There's something to be said for individual (and corporate) responsibility, but would you also blame the victim of a crime? If this was indeed a malicious attack by an outside source (early indications are that Sony shut it down themselves), it would be the perpetuator's fault, not Sony's.

The burger joint comparison is a poor one, because in the hypothetical example you provide, it's clearly a case of mismanagement on the part of the burger joint. The fault is all theirs. With PSN, we don't know who's at fault.

I don't feel that bad about what is going on. At the end of the day i'm not paying anything for the service and i can still use my blu-rays and play games. 

I think a lot of people are quick to feel entitled to something because they are being inconvienced at the moment. There is no way i can justify being like that when they give me a service for free. I just move over to the 360 and play on there. Now if Live went down for several days, i'd probably have a problem with it since i actually pay for it.

I understand you pay for games and want to jump on some multiplayer with friends but at the end of the day they can willingly put an end to that server if they want to. For now you are just having to go a few days without it.

I wish restaraunts would give me free food, i definitely wouldn't complain about it, haha.

I remember that sometime after the release of Heavy Rain, an odd PSN glitch that had something to do with the leap year (or something like that) prevented everyone from playing Heavy Rain. And that was offline (the bug may have prevented other games from being played offline as well). Did Sony appologize? Probably, I don't really remember. Did Sony compensate all of the people who had just purchased a $60 game and were unable to play it because of a fault on their end? No, not at all. So...don't hold your breath, you'll turn purple before Sony gives out a free game.

Having PSN down for four straight days without being honest to their customers on when it is going back is poor customer service. For example, instead of buying Portal 2 for the PS3 I decided to just buy it on the 360 knowing the current problems of PSN. PSN is free and they could shut you out if they want arguement is a poor one. The service is only free so consumers can buy their goods there instead of it's competitors. Not really free. Google is free, but when they shut out users from their gmail on accident there was a huge uproar. Who in their right mind would want to go back and invest their time in PSN. Four long days over Easter is long and unforgetable.

I think all things considered, taking down PSN was the best course of action for Sony to take. Them lying to their customers was very stupid, though. It's just created unease, even moreso now that we have a rough idea of what the compromise was:

The wallet. From my understanding, some hackers with modded firmware had found out a way to load their PS Store wallet up with funny money and download any and everything to their heart's content. All things considered, it makes sense for Sony to shut off the store to prevent this fraud, but to not get into even minor details about it (beyond the system being "externally compromised" and then have the community discover that hackers had exploited the financial side of the store was dumb. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

It's infuriating because we can't remove our credit card details. Infuriating because Sony have given us no assurances that our cards are safe -- I want to know whether I need to replace this sucker or not, and I'm thinking I may go ahead and do it anyway just to be on the safe side -- and infuriating because a few fraudsters have spoiled the fun for everyone else.

I'm not sure Sony should compensate their users for the PSN downtime, since it's only been 4-5 days thusfar (nowhere near as bad as the two week Xbox LIVE downtime one Christmas) and they're an even bigger victim than their users, who are simply denied a free online service for at most a fortnight.

However, their PR handling of the situation has been atrocious, and they should be aiming to correct it as soon as possible, instead of hiding behind a veil of secrecy when we know most of the details. All we want are assurances that our identities and credit card numbers aren't going to be sold on the black market, and advice on what to do if they have indeed been compromised.

Except in this case, the meal you're getting is free. Kind of like what you get in a soup kitchen. Had you paid for the competitor's offering, you would rarely have this issue.

That's assuming you're not paying for Sony's Plus meal, which is essentially the same undercooked, easily ruined food but with some garnish. Who eats the garnish?

A soup kitchen is an inferior product, so is Sony's PSN inferior? The point is two. One PSN is not free at all. We pay for our games, in return they allow us to play on their servers. The cost is included in the continual purchases of Sony and third party games for the PS3 and PSP. Sony also charges their vendors (publishers) to allow them to sell their games on PSN. It is free to us, but the service is paid for through other means. The second point, their handling of the issue is bad pr. If they want us to come back, and continue to buy games, movies on PSN there needs to be a good reason to come back.

Juan, so by your definition, PSN would only be "free" if the online service *and* the games were free? Microsoft charges for both. So are you saying that neither online service is free, even though one company charges a fee and the other doesn't? How is the "cost included" in Sony and third party games? Last I checked, PS3 and 360 software had nearly identical prices. Unless you believe PS3 games should be *cheaper* than the competition.

Sony doesn't owe anyone anthing; you'd best re-read your EULA or just glance at the back of a PS3 game box. The company cannot and does not guarantee 100% network availability.

That said, I do agree that this was poorly handled from a PR standpoint. In a sense, Sony's hands are tied. If the PSN is truly being disrupted by a third party, Sony cannot fully disclose the nature of that attack for security purposes. But millions of customers do have a right to know what's going on.

In the end, I would appreciate a gesture of compensation for this inconvenience (say, a $3 credit to my PlayStation Store wallet?), but I'm not holding my breath. Ultimately, I have not been damaged by this experience as no money has been lost.

Poor example. Sony has taken PSN offline to PROTECT people, not because they aren't caring about customer service. I am fine with PSN being down if it means my CC information isn't compromised.

Is it annoying? God, yes. But, you have to give some understanding. 

Yes, PSN is an inferior product. And aside from the massive downtime that resulted in a free copy of Undertow, XBL has been pretty stable, especially compared to PSN.

Considering how the service in question is free, I don't think Sony really owes anything. Sure, hang-ups like these are annoying, but nothing is stopping gamers from seeking the other services available.

I know this is a cliche thing to say, but, you get what you pay for.

I'm siding with michael. You can't compain about your burger having a hair in it if the burger is free. What are you going to demand back?

I think a better analogy would be that your favorite restaurant isn't serving you because an arsonist set the building on fire.  I don't think Sony "owes" us anything, but I do think it would be appropriate for them to give out a small token as an apology.  Even if it were just something like a free dynamic theme of Sony's choosing.

As far as how Sony has handled the PR, I expect they are doing typical PR stuff.  No company would ever release a statement that says they have no idea what's happening (which, as far as we know, was the case for a while).  They release a statement that says "We appreciate your patience while we investigate this."  They are probably not telling us how long it will take to come back up because people usually take a statement like that as a promise rather than as a flexible estimate.  I think Sony has been as forthcoming as we should expect them to be.  Corporations are like politicians in that honesty comes after their public image.  Just accept and expect that and you can more accurately interpret what they are saying.

Yea i can't input my pre order codes for Mortal Kombat or play the game online not to mention I'm a PS Plus subscriber there should definitley be some kind of compensation like a free game.

So after a few weeks, does everyone still feel the same? I stand behind my original post.