Ask Slashdot: How Should Sony Compensate PSN Users?

ogar572 writes "So Sony is going to give 20 million+ PlayStation Network users (numbers vary based on what article you read) two free games and free credit protection (US only) for what happened a few weeks ago. I for one do miss playing Black Ops online, but I have made it through this outage by doing other, more productive things. What I am most frustrated about is the lack of consistent details and information via email about what is going on. Now Sony says that they are going to compensate us with two free downloadable games (more than likely I have never heard of these games before). I would have been satisfied with the free credit protection. Now that they want to offer me 2 games, why can't I pick any 2 games that I want? I mean, my personal info is now probably being sold on the black market because of Sony. What do you think Sony should do, if anything, to compensate for what has happened?"

Without PSN

[mehrotra.akash]

Make it compulsory for ALL new games to be functional without requiring PSN even once

You should be able to buy a PS3 and use it till the end of its Hardware life without any internet access at all

I Want Sony to Scrub My Info

[ThePolkapunk]

Instead of free games, I want a method by which Sony will completely delete all information they have about me. Regardless of how responsible they'll be in the future, they had their chance and they blew it.

Re:Yeah, I want a Sony Pony too

[Mongoose Disciple]

I think you're missing the point.

It's not about what Sony "owes" anyone or what they deserve.

It's what it will take for consumers to be willing to take another chance on PSN.

Since so many popular games are crippled without online play, for the PS3 to be relevant, people have to want to use PSN. If they aren't, Sony essentially loses in the videogame arena forever and becomes a cautionary tale.

Personally? I can't even imagine what Sony could do at this point to make me want, for example, to give them my credit card number, so I am going to stop buying their products and get on with my life -- but not everyone thinks as I do, and there's some segment of the market they can win back over through naked bribery. As much as they can even semi-reasonably do so, they have to to remain relevant.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Sony fucked up so bad with the security of their online play offering they've made Microsoft look good by comparison. Rehabilitating their image from that will not be easy -- it isn't the biggest mistake a gaming company's ever made by a longshot, but it's going to hurt their reputation badly for a long time, and there's a big market cost for that.

Re:Yeah, I want a Sony Pony too

[AK Marc]

Credit protection works only in the US because in most other places, people are immune to such problems. Rather than taking the point that credit protection is US only to mean that Sony is attacking the rest of the world, you should be noting that no one else needing credit protection indicates that the banks in the US have waged a war against their customers and won. In the US, you have to protect yourself against the banks libeling you and blaming you for letting them do it. But the rest of the world doesn't have that problem...