The "any publicity is good publicity rule" has it's limits.

Both in severity and in just application.

Sony is Sony.  It doesn't need publicity to get it's name out there.  Is there anyone over the age of 15, where if you went to them and said "Have you heard of Sony" they would say No?

If so, they're probably part of some community that can't afford to buy Sony Products anyway.

Basically the "any press is good press" case only fits when it's things few people have heard of... or something is controversial.  (As in, Manhunt has all kinds of super gore!  Lets yell at it on TV.)

i would also like to add that turning bad publicity into good publicity requires a good PR/marketing department, something sony never had.

really, this has probably esculated from managable to problematic bad publicity.  psn is a free service so as far as i'm concerned sony never has to get it back online ... however, i won't be a happy loyal customer if it doesn't come back soon.

Where is the "Are you on crack?" option?

finally a positive thread on the hack! +1

i thinks its

"bad publicity is still publicity"

i dont use a CC on PSN or online in general

idc if PSN is down for a while its not really a bad time for me if it happens in the fall with games like U3 MW3 BF3 ect then things might be different

all in all this is all b/c sony cares for the consumer and or gaming industry i believe none of this would of happen if they didnt take hackers and piracy so seriously back early this yr if they let people run CF that many abused in online gaming and resulted in the ability to run pirated SW then PSN would of not been attacked

The problem is this goes beyond Microsoft's RROD scenario, since that was also a PR disaster. the situation was acceptable this week when we thought no data had been taken, cc data was encrypted anyway, but today when we found out this is not the case, well this is a disaster.

however there is one chance and one chance alone left for Sony, and that is to publically crush these hackers. so the public is assured it will NEVER happen again. Sony need to show they have these people by the balls for targetting their customers and that they will go to prison for a very long time. this is the only way i think they can win back the trust of the public.

however it has been 2 weeks and i'm beginning to doubt the competenancy of the FBI and Homeland Security at the moment, if they cant catch hackers at this level. there are higher levels of hacking like when Canada has been the subject of large scale Chinese attacks recently, i would expect the FBI to have caught these people by now. so WTF is going on.

It's definitely bad for their image considering the sheer number of tin-foil hat wearers who act like their identities are already in use by impersonators.

Hi!

Well I really cant predict the future of this major incident for Sony  but I can say one thing: Many people who dont follow up on forums and threads about videogames could be misleaded by employees at establishments such as Gamestop and Game.

I wanted to know the reaction and advice from one of these so called experts at these shops so I went to the closest shopping mall here in Madrid and walked into a Gamestop. I asked the guy there about the situation and explained to him that I had the ps3.

The guy, who was actually very rude, told me that I would have major difficulties and suggested that I sell all my ps3 things along with the console and looked at "other" alternatives. He told me that psn would be down at minimum for 2 months.

Now, isn´t this misleading people who have no idea about the situation and are less informed? Perhaps this employee is a fanboy troll? I also called some other places and they told me more or less the same thing, but not the two months this dude said. Do these establishments hire fanboys?...because all of them I seem to encounter are just about the same.

If I get in a car wreck and smash up my car and my body all to hell... does publicity even matter?

Yea thats pretty horrible practices it's bad enough they lie about multiplats but thats just horrible you should tell the manager and try and get them fired