protests on Saturday. The fight for the fair consumer rights goes on.

"There will be another protest date. This movement does not end here."

Anonymous' beef is the result of PlayStation 3 hacker George "Geohot" Hotz's out of court settlement with Sony.

Last week Anonymous promised Sony it would deliver "the biggest attack you have ever witnessed".

That followed Anonymous' decision to "temporarily suspended" its war on the PlayStation Network – saying its beef was with Sony, not Sony's customers. "Anonymous is not attacking the PSN at this time," Anonymous said. "We realise that targeting the PSN is not a good idea. We have therefore temporarily suspended our action, until a method is found that will not severely impact Sony customers.

"Anonymous is on your side, standing up for your rights. We are not aiming to attack customers of Sony. This attack is aimed solely at Sony, and we will try our best to not affect the gamers, as this would defeat the purpose of our actions. If we did inconvenience users, please know that this was not our goal.

"This operation is a response to Sony's attempt to deprive their customers of products they bought and therefore own, wholly and completely. Anonymous will not attempt to fight this by following the exact same course of action.

"We have plenty of tricks up our sleeves."