PSN RETURNS...LESSONS LEARNED

So the PSN should be back for the majority of people in the US and Europe by now, with the rest of the world being rolled out today.  After some three weeks of waiting and cursing Sony, the wait is finally over, at least for the online gaming aspect of the service.  There are still major features that have yet to return such as the Store.

The important thing is that the online gaming service is back and ready to roll.

One can only hope that Sony have learned their lesson in the past three weeks, because it has been the lowest ebb in the Playstation brands history.  Sony showed their naivety and frailty and their shortcomings were exploited.  It is surely the case that this has been remedied to the best of their abilities, or any other companies ability for that matter.  Make no mistake, it will take some time for this to blow over for Sony and there can be little doubt that consumer confidence in the Playstation brand will have taken a hit.  The size of the hit depends on how forgiving the general public are.

What must be pointed out is there will have been some good in what happened to Sony.  It would take a remarkable naive person to believe that Sony are the only company out there who have customers personal details in a relatively unprotected state.  There will have been a number of companies frantically trying to remedy their shortcomings in the past three weeks as well, fearful that a hack may be directed at them.

Whereas Sony have been the fall guys, it is important to know that they will not be the last company to suffer such a breach.

Although it has taken a long time to get the PSN back online, it does show how seriously Sony have taken this breach and how dedicated they are to resolving the matter.  The whys and wherefores of whether this attack should have happened and the lack of Sony's data protection has been debated to death on the Internet.  It is time to but that aside and get on with the business of playing games again.

My only hope is that Sony have learned their lessons and that they also realize that constant lines of communication to their customers is vitally important as well.  Being met with a wall of silence was one of the worst aspects of this whole drama and it is clear that Sony need to sort out their PR and fast at is was shambolic to say the least. 

If the public forgive Sony this time, they will certainly not be so charitable in the future.