Before I get too far in; if you haven't heard the PSN was hacked thanks to custom firmware and registered PSN users personal information (including maybe credit card numbers) was compromised. Thanks GeoHot. SO the question has been running around about whether this is or is not as bad as the RROD. Well Sony managed to handle this in surprisingly Microsoft-esque  fashion by not telling everyone right away. Just kind of hoping it wasn't as bad as it could be and then having to fess up. We won't know how bad this effects Sony's reputation for a few months really, once the problem is solved and hoopla dies down, if the issue still lingers then we will know. For right now I would say no not really but that is only because the RROD was a much larger problem then what the PSN Hack seems to be right now. Having said that if people's credit information is compromised and the worst comes to pass this could be a big black eye on the PlayStation brand.
Sony needs to do something big to make up for this some gesture beyond giving away free PSN downloads. If I were in charge of Sony PR I would make sure a vague mention of this came up in the E3 keynote (along the lines of "We've learned from our mistakes and we are better") and a position was created to both keep in contact with web security and the customers. But I'm not in charge of Sony PR so I'll sit back and watch, I feel they've done a sub-par job thus far with this crisis but they haven't handled it the worst. Already SOny seems to be strengthening the network to protect users, but that isn't enough. If anything I think this will push Sony to price the PS3 at $199 before Microsoft, it would be the kind of big news story you need to cover this stuff up.

On a personal note this is why I am against hacking and home brewing. It opens a platform (and its customers) up to abuse in a way that most hackers don't for see. Geohot may play nice and say he only jail breaked the PS3 to run his own code but this is what happened and he is responsible for it. He is as responsible as Sony for any breach if not more so. Geohot bypassed the security safe guards and this is what happened.

If your information is compromised; I'm sorry, hate GeoHot and the hackers because it happened and hate Sony because they took their time telling you about it.

No.  I believe the RROD cost Microsoft sales.  The PSN debacle isn't something that will creep into the lexicon like "red ring of death" has.  It's all about image and right now Sony is suffering but the RROD was a persistent problem that lasted years.  The Sony PSN fiasco will be gone and forgotten before summer begins...providing wide spread credit card fraud doesn't occur.  If that happens then it will reignite the conversation over how safe is any e-purchase and that could impact lots of online retailers, not just Sony. 

Its worse, I would rather have my machine break and the company fix it for free than have my life savings being at risk.

I don't think it's really comparable. They both suck.

As bad? Dude, your personal information, including passwords and accounts are out in the open. It's fuckin' far worse than the RRoD debacle.

" Its worse, I would rather have my machine break and the company fix it for free than have my life savings being at risk. "

If I could choose between my name, date of birth, address, passwords and credit cards details being stolen, or my console breaking, I'd choose console breaking every time.

If credit card info has really gone (we don't know yet if it has) then this is much, much worse that RRoD.

Also, the RRoD still lingers, there is no way in hell that Sony will ever live this down.

The RROD is annoying, Identity Theft is miles worse.

" As bad? Dude, your personal information, including passwords and accounts are out in the open. It's fuckin' far worse than the RRoD debacle. "

Eh. They are both bad . But I think that the RRoD had more of a direct effect of people just saying "fuck this" while this with PSN will be more determined by how it results. Yeah, information may or may not be out there and people may or may not use it but so far there is not really anything to base an opinion on. Just some scattered (and seemingly sketchy reports) of people getting $300 taken out of their account. This may just be like the Gawker hack thing. People get all worked up about it when it happens but by next week, nobody cares anymore as nothing has really developed from it. Now if reports start coming out that vast amounts of money are flying out of PSN users accounts, then there will be a lasting black eye on Sony. This as it looks at the moment comes off more like a pants wetting.

Time will tell.  RRoD had a 1 billion dollar price tag though, so that is pretty hard to beat.

I don't give a shit about PSN being down, but I'd rather have my 360 break than have my personal information stolen because Sony failed to protect it properly.  If I got burned, I'd certainly think twice about trusting them with it again in future.

Stop making it a console war thing. This has broad implications in more than just 'what was worse, RROD or Sony being hacked' because those two things aren't even comparable. It's basically a warning of any kind of e-shopping - it could've been anyone, it just happened to be Sony and their complete fuckwittery with some aspects of their security.

" Its worse, I would rather have my machine break and the company fix it for free than have my life savings being at risk. "

" I don't give a shit about PSN being down, but I'd rather have my 360 break than have my personal information stolen because Sony failed to protect it properly.  If I got burned, I'd certainly think twice about trusting them with it again in future. "

Let's look at it this way.  Sony's crisis is "Someone may have your personal information and may do something with it".  Microsoft basically took money from your fucking wallet themselves when you bought a console (at one point in time) that would in all likelihood just stop working.

Not really comparable, but on a scale of better or worse, putting personal information at risk is worse than having your console overheat and break.

Worse, in the RROD you just went without a console for a while, then they sent you a new one. In this your details and possibly bank details are the hands of god knows who.

No comparison- this is a lot worse because there's a big difference between a mass hardware failure and mass identity theft that affects personal lives. Will this hit Sony harder than RROD hit Microsoft? I hope so because I'm very upset about this (right now). I understand it's a risk I take dealing with a net presence and commerce, but it's something I need to learn from regarding passwords, log-in names, etc....

 If I was a betting man, Sony's stance on the current credit card question tells me that information was compromised as well.

" @wickedsc3: @Napalm: Since I couldn't have said it better myself...

@PenguinDust said:

" No.  I believe the RROD cost Microsoft sales.  The PSN debacle isn't something that will creep into the lexicon like "red ring of death" has.  It's all about image and right now Sony is suffering but the RROD was a persistent problem that lasted years.  The Sony PSN fiasco will be gone and forgotten before summer begins...providing wide spread credit card fraud doesn't occur.  If that happens then it will reignite the conversation over how safe is any e-purchase and that could impact lots of online retailers, not just Sony.  "

What he said. ^

Anyone who thinks this is a worse PR Crisis then the RRoD is; too young, too stupid or too myopic to understand that people still don't buy Xbox 360s because they think they might break. Sony hopes this storm will be long passed by E3; as a customer and for their customers I hope they are right.

"

Spent the last half hour/ hour changing passwords, need to cancel/ replace card. I've had two E74 errors that seem like fucking peanuts compared to this. If PSN security isn't made tighter than a cat's arsehole after all this then Sony can go fuck themselves right up their own. If they'd been forthcoming right off the bat I wouldn't be so concerned/ angry. 

" @wickedsc3: @Napalm: Since I couldn't have said it better myself...

@PenguinDust said:

" No.  I believe the RROD cost Microsoft sales.  The PSN debacle isn't something that will creep into the lexicon like "red ring of death" has.  It's all about image and right now Sony is suffering but the RROD was a persistent problem that lasted years.  The Sony PSN fiasco will be gone and forgotten before summer begins...providing wide spread credit card fraud doesn't occur.  If that happens then it will reignite the conversation over how safe is any e-purchase and that could impact lots of online retailers, not just Sony.  "

What he said. ^

Anyone who thinks this is a worse PR Crisis then the RRoD is; too young, too stupid or too myopic to understand that people still don't buy Xbox 360s because they think they might break. Sony hopes this storm will be long passed by E3; as a customer and for their customers I hope they are right.

"

" @benjaebe: This post was a reply to Ryan's tweet earlier. I agree with you this has more implications for e-commerce than it does in the console war.

@Jimbo: @rybrad: @blacklabeldomm:

I hate to keep doing this but;

@Rockdalf said:

" Let's look at it this way.  Sony's crisis is "Someone may have your personal information and may do something with it".  Microsoft basically took money from your fucking wallet themselves when you bought a console (at one point in time) that would in all likelihood just stop working. "

What he said. Also remember we are dealing with the possibility of a hack and not a definite one. Sony could be causing all this hoopla by being overly cautious, maybe all they took was name, address, date of birth (public record stuff) 

"

I have this orange and an apple...

They also replaced them for free, costing them billions in the process. "

" @benjaebe: This post was a reply to Ryan's tweet earlier. I agree with you this has more implications for e-commerce than it does in the console war.

@Jimbo: @rybrad: @blacklabeldomm:

I hate to keep doing this but;

@Rockdalf said:

" Let's look at it this way.  Sony's crisis is "Someone may have your personal information and may do something with it".  Microsoft basically took money from your fucking wallet themselves when you bought a console (at one point in time) that would in all likelihood just stop working. "

What he said. Also remember we are dealing with the possibility of a hack and not a definite one. Sony could be causing all this hoopla by being overly cautious, maybe all they took was name, address, date of birth (public record stuff) 

"

I really don't think the personal info thing is as big a deal as people are making it out to be. Even if they got the credit card info the chances of me personally being hurt by this are practically zero. Maybe they'll send out a bunch of phishing emails, big whoop. If it turns out they got the CC info, I'll call my bank and get a new debit card. Problem solved. I'm not too concerned about my name and address being there among a sea of hundreds of thousands of other ones.

Depends how we're looking at things.  I agree that the two issues shouldn't really be compared..

It's worse cause my personal information is worth more than the 2 broken 360's I've replaced. But they're also kind of different things. They both suck ass, this one just so happens to suck ass for more people.

" I have this orange and an apple... "

That's not a very intelligent comparison to make.

" Worse. Not even close. Sony's incompetence has placed millions of gamers finances at risk. "

Too soon to tell I think.

@wickedsc3: I work at a local news station (well below CNN) and we ran 4 major stories on people's Xbox 360's breaking. I would wait to see the media hysteria before you judge. As far as people's savings being liquidated when that happens, it will be an issue. Until it does sit back have a drink and think more about the PR image we are dealing with now. I'm not saying you're wrong of that that couldn't happen just wait until you're local news covers it.

"

I don't think it really matters if anything "comes out of" this or not - it's still really embarassing. A multi-billion dollar corporation has NO IDEA who has your personal banking info and addresses?! And you're seriously trying to say that that's worse than a hardware defect?    

@Rockdalf:

Getting an early 360 after the reports of the RROD situation came out was just playing with fire because you didn't know if it was, or wasn't, going to happen to your XBOX. However, as consumers and gamers we trusted Sony with our personal information, and had no control over the situation. If you bought an early 360 you made a conscious decision, knowing the risks. This PSN fiasco is something that just crept up on all of us and has millions (and millions, I actually did The Rock pose when I typed that)  worried about their information.

So I would say as someone who has no preference in the console wars, and actually have played more PS3 over the last year or so than XBOX, that this may not be the same type of bad situation but for someone who has entrusted essentially their livelihood to Sony. This is a disaster of epic proportions... at least the RROD didn't potentially lower my credit score.

Not yet, but we don't know how bad the damage is yet, either.

" Let's look at it this way.  Sony's crisis is "Someone may have your personal information and may do something with it".  Microsoft basically took money from your fucking wallet themselves when you bought a console (at one point in time) that would in all likelihood just stop working. "

Possibly?  Yes.  Currently? No.

" @wickedsc3: @Napalm: Since I couldn't have said it better myself...

@PenguinDust said:

" No.  I believe the RROD cost Microsoft sales.  The PSN debacle isn't something that will creep into the lexicon like "red ring of death" has.  It's all about image and right now Sony is suffering but the RROD was a persistent problem that lasted years.  The Sony PSN fiasco will be gone and forgotten before summer begins...providing wide spread credit card fraud doesn't occur.  If that happens then it will reignite the conversation over how safe is any e-purchase and that could impact lots of online retailers, not just Sony.  "

What he said. ^

Anyone who thinks this is a worse PR Crisis then the RRoD is; too young, too stupid or too myopic to understand that people still don't buy Xbox 360s because they think they might break. Sony hopes this storm will be long passed by E3; as a customer and for their customers I hope they are right.

"