Techdirt. Stories filed under "playstation" Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us Techdirt. Stories filed under "playstation"http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Wed, 4 Apr 2012 19:59:00 PDT Court Says Sony Is Free To Change Its Terms Of Service Because Accessing PSN Is A Choice Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120404/02412418363/court-says-sony-is-free-to-change-its-terms-service-because-accessing-psn-is-choice.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120404/02412418363/court-says-sony-is-free-to-change-its-terms-service-because-accessing-psn-is-choice.shtml
Some folks were not at all happy about this and sought to file a class action lawsuit against Sony for the change -- but that lawsuit has been (pretty quickly) rejected by the court, suggesting that the main guy suing failed to show evidence of any harm. In an interesting move, the court found that the fact that you lost access to the network if you didn't agree to the new terms isn't evidence of any harm, but rather a choice. Of course, that seems a bit extreme. It opens up possibilities for companies to more or less corner users into unpleasant situations. Just change the terms and anyone can be excluded.

I'm not a fan of mandatory arbitration clauses or class action lawsuits like this where "harm" is pretty tough to show. In the end, though, it does seem like Sony should be able to choose and change its terms of service. The real issue is that it chose consumer-unfriendly options, and in a better world, less draconian alternatives would spring up to help treat consumers right. It's hard to side with Sony here (or in most situations), but the lawsuit itself does seem like a stretch.

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]]> companies-own-you http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20120404/02412418363 Fri, 16 Sep 2011 05:28:35 PDT Thou Shalt Not Sue Sony Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110915/14072315967/thou-shalt-not-sue-sony.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110915/14072315967/thou-shalt-not-sue-sony.shtml says that you agree not to sue the company. Honestly (and Sony pointed this out in its defense), such clauses are pretty common. It is debatable how enforceable some of these clauses are, but they say that you have to go to arbitration, rather than sue. The terms also bar participating in class action lawsuits, which seems much more questionable. Where Sony gets ridiculous is in claiming that this change "is designed to benefit both the consumer and the company by ensuring that there is adequate time and procedures to resolve disputes." That makes me think of a two syllable word whose first four letters are bull. Come on. At this point, everyone knows that binding arbitration between a company and a consumer wildly favors companies. A study from a few years back found that companies win in arbitration against consumers 95% of the time. Sony knows this. So its move is not about protecting consumers at all, and it's insulting for it to imply that it is.

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]]> can't-let-people-have-rights http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110915/14072315967 Fri, 22 Jul 2011 15:28:00 PDT Sony's Insurer Says It Shouldn't Have To Pay For Cost Of PlayStation Network Hack Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110722/11264215206/sonys-insurer-says-it-shouldnt-have-to-pay-cost-playstation-network-hack.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110722/11264215206/sonys-insurer-says-it-shouldnt-have-to-pay-cost-playstation-network-hack.shtml Butcherer79 points to even more problems for Sony in the aftermath of the massive hacking of the PlayStation Network. It seems that Sony was expecting its insurance provider, Zurich American Insurance, to cover any costs. Zurich American Insurance apparently has other ideas:
Zurich American Insurance has now gone to court in New York seeking a declaration that it does not have to help Sony with current or future legal action related to the data breach.

Legal papers filed by Zurich reveal that 55 separate class action lawsuits are pending in the US because of the breach.
Sony has indicated that it expected Zurich to cover any such fees, but Zurich is saying no way, no how. Apparently, Zurich says that its contract with Sony doesn't even cover the parts of the business that were hacked, and other clauses in the deal show that this isn't Zurich's problem at all.

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]]> sony-swims-alone http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110722/11264215206 Mon, 23 May 2011 11:02:31 PDT An Open Letter To Sony CEO Howard Stringer Tim Cushing http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110522/15562714383/open-letter-to-sony-ceo-howard-stringer.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110522/15562714383/open-letter-to-sony-ceo-howard-stringer.shtml
While we all can appreciate the difficulties you've been through in the last month, what with your online cash cow being tipped by thousands of overbright fratboys, the simple fact is your responses have been, well, completely terrible.

First off, nothing heals fresh wounds like dismissive handwaving. When you have millions of customers and hundreds of developers locked out of their online connection for over a month, the use of the word "hiccup" isn't exactly going to smooth things over. A term like that is usually deployed to indicate minor speedbumps, like 12 hours of downtime for "unscheduled maintenance" or informing the end users that their Diner's Club cards are no longer being honored.

Following it up with defensive comments about your response time (faster that others!) and claiming the attack was unprecedented (no one has ever been hacked like this before!) isn't really endearing you to the Home crowd. (Yes, that pun was intentional. And terrible.) This sort of irritated tone lacks the contriteness that those of us who have supported Sony for far too long would like to see. I suppose we're supposed to feel grateful for your swift turnaround time, but if you're just going to measure your company versus the lower end of the spectrum, then you're wasting everyone's time. 

I see Sony is offering users/hackees some consolation prizes to help smooth over the month-long lockout + wholesale compromise of their personal information. I'm sure I speak for others when I view these items and wholeheartedly applaud them as being "better than nothing." While a few new games would be nice, I'm not sure I've got the time or the hard drive space to fill with games I never intended to purchase.

(Let me explain: I bought my PS3 back in the good old days when 40GB was considered to be "plenty." After all, it was just a "game machine" and still relied on disc-based delivery for content. I agreed with these unspoken sentiments right up until I purchased Dragon Age: Awakening: All of Everything Ever Bonus Game of the Year Edition. I'd heard nothing but good things about the game and shoved it in the disc-hole anticipating some excellent awakened dragon killing. I spent the next 2+ hours watching all of everything ever download and install, not including some sort of "update" that needed to be applied before I could even get to the exciting downloading/installing screens.)

Long story short, I have nowhere to put these new games that I don't really want nor the desire to uninstall anything currently on the drive. Especially Dragon Age: Awakening: AoEEBGotYE, not only would I hate to have to reinstall it, but I have my doubts as to whether I would even be able to re-download my bonus online content, leaving me with a $30 game that I paid $50 for. So there's that.

And as to the free month of Playstation Plus service... is that going to be 30 days continuous or will it just count down incrementally every time you manage to keep your network running for more than a few hours in a row? Clarification is needed because these are two very different things. All that other whatever-it-is, you can keep.

100+ items for my Home? This would be shit-hot news if I was still some sort of materially obsessed tween, but I could scarcely be bothered to dick around with my avatar for more than 15 minutes (shortly after signup?) and I haven't been back since. (In my mind's eye, I see him pacing the space between the immaculately empty living room to the outer edge of the balcony several hundred times, trying to talk himself into jumping.)

The long and short of all this is this (and trust me, it gets longer from this point): These shiny objects and temporary gifts aren't going to do much to win back the trust, and more importantly, the $$$ of your swiftly dwindling fanbase. Much like many of your pissed off customers, I go back a long way with the Playstation.

I started out with the PSone way back in the day when Driver was the killer app that made the sale. (Way, way back, actually. There was no "one" on the console at that point.) You had other exclusives as well, like the Final Fantasy series, of which VIII was used by my wife (at that point, just my girlfriend) to reach out and awaken my inner dork (along with Legend of Dragoon), and many, many other games followed. (Jade Cocoon, Monster Rancher, various Legends of various Things, Driver 2: The Walker... [but not Final Fantasy VII, much to Dark Helmet's dismay, and although he has encouraged me to give it a try, every nostalgic screenshot cuts me right across the eyes with its dangerously jagged polygons.])

I stayed with Sony for the PS2 (and its attendant killer app, GTA III), ignoring the mockery of X-Box fanboys, who derided our low-fi "memory cards" and made rude gestures with their enormous hands. I made the most of our ("our" -- remember how close we used to be?) exclusive titles and repurchased the console no less than five times. (Mainly thanks to the first few generations' alignment issues, which meant that shortly after the warranty expired the console would develop disc reading problems, grinding and blundering away like Grandpa with a malt liquour buzz and his glasses missing. Also, small children may have been involved.)

I even stayed true to the lineage and purchased a PS3 once the arrival of GTA IV made resistance impossible. (I was able to resist the PSP, however. Something about those newly-fashioned UMDs reminded me of the blink-and-you'll-miss-it heyday of the Minidisc.) I sucked it up and took the hit at the cash register despite the fact that Sony's competitors had much friendlier price points. I swallowed hard as other consoles signed exclusive title after exclusive title. I defended its honor using the only weapon I had: the Blu-Ray player. And I laughed vindictively as the HD DVD fell by the wayside. I sat at home and admired my ungainly Blu-Ray player while waiting for worthwhile titles to come out and slowly got used to the fact that if something was PS3-only, it meant that no one else really wanted it.

I'm just one of millions, Howard. You had us all for so long, but between the wholesale harvesting of our data and the forced removal of functionality, I'd be bracing myself for some very low sales numbers when the next generation of consoles roll out. The shiny stuff and free digital trinkets are ok, but a little bit of humility would go a long way.

Sincerely,

Tim Cushing

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]]> i'm-surprised-he-didn't-just-tell-us-to-go-play-outside http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110522/15562714383 Tue, 26 Apr 2011 14:36:36 PDT Sony Admits That Playstation Hacker Got Tons Of Info, Including Passwords Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110426/14253314043/sony-admits-that-playstation-hacker-got-tons-info-including-passwords.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110426/14253314043/sony-admits-that-playstation-hacker-got-tons-info-including-passwords.shtml a ton of personal info was leaked. According to Sony's blog post, among the information that hackers got was:
  • Name
  • Address
  • Country
  • Email
  • Birthdate
  • PlayStation Network/Qriocity password and login
Sony claims it's not sure yet, but that it "cannot rule out," that credit card info and password security answers may have also been included. To deal with that, they're saying people should assume that such info was compromised. So far, Sony's plan is to tell you to stay alert:
For your security, we encourage you to be especially aware of email, telephone, and postal mail scams that ask for personal or sensitive information. Sony will not contact you in any way, including by email, asking for your credit card number, social security number or other personally identifiable information. If you are asked for this information, you can be confident Sony is not the entity asking. When the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services are fully restored, we strongly recommend that you log on and change your password. Additionally, if you use your PlayStation Network or Qriocity user name or password for other unrelated services or accounts, we strongly recommend that you change them, as well.

To protect against possible identity theft or other financial loss, we encourage you to remain vigilant, to review your account statements and to monitor your credit reports. We are providing the following information for those who wish to consider it:
You hear that sound? That's the sound of a whole bunch of class action lawsuits being filed against Sony as we speak. I'd like to say it's a huge surprise that Sony would even store passwords and credit card data in a place where it could easily be extracted like that, but it's really not. This, after all, is the company that made the word "rootkit" famous, and spent the last few months wasting more resources in a quixotic legal campaign against a guy who added back a feature to the PS3 that Sony had deleted. Perhaps if it spent a little more time actually protecting its users rather than fighting silly battles, there wouldn't be issues like this.

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]]> this-is-what-you-get-with-a-company-that-rootkits-people http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110426/14253314043 Tue, 9 Dec 2008 04:42:38 PST PlayStation Hurts Ronaldinho's Performance Once More Carlo Longino http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20081203/1903573013.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20081203/1903573013.shtml sex and PS2 games. Supposedly his game of choice was EA Sports' FIFA 2006 soccer game, so it's slightly amusing to see an opposing goalkeeper credit a save he made on a Ronaldinho free kick last weekend to playing soccer games on his PlayStation. The goalie says that the game features a solid replication of Ronaldinho's penalty-taking style, giving him an idea of how to react in real life. As games become more and more realistic, more and more athletes and teams might start using them as scouting tools. Indeed, another soccer team recently signed a deal with the developer of a management simulation game to get exclusive access to its full database in order to help it identify new talent from around the world.

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]]> goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20081203/1903573013