The Old Sony Megathread

[Berober]

Awesome. A Sony Thread!

I'll just leave this here...

[Herr Matzat]

Finaly some news by sony on identety theft protection. The US already got something, dident read it... waiting for the EU Version that is said to be almost finished.

[SeanDMan]

Even just reading the URL should make you angry.

[Kaney]

With Sony already offering identity theft protection to PSN users in the United States, PlayStation Blog Europe has posted an update on the situation for European customers. SCEE head of communications Nick Caplin stated "we are working incredibly hard to offer you something very similar" to the protection scheme offered to US PSN users.

Caplin noted that offering such a plan is "a very complicated thing to achieve" given the number of countries in the European region. That said, he added that Sony is "close" to finding a solution and hopes to announce something "very soon."

Update: Caplin has penned another PlayStation Blog post, detailing some of Sony's plans to offer compensation and identity theft protection to European PSN users. Caplin reiterated the difficulty in providing ID theft protection in different countries, though Sony hopes to "provide details of exactly which services are available in each country and explain how to sign up" by "early next week."

Furthermore, Sony will also offer free games to European PSN users. PS3 owners will be able to choose two free games from a selection of five. PSP owners will be able to choose two games from a selection of four. The available games should be announced "very soon."

No word on what the games will be, i.e. PS1 classics, downloadable titles or proper full PS3 games. Aparently the ID protection thing will let you know the instant your details show up somewhere untoward, and offer a compensation if your account is compromised within a year or something like that. Could be useful, not really heard of the service before or how reliable it'll be.

[Herr Matzat]

Well, it sais PS3 games, so i doubt it will be PSone Games. Maybe it´s PSN games... But i like the fact that they let you chose from five, so hopefully only the most die hard fans will already have all the games.

I don´t even know what PS3 full games they got on PSN anyway... i guess games that requie PSN for full enjoyment are likely to be included... LBP, Warhawk (?)... this other shooter game with 256 players? Maybe throw in DC Universe - it´s very new but after the first month people would need to subscribe... i hope that there is something like The God of War Collection on the list, even if listed as two games. All of these are big names but due to age, subscriptions or DLC are not that much of a financial disaster.

They also released a new blog post delaying the restart further. No Date given.

Edited May 7, 2011 by Michael Matzat on a Plane

[Lint]

this is from identitytheftlabs.com about Debix

Debix the Identity Protection Network has been protecting American consumers since 2004.

Debix Inc., is a privately held firm located in Austin Texas. They were originally financed by Gideon Yu, chief financial officer of Facebook, and Launny Steffens, a former vice chairman of Merrill Lynch. Since then Debix has received a total of $9.3 million from two venture firms, Trellis Partners of Austin, Texas and Merus Capital which is based in Palo Alto, California.

Debix is the company that made headlines when it won the contract to protect the identities of workers and taxpayers in the State of Ohio after a huge data breach. This was a huge coup for the young company as it showed that governments trusted their system and technology over others.

The contract gave Debix instant credibility and they have leveraged this success to become a force to be reckoned with, signing residents of the State of Connecticut and voters in the City of Nashville after they too had significant data breaches. Debix has since become the number one choice for identity theft protection when states, hospitals or any private of public company has a large data breach.

Debix Fraud Defense and Technology

Debix protects consumers by monitoring their credit file at all three credit bureaus and notifying them by phone through their their patent-pending OnCall system when new accounts are opened. They are the only service providing OnCall Credit Monitoring.

Normally with credit monitoring you are sent emails of any changes to your credit file and often you receive many duplicate items or unnecessary information. Consumers familiar with regular credit monitoring services will know this and understand how frustrating it is to get repetitive emails and emails that don’t really mean anything. What sets Debix apart from their competitions that they eliminate the repetitive and non-urgent emails, that generally get ignored anyways, and instead of sending you an email they actually call you. This is how it works.

Debix places their phone number in your credit file and when a change occurs their system automatically routes the call to up to three of your phone numbers. You then pick up the phone and hear a recording of your own voice, called a voice key, so that you know the call is authentic. Don’t worry you record your voice key when you sign up and it’s real simple. If it is you who has applied for the new account or initiated the change in your credit file you simply hit the number 1 on your phone to approve that change.

If it is not you applying for the credit or initiating the change in your credit file you simply hit the star button and that declines the request or shows the change as fraudulent and automatically puts you in touch with a Debix OnCall Investigator, a licensed private investigator in the State of Texas, who helps you notify the appropriate authorities if appropriate and generally works with you to investigate the fraud and put a stop to it.

Another important facet of this system is that it provides an audit trail in the event of a dispute which means that Joes Used Car Lot can’t claim that you approved the car loan when Debix system clearly shows you did not. Also their investigators can often find out how your personal information became exposed in the first place and stop that from happening again, and they will work with law enforcement on the case if needed. Once fraud is discovered and stopped, Restoration Specialists work with you to fully repair and restore your identity to its pre-fraud state.

Learn more at Debix now – just click here.

Debix’s Identity Theft Insurance

Debix identity protection also includes $1,000,000 worth of identity theft insurance which is covered by Lloyd’s insurance. Their Identity Theft Insurance Coverage provides expert assistance and financial relief up to $1,000,000 for expenses like legal defense and lost wages which is of particular benefit as some polices or guarantees do not.

[Herr Matzat]

Whats interesting about the free games thing... these games would prittymuch become part of the most... well, not soled but... distributed (?) games ever.

[New Damage]

The 5 games will be: Call of Duty 3, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Call of Duty: World At War, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Call of Duty: Black Ops.

[gunnar hendershow]

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/300744/news/playstation-network-hack-down-time-may-cost-sony-billions/

PlayStation Network hack, down time may cost Sony billions

Tuesday 10-May-2011 3:33 PM Analysts say the financial impact of the cyber-attack could be massive

The PlayStation Network hack and subsequent down time could cost Sony billions of pounds in lost business, a number of analysts have speculated.

While Sony spokeswoman Kumie Tanaka told the Wall Street Journal (via Business Insider) that the company is still examining the overall impact of the cyber-attack, Mizuho Investors Securities analyst Nobuo Kurahashi forecast that the data breach will cost the company roughly 100 billion Japanese yen (£758.8m).

"It could take months for the security woes to settle, and how this may affect consumer confidence in Sony's online services in a long run is harder to assess," he said.

Another analyst, Barclays Capital's Yuji Fujimori, said the cost to Sony could be as high as 220 billion yen (about £1.7b).

The PSN outage is also costing Sony's business partners like Activision and Capcom, who have both said they're hoping for a quick resumption of the service.

Sony said yesterday the PSN might not be fully operational again until May 31, six weeks after it was first taken offline.

Bolded the most important part. I would think if this is the date they are giving it should be a pretty solid timeframe. I want them to take their time with it and make sure that this will never happen again.

Also, I realized I never changed my address from when I moved back from Philadelphia. My negligence finally paid off I guess...

[Herr Matzat]

i thought all americans would live in california to avoid sales taxes for download stuff.

[NM!]

Well, let me go pack my bags then.

[Meacon Keaton]

For those of you closer to the East Coast, and prefer less smog, Delaware is sales tax free. It's small, though, so I'm not sure how many of you all they'll fit in.

[gunnar hendershow]

There's also a lot of beaches in Delaware, which doesn't really relate to video games and probably would keep me from playing them and spending money on them.

...

Thus being even more valuable than the lack of sales tax!

*Packs bags*

[Meacon Keaton]

You can crash at my family's house. Then you'll save on no sales tax AND no rent!

[Meacon Keaton]

What the fuck were we talking about again?

[New Damage]

Not a lot, because PSN's still down.

[zero]

Sony says it'll start coming back up in a "few days." Using Sony math, I assume that means "we have no fucking idea."

[gunnar hendershow]

They had said May 31 in the article I posted, so yes using Sony math I think we can safely assume "a few days" means the entire month of May. In the grand scheme of the universe, that is most definitely a few days.

[zero]

May 31st is supposed to be the deadline for full restoration. Online play is a "few more days," but the PSN Store won't be back till the end of the month.

[Mountainous Cleavage]

Matzats comment makes me wonder if you set up your PSN account to say you were in Cali, if you could get around the sales tax regardless where you're from. Kinda the same way you can create a japanese PSN account from Canada, and get a demo released in Japan before it is in Canada.