Sony’s hack reparations disappoint its alienated user-base

ERRANT GAMING GIANT Sony has come under fire again for its response to the hack attack that wiped out 100 million personal identities and its online reputation.

The firm kept its gaming and music services offline for almost thirty days while it noticed, floundered around in and then reacted to the hacking attack, and now, with services trickling back into life, it has detailed the 'compensation' it will give disgruntled gamers.

Unfortunately the compensation is not much. Users who have been locked out of their services for almost a month are offered two out of a choice of five games. That would be pretty decent of Sony if most of the games were not those that most people already own.

Nick Caplin, head of communications at SCEE, revealed the rewards on the Sony blog. "Now that certain PSN services have been restored and you're once again enjoying online gaming, it seems a good time to confirm what is being offered as part of the Welcome Back programme," he said.

"All existing PlayStation Network members will be able to access the following from PlayStation Store: Two PS3 games from the following list: LittleBigPlanet, Infamous, Wipeout HD/Fury, Ratchet and Clank: Quest for Booty [and] Dead Nation".

PSP gamers are offered a similar choice of titles, and these are LittleBigPlanet, ModNation, Pursuit Force and Killzone Liberation, and all are equally yawnsome.

Users were less than enthused about the gifts, with many complaining that they already had the games, or had already had them, completed them and sold them. In the case of Little Big Planet the offering seems particularly poor, and not least of all because that game already has a sequel out.

One user compared the welcome back to the sort of welcome you might get at Fawlty Towers, others were even less complimentary.

The response prompted a return to the blog for Caplin, who apologised for the poor showing.

"I'm really sorry that there is nothing there that you want. We've tried really hard to put together a list of high quality BD games, rather than simply offering cheaper PSN titles," he said.

"The average Metacritic rating for these games is over 84 [per cent], so these are high quality games. Unfortunately with a user base of 77 [million] people, it is really hard to offer something for everyone."

All parties will get a free 30 days subscription, or extension to their existing subscriber purchases. Which seems fair, especially when you consider that it's about as long as they were locked out. µ