The PSN Problem, Or How Sony Got Scooped By Its Own Customers
By Jared Newman | Monday, March 1, 2010 at 4:39 pm
You know things are bad when Sony tells Playstation 3 owners not to turn on their consoles for fear of data loss, but they’re even worse when the warning comes 16 hours, and an entire night, after the company first acknowledged problems with the Playstation Network.
This morning, Sony announced that PS3 consoles, with the exception of the new PS3 Slim, can’t connect with the Playstation Network because of a bug in the system’s clock. What’s worse is that simply turning on the consoles can cause “errors in some functionality, such as recording obtained trophies, and not being able to restore certain data.” As such, Sony advised staying away from the PS3 — unless you’ve got a Slim — until they can fix the problem, hopefully within 24 hours.
As with any tech service outage, it’s appropriate to look at whether the official response was adequate. In this case, Sony’s clearly was not.
Information moves astoundingly fast in the gaming world. I first got wind of the problem at around 4 p.m. PST, reading a Twitter update from Game Informer’s Philip Kollar. His PS3 Trophy information was gone, and he couldn’t play any games. That was two hours before Sony itself acknowledged the problem and said it was looking into it.
Before long, Sony’s customers blew the story open. Reports of internal clock issues were everywhere, mainly stemming from the popular gaming forum NeoGAF. By midnight, one user had posted a detailed FAQ on who was affected, what to do and what’s at risk by turning on your console.
That’s exactly what Sony should’ve done. Instead, the company sat on the issue until Monday morning, when spokesman Patrick Seybold posted a sterile message explaining the errors. The warning to PS3 Fat owners was buried in his blog post. That was the last we heard from Sony. Among the perfectly valid questions that were unanswered: How will a fix will be delivered to people who can’t go online? What other data is at risk of being lost? Will people get their trophies back?
Kotaku’s reporting that consoles are now coming back to life (but no word from Sony, mind you). Sony still has some explaining to do, and gamers deserve an apology not just for the outage itself, but for being kept in the dark.
Update: Sony’s made it official that service is back, that a non-existent leap year was to blame, and that the problem resolved itself once system clocks hit March 1.
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The PS3 Problem: How Sony Got Scooped By Its Own Users | TechnoKlix Says:
March 2nd, 2010 at 8:45 am[…] Technologizer – The PSN Problem, Or How Sony Got Scooped By Its Own Customers […]
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We Need Real Answers on Playstation Plus and Hulu Plus Says:
July 5th, 2010 at 7:44 pm[…] fill the news vacuum. At the end of February, owners of non-Slim Playstation 3s discovered that their consoles weren’t working, and they risked losing data just by turning on their consoles. Sony didn’t warn people about […]
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PlayStation Network Down For a Day (or Two) – PCWorld | Watch News Online Says:
April 21st, 2011 at 4:15 pm[…] 2010, when a leap year issue caused some users to lose data just by turning on their consoles. Sony didn't relay that message to its customers until 16 hours after the first reports […]
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PlayStation Network Down For a Day (or Two) – PCWorld | Talk Trends Says:
April 21st, 2011 at 4:25 pm[…] 2010, when a leap year issue caused some users to lose data just by turning on their consoles. Sony didn’t relay that message to its customers until 16 hours after the first reports […]
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PlayStation Network Down For a Day (or Two) | Xlriempd's Top News Online Says:
April 21st, 2011 at 4:26 pm[…] 2010, when a leap year issue caused some users to lose data just by turning on their consoles. Sony didn't relay that message to its customers until 16 hours after the first reports […]
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PlayStation Network Down For a Day (or Two) | Mobile Bridge Says:
April 21st, 2011 at 4:35 pm[…] a jump year emanate caused some users to remove information only by branch on their consoles. Sony didn’t send that summary to a customers until 16 hours after a initial reports […]
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PlayStation Network Down For a Day (or Two) | Talk Trends Says:
April 21st, 2011 at 5:31 pm[…] 2010, when a leap year issue caused some users to lose data just by turning on their consoles. Sony didn’t relay that message to its customers until 16 hours after the first reports […]
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PlayStation Network Down For a Day (or Two) – PCWorld | Indokeyword.com Says:
April 21st, 2011 at 6:07 pm[…] 2010, when a leap year issue caused some users to lose data just by turning on their consoles. Sony didn’t relay that message to its customers until 16 hours after the first reports […]
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PlayStation Network Down For a Day (or Two) – PCWorld | Breaking News Update Says:
April 21st, 2011 at 6:30 pm[…] 2010, when a leap year issue caused some users to lose data just by turning on their consoles. Sony didn’t relay that message to its customers until 16 hours after the first reports […]
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PlayStation Network Down For a Day (or Two) | Video Capers - Make Video For Global News Says:
April 21st, 2011 at 6:53 pm[…] 12 months matter induced some consumers to drop information just by turning on their consoles. Sony didn’t relay that concept to its customers until finally 16 hrs following the first reports […]
March 1st, 2010 at 9:13 pm
Sony’s response to this issue was a complete joke. The latest official blog post is not only poorly written but offers no explanation of what users should do to resolve the issue. An epic, epic fail — and this coming from a lifelong PlayStation fan.
March 1st, 2010 at 9:51 pm
Blah blah blah, they just gave you a reason to unplug and go out and do something productive. I don’t see how this was a bad thing for anyone!
March 2nd, 2010 at 11:04 am
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