Sony Offers Discount Coupons As Apology For PSN Outage

[Steven Bogos]

Sony Offers Discount Coupons As Apology For PSN Outage

All PlayStation Plus members will be given an additional five days subscription time, along with a 10% discount coupon.

Remember how Lizard Squad stole Christmas [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/columns/experienced-points/12807-Explaining-the-DDOS-Attack-on-the-PlayStation-and-Xbox-Live-Netw] by launching DDOS attacks on PSN and Xbox Live? Well, I've got some good news for those of you who sat there frustrated on Christmas morning trying to get your boxes to work. Well, for those of you who had Sony boxes, at least.

Sony has announced that as an apology for the downtime, all PSN subscribers will be getting a 10% discount coupon for the network in the near future, and all PlayStation Plus members will be given an additional five days of free time on their subscriptions.

"Since access to PlayStation Network was impacted during the holidays, we wanted to show our appreciation for your patience by offering all PlayStation Plus members that had an active membership or free trial on December 25 a membership extension of five days," Sony stated in an official blog post [http://blog.us.playstation.com/2015/01/01/a-holiday-thank-you/].

"The extension will be automatically applied, so no action is necessary to receive the extension. We will post additional information here on PlayStation.Blog when the extension becomes available."

As for the discount coupon, you'll be able to use it on all content available on the PSN store, including movies, games and DLC.

Source: Sony [http://blog.us.playstation.com/2015/01/01/a-holiday-thank-you/]

Permalink

 

[Trivun]

It's rather telling of my cynical view of gamers in general that the first Facebook comment on this was against Sony for such a "weak" offering of compensation. It's also rather telling that the replies to that comment were of the general opinion that Sony never had to offer anything in the first place, and that it wasn't actually their fault they were down on Christmas Day in the first place.

As for me, I'm pretty pleased with this anyway (as a PS3 owner), but I also applaud Sony for the fact that they're prepared to make a gesture, of any kind, for something that they hold no blame or responsibility for in the first place. Sony have no blame, they built PSN and Playstation Plus expecting to deal with a certain amount of traffic, and (regardless of how prepared these companies should really be nowadays for such cyber attacks) yet a DDOS attack wiped them out. Now, they've made an offer that goes some way to making up for that inconvenience - something they had no control over in the first place. It may not be much, but it's something...

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

10% off. Sweet. I still have some leftover funds from that October sale they had. And just like the last time they had major network issues, I never even had plans of using the PSN at the time, yet got a present too. (Still not interested in a PS4, though.)

They really didn't have to do something, but if they want to keep PR from getting too negative, they had to at least extend Plus subscriptions. I wonder if Xbox Live will match them or if MS will grab the idiot ball again.

It's rather telling of my cynical view of gamers in general that the first Facebook comment on this was against Sony for such a "weak" offering of compensation.

It's better to have a vocal cynical selection of gamers than to not. That way we won't all be blissfully led to a new world of always online DRM or worse. Plus, it will make companies try to save face like this more often, maybe even improve their faults. One could call it a necessary evil.

 

[Trivun]

10% off. Sweet. I still have some leftover funds from that October sale they had. And just like the last time they had major network issues, I never even had plans of using the PSN at the time, yet got a present too. (Still not interested in a PS4, though.)

They really didn't have to do something, but if they want to keep PR from getting too negative, they had to at least extend Plus subscriptions. I wonder if Xbox Live will match them or if MS will grab the idiot ball again.

It's rather telling of my cynical view of gamers in general that the first Facebook comment on this was against Sony for such a "weak" offering of compensation.

It's better to have a vocal cynical selection of gamers than to not. That way we won't all be blissfully led to a new world of always online DRM or worse. Plus, it will make companies try to save face like this more often, maybe even improve their faults. One could call it a necessary evil.

'Tis a fair point, and I agree that they're necessary. What I tend to have a problem with is the more self-entitled loudmouths who get pissed off at the fact that what they want only, not what everyone wants, isn't being enacted, or the people who go over the top (like the Mass Effect 3 debacle - I could agree with and sympathise with the people who didn't like the ending, but a lot of people took it too far, what with calling for boycotts or demanding the ending be scrapped entirely - I think in that case the DLC that didn't change anything but did extend it was a fair and reasonable compromise). In this case, I think Sony have done a good job, when they didn't need to, and my only issue is with the morons who are lambasting them for making what essentially amounts to a kind and reasonable gesture . I actually wrote an article on Ubisoft's DRM a few years ago, as it happens, for my former university newspaper:

http://issuu.com/leedsstudent/docs/vol40issue14 (skip to page 33 for the article)

As for me, I'm just happy with this as I was planning on picking up the original Silent Hill on PSN. 10% off isn't a lot, but when I was going to buy the game anyway I suppose it just means another couple of quid spare next time I'm out with mates...

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Of course, they give us the discount AFTER the Holiday and Flash sales...

Joking of course, those sales were insane. I got MGS Ground Zeroes for 70 off and BF4 Premium for 30 dollars, which I think is like 50 off. Pretty sweet.

 

[RealRT]

"Sorry for us not doing our work when it was really necessary. In compensation, here's something with which you can give us slightly less money". But I don't want to spend anything on you. More than that, I already spent my gaming budget on Steam. I WOULD HAVE spent it on you if you did your job back then, but now? Sorry. Too late. Too little too.

 

[DEAD34345]

It's rather telling of my cynical view of gamers in general that the first Facebook comment on this was against Sony for such a "weak" offering of compensation. It's also rather telling that the replies to that comment were of the general opinion that Sony never had to offer anything in the first place, and that it wasn't actually their fault they were down on Christmas Day in the first place.

As for me, I'm pretty pleased with this anyway (as a PS3 owner), but I also applaud Sony for the fact that they're prepared to make a gesture, of any kind, for something that they hold no blame or responsibility for in the first place. Sony have no blame, they built PSN and Playstation Plus expecting to deal with a certain amount of traffic, and (regardless of how prepared these companies should really be nowadays for such cyber attacks) yet a DDOS attack wiped them out. Now, they've made an offer that goes some way to making up for that inconvenience - something they had no control over in the first place. It may not be much, but it's something...

Sony doesn't have a responsibility to provide the service that people are paying them for? Um... No. Whether the loss of the service is their fault or not really doesn't matter, if you're charging people for something and then not delivering, you have to give them their money back. It wasn't the consumer's fault either, remember.

In this case Sony has done the absolute bare minimum they had to. They gave people back the days of PSN service they missed out on, which is OK for most people[footnote]It's still crap for anyone who bought the PSN service specifically for those days in the first place, who I think should ideally be able to claim their money back, but whatever.[/footnote]. It's certainly not something they should be applauded for.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

I think its great what Sony did, but this isnt the first time. An i think what PSN users want is assurance that things are in place to stop this from happening again. Or at least limited. Especially as they are charging gamers to use the service.

 

[TheMightyMeekling]

Discount coupons?!? Okay, now they've turned full Uncle Scrooge. This is really greedy of them. Giving out discount coupons fixes nothing and people will think they get a good deal and thus buy more games, on average, meaning they want to convince people to buy from them even after they've repeatedly shown they can't protect their network.

 

[GAunderrated]

I think its great what Sony did, but this isnt the first time. An i think what PSN users want is assurance that things are in place to stop this from happening again. Or at least limited. Especially as they are charging gamers to use the service.

If you are looking for assurance then you will be very disappointed with Sony. They have yet to learn their lesson and that is why despite people paying monthly now for PSN, their network is still easily disrupted. You think its great that sony gave people their service that they already paid for and 1-6 dollars off to sweeten the deal? Talk about setting your standards low.

Don't get me wrong its better than them denying that any attack took place until a week down the road like the previous big hack but they are far from worth being praised for.

 

[NLS]

I might just be pulling numbers out of my ass here, since I don't own a PSN Plus membership or a Playstation. But if PSN Plus costs 49.99 $ per year, then that's about 14 cents per day times 3 days of downtime... Handing out 0,42 $ to everyone isn't worth it.

 

[Covarr]

A five day extension for three days of downtime, AND a coupon code worth more than three days of PS+ service, and some people (thankfully fewer here than in some places) are still complaining. I guess some people will just always feel entitled to a free game.

P.S. Thanks

P.P.S. I don't wanna hear any criticisms of Sony's security for this one. A DDoS is not a security breach, and is painfully easy for even the least talented script kiddies with a bit of money to spare. DDoS prevention, though possible, is not as easy as simply throwing money at the problem; it requires an enormous network infrastructure far beyond even what most large tech companies have. Think Google and Netflix (who may not be bigger than Sony overall, but definitely has a bigger online presence).

 

[Vivi22]

"Sorry for us not doing our work when it was really necessary. In compensation, here's something with which you can give us slightly less money". But I don't want to spend anything on you. More than that, I already spent my gaming budget on Steam. I WOULD HAVE spent it on you if you did your job back then, but now? Sorry. Too late. Too little too.

Your opinion on this is laughable. Wasn't their fault their services went down, they weren't down all that long in the grand scheme of things, and they're nice enough to offer their customers compensation anyway. Takes someone with one hell of a sense of entitlement to think they're in the wrong here.

 

[Vivi22]

P.P.S. I don't wanna hear any criticisms of Sony's security for this one. A DDoS is not a security breach, and is painfully easy for even the least talented script kiddies with a bit of money to spare. DDoS prevention, though possible, is not as easy as simply throwing money at the problem; it requires an enormous network infrastructure far beyond even what most large tech companies have. Think Google and Netflix (who may not be bigger than Sony overall, but definitely has a bigger online presence).

Ain't that the truth. If people knew how incredibly easy it is to compromise enough PC's to easily bring down most networks using DDoS attacks they'd be a lot more concerned about that than the fact that they were inconvenienced by Sony falling victim to one such attack. If anyone feels they're owed compensation for this, feel free to hunt down the people responsible, and while you're at it tell your technologically challenged family members to run some anti-virus software now and then and not click on that link in the email from the Nigerian prince saying he wants to give them money.

 

[BX3]

That's pretty cool of them I guess, though I'd rather those Lizard guys be forced to do something monetary for wasting everyone's time.

 

[Tony2077]

50 off for non plus members

 

[RealRT]

"Sorry for us not doing our work when it was really necessary. In compensation, here's something with which you can give us slightly less money". But I don't want to spend anything on you. More than that, I already spent my gaming budget on Steam. I WOULD HAVE spent it on you if you did your job back then, but now? Sorry. Too late. Too little too.

Your opinion on this is laughable. Wasn't their fault their services went down, they weren't down all that long in the grand scheme of things, and they're nice enough to offer their customers compensation anyway. Takes someone with one hell of a sense of entitlement to think they're in the wrong here.

Yeah, yeah, it is their fault. They may have been under an attack, yeah, but one would think that a huge internation conglomerate could keep their servers safe from a bunch of stupid kids. They didn't temporarily provide the services they are required to provide - the services they ask money for - yeah, that should be compensated, the fact that they provided any compensation at all is not a great feat, it's something to be expected. And this compensation can barely count as one anyway. I prefer to call it self-respect, thank you.

 

[gamegod25]

Eh whether or not it's equal value to the time lost is a matter of personal opinion I guess. Personally I think it's good they are at least acknowledging the outage and giving something back for it. It may not be an exact 1:1 exchange but considering they really have no obligation (perhaps morally but not legally) to give anything back at all, hey it's the thought that counts *shrugs*

 

[Laughing Man]

And this compensation can barely count as one anyway. I prefer to call it self-respect, thank you.

The service was down for three days and they gave you five days back as a result, you got your compensation if you feel that you have not been compensated by getting back more than you lost then that sir is not self respect that is self entitlement.

The service was down for a day and a half as a result of the attack and then down a further day and a bit while Sony fucked about trying to restore the service. The former didn't bother me the latter did and frankly I had no desire to get a free game or money off or any bullshit like that three days of lost PSN plus was all I wanted back and that's what I got plus a bit more. I am not gonna high five Sony for this but I am not going to attack them either.