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| *Crickets* |
The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) is essentially Christmas for nerds because it is where many video game developers announce new releases. E3 is closely watched by the video game media and goes a long way in determining how a particular console or game will perform in the upcoming year. In anticipation of this year’s E3, which runs from June 7 to June 9, I will be doing a series of previews starting with one about Sony’s Playstation Network.
For those of you who don’t know, in mid-April the Playstation Network (PSN) was hacked and personal information as well as a few thousand credit card numbers were stolen. For a good timeline of events through May 6th check out this link, if you don’t care enough to click that link I’ll summarize in one sentence: After being hacked, PSN was down for close to a month before service was restored in North America on May 15th (Playstation Store is still down), but lots of people are still (justifiably) upset with Sony.
Prior to the PSN debacle, Sony was poised for a strong year with a lineup of Playstation-exclusives including Killzone 3, Infamous 2, and Uncharted 3. Now that they’ve gone and pissed off millions of Playstation owners, including the video game media, Sony will have to perform the difficult task of restoring confidence in the PSN while still selling next year’s game lineup to the public. One thing is clear: Microsoft’s Xbox Live was regarded as the gold standard for gaming consoles prior to the hack, now Sony has fallen even further behind.
The full extent of the damage done to Playstation’s sales by the PSN hack is still unclear, so I will be watching with great interest to see how Sony deals with the situation and how the gaming community reacts.
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