Second Sony Hack Worse Than Originally Thought

Well, once again we have a huge blow being dealt to the wonderful fanboys who still think Sony is the king of all gaming companies.  It has been announced that over 25 million PC users have had their personal information swiped by a second successful hack attempt on Monday, possibly leading to the theft of 10,700 direct debit records from European customers, and 12,700 non-US credit or debit card numbers.  That means us, Canada.

Investors are already saying that Sony botched the way they dealt with the first breach by not notifying customers and shutting down the network immediately, and suggest that they had nothing in place plan-wise in case a situation like this arose.  One also has to wonder exactly what the developers of certain titles that get major play over the internet (DC Universe Online ring any bells?) are likely to do when people have spent money for pay-for-play games and the network is not only down, but all their information is likely unsecured.  Sounds to me like Sony is in for more than a few lawsuits, some corporate, some class-action.

The funny thing is the comment I got when I mentioned last night that the PC network was shut down as well.  An anonymous poster complained that he didn't like the 360 because you have to pay an annual membership, and that he'd rather save his money for games.  I mentioned the following in a comment to his comment, but want to reiterate this here:  The cost of an annual membership to X-Box LIVE is approximately the same price as a new game on either the 360 or the PS3, and with it you already get access to piles of free downloads (themes, avatar items, demos of every arcade title and lots of disc game titles), videos, tips and tricks, previews (all of the last three you have to pay for on the PS3 as their Qore 'magazine' comes with a price) and, oh yes, they haven't threatened our personal information!  I'm sorry, but the PS3 doesn't have any titles good enough to want me to trade my credit card information to an identity thief for the opportunity to play them, and if your best argument is that you'd rather save your money for games on the PS3, then you obviously are too immature to realize that identity theft can ruin your entire future until it gets resolved.  That, and the PS3 has only a small handful of titles exclusive to the system that are worth owning in the first place.  If I can play a game on both the PS3 and the 360, I buy the 360 version each and every time, leaving the PS3 only about 3 franchises worth anything, and they aren't all that hot either.  "God Of War" had two good titles, then the graphics became the big story to the point that they almost rendered the third game unplayable, "Metal Gear Solid" is just a prettier re-hash of the previous titles in the series, and "Killzone" is a CoD knock-off that doesn't do it as well as the original.  Bad argument, sorry.

Paying the equivalent of the price of a game annually(and oftentimes they have deals that lower that cost even more) to ensure my information's confidentiality?  Priceless.