SONY being sued!

[RiilihShimo]

An anon person posted that SONY is being sued, due to the breech in contract, as well as the millions of people who filed a lawsuit against them for the damage they caused (cc numbers possibly being out there and lost accounts, ect).

The anon person has a source and linked it.

http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=290474

Also, on this page, says that a US senator is suing sony, and that sony admitted being sued.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/vi ... ach-Secret

Sony could possibly go out of business.

[comradesnarky]

An anon person posted that SONY is being sued, due to the breech in contract, as well as the millions of people who filed a lawsuit against them for the damage they caused (cc numbers possibly being out there and lost accounts, ect).

The anon person has a source and linked it.

http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=290474

It's too bad Sony has the resources it does. Those class action suits always get drug out for years, and whenever they finally get settled, the pay off is usually microscopic. Here's to hoping whoever the presiding judge is takes a hard line though..

Also, on this page, says that a US senator is suing sony, and that sony admitted being sued.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/vi ... ach-Secret

It doesn't say he's suing them.... just that he sent them an angry letter and is calling them out.

[Gary_b]

yes, i edited some of your posts. try to stick to the topic of sony being sued. your comments shouldn't be about sega making a new console in this thread. speculate on sony failing and going out of business if you wish?

[MrSega]

An anon person posted that SONY is being sued, due to the breech in contract, as well as the millions of people who filed a lawsuit against them for the damage they caused (cc numbers possibly being out there and lost accounts, ect).

The anon person has a source and linked it.

http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=290474

Also, on this page, says that a US senator is suing sony, and that sony admitted being sued.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/vi ... ach-Secret

Sony could possibly go out of business.

That's nothing. Latest article from gamespot states that the worldwide PSN outage could cost the entire company $24 billion.

[comradesnarky]

Never mind, apparently posts are still being edited.

[MrSega]

The situation is getting very very dire for Sony. stu,comrade the news is not GOOD.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6310436.html

This latest article states that Forbes(Forbes everyone!) that the PSN outage could cost Sony an estimated $24 billion in losses in just a quarterly period alone, since there are 77 million PSN users worldwide and since its users spend an average $310 a month on services.

$24 billion could be very very blunt serious news for Sony. The company's SCEI division could very very likely result in SCEI filing for chapter 9 bankrupcy within the next fiscal. This would force a cut in 50% in workforce, drastically drag down Sony's assets and could drain SCEI's $50 billion net worth. If the losses continue on PS3, Chapter 11 will come knocking on SCEI's door within the next 2 years which could potenionally result in Sony leaving the console business and revert back to an OEM.

SCEI filing for chapter 9 could result in the official DEATH of PS3. If this happens, 3rd publishers will abandon the system, SEGA will most definetly pull all multiplatform support from the Playstation brand products. They would move pretty quickly too.


If both of you still don't think this is a big deal, take a look at this:

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6310487.html

Sony now wants the FBI to get involved in the outage breach. Word on the street is that Sony of Europe is in complete panic mode.

[comradesnarky]

You're sort of misreading that...

Forbes didn't come up with the $24 billion estimate. Forbes is reporting on an estimate from The Ponemon Institute (yeah, ha ha, close to Pokémon ). What the institute said was that there are 77 million PSN accounts. The article doesn't say that 77 million people spend an average of $318 a month on services. The $318 a month is the average damages sustained by a "data breach involving a malicious or criminal act." In other words, whenever someone has account information stolen, on average, that's roughly the amount.

Furthermore, not all of those 77 million accounts are genuine. I've used three different Live accounts over a period of time, and so have many of my friends. It won't be any different for PSN, especially since the accounts are free. There's probably an abundance of fake accounts. Then you can take it even further and say that not all of those accounts have credit data associated with them; PSN is a free service, and there are ways to buy points at retail stores.

Sony still hasn't confirmed if credit card accounts were stolen; I'd think if they were, fraudulent activities would've been reported en masse by now. They're definitely facing a class action suit that rules against them, but, how will they measure the damages? They certainly won't measure into large amounts of cash if only a small amount of people face actual damages if account data was stolen.

Also, a division wouldn't file bankruptcy. A division is just a part of the whole company. Companies usually just close down a division if it reaches a certain point of non-profitability. If Sony sustained heavy enough damages, the whole company would file for the appropriate bankruptcy proceedings, which wouldn't be chapter 11 since they're not US based. Bankruptcies give companies chances to restructure, so even this wouldn't necessarily shut them down. Chapter 9 bankruptcies are for cities, also.

If the damages were in the billions, Sony would likely liquidate assets and sell stock to maintain.

I'm not saying it's not a bad situation for Sony, but, you've gotta look at everything from all the angles.

I'm not a Sony fan either... this is just how it really breaks down. Not trolling, just analyzing.

[Gary_b]

i think this will indeed cost sony, but its not gonna shut them down. sony has tons of money in assets alone. as far as sony losing so much that they stop making video games consoles? i would have to say this won't stop them from making another console. look how much it took sega in losses before they gave up. sony imo has far more assets than sega ever did.

[mazonemayu]

it doesn't need to be about money, losing trust & face to millions of customers can also result in stagnations in sales, folks running to the opposite side, etc...
THAT can kill a company ( & in this case I hope it bloody well does lol)

[comradesnarky]

it doesn't need to be about money, losing trust & face to millions of customers can also result in stagnations in sales, folks running to the opposite side, etc...
THAT can kill a company ( & in this case I hope it bloody well does lol)

I'm sort of looking forward to what happens here purely from a case study perspective...

There have been companies with massive data breaches before, but, they've taken immediate action instead of sitting around with their thumbs up their asses. I'm also curious to see just how much goodwill Sony has left. They haven't exactly been good to their customers ever since they shouted out "599 US dollars!" gleefully from the top of the mountain.

If you look at a company like Apple, they get through most of their scandals pretty unscathed. It's incredible how quickly the whole location tracking issue with the iPhone 4 simmered (or seems to have). There's just all sorts of interesting things at play with issues like this.

Personally, I'm hoping that this starts introducing more government intervention to the game industry. Laissez faire capitalism rarely works out terribly well, and I think there's a lot of unethical customer screwing things going on in the industry. Definitely not talking about content regulation, but I think more consumer protections need to be enacted.

Gut instinct says Sony hands out some free shit and pacifies most people, pays a piddly amount in some class action suits and walks away largely unscathed (taking a temporary hit on stocks and taking a big hit on profits for the quarter and maybe the year)... If they try and make some big PR response, it's going to turn into a circus. Sony has forgotten how to talk to their customers, and it would be beautiful to see them try to downplay the situation.

Also, how beautiful would it be if PSN simply never came back online?

I can't bring PSN back online without Dennis Nedry.