Today’s poll is going to require some deep thought (Jack Handy). I want to know which “situation” did more damage, the PlayStation Network outage or the Xbox 360 red ring of death? It’s easy to go with the PSN outage since it’s fresh, but I’d love for you to take a step back and give it some thought. Is a hardware issue for some worse than a service outage for all? Which situation did more damage to the reputation of the respective console manufacturer? Kindly vote and discuss!
[poll id=”115″]
I honestly don't think anyone should vote RROD for 1 reason. There are just as many 360s as there are PS3s so that clearly hasn't effected sales, peoples opinions, hell yes.
PSN outage is still a relatively new of a situation to compare it the well know RROD.
Apples and oranges to me.
No vote yet.
They are both pretty bad issues.
I go with PSN simply because there are paid subscriptions that cannot be accessed AND it's their whole S.O.E. side of the business that's compromised. Lots of MMOs are down as well.
Yeah but if you had XBL Gold & your console RROD'd then you can't even play A GAME and you are losing out on your subscription. At least you can still play most of the PS3 games that aren't online only.
It takes a lot less time to send back a console and get it repaired than it's taking PSN to get back online.
An RROD doesn't involve possible identity theft either.
I still voted RROD because it hit alot more people.
Every PSN account is compromised. I'm willing to bet that not every 360 sold has been compromised.
But the 360's that were compromised were bricked. If PSN comes back this week, it will be arguable that you'd be out of either service for equal amounts of time.
It's also arguable that the amount of time the average PSN user spends getting updates is equal to the amount of time you'd be without an Xbox if it RRODed.
Seriously though, the RROD was like 2 or 3 years ago and we still talk about it. Do you really think this won't blow over?
No it won't. The timing of the disruption is too close to Sony suing a hacker who fiddled with his PS3. It will continue to be a big deal. The RROD was expensive and so will this be. The fact they want to provide identity theft protection for 1 year is pretty telling. At least when my 360 RROD'd I didn't have to worry about fraud lol.
Let me put it this way…how often do you talk about blowing into a cartridge to get it to play? Or turning a certain grey console that used black discs upside down to play? That was considerably longer ago yet still comes up. Mostly in jest but some things stick around.
It is only a big deal to US. I seriously doubt many people know/care about this outside of the interwebz
I think even the mundane buyers who only purchase Madden every year are noticing that there is an issue. Let's also not forget how many of these machines might have parental CC info.
Also we can't discount that it is more than the US that is affected.
However you are probably correct in that the normal or uninformed consumer doesn't know but that would be any product and for any feature. I'm willing to bet that the normal consumer might not even used it to watch a bluray, do netflix, or anything. I like to think these people are the ones who work at cell phone stores. Those people are idiots. So are the dumbasses who sell TVs at Bestbuy. I cringe whenever one of these imbeciles try to talk to me.
Sorry that was just a capital 'us' not a U.S.
And I am with you on the people that work at ANY cell phone store and Best Buy. But the kicker is the people at Fry's. They suck
No Fry's here. We aren't good enough lol
Well, the way I look at it is from a "core" standpoint. That is; ask yourself what the core purpose of the machine is. In this case, it is gaming. So, can you play games on the PS3 while the network is down? Yes. Can you play online enabled games or multiplayer? No, but you can still play games offline. In the case of the 360, you couldn't even play your games online or offline. It was very annoying. Online features like Netflix, Hulu, streaming games, etc. are just added benefits to a core product. People buy their consoles to play games. Everything else is just an additional non-core future. Also remember that a portion of Xbox and PS3 owners do not even use the online capabilities of the machine. So, from that perspective, I think the RROD was worse.
It's like saying; which broken smart phone would you rather have: a smart phone that could only make phone calls, or a smart phone that could only function as a paperweight?
However, idiots like me got around the RROD by having a "back-up" console. Sure, you'd have to shell out more cash for a spare, but it was still a way to get around not being able to pay your games while your main console is out for repairs. Plus, I could always sell my spare or put it in another room for game parties. In the case of the PSN outage, there is no work-around if all you want to do is play online. For those people (like N8 and his DCU game), then the PSN network outage is worse than the RROD.
-M
I think "core" is a misconception on these machines now. The advent of paid services and enclosed digital stores created a new type of machine. A core gaming machine would be more akin to the PS1 if I had to choose.
Interesting side topic though. Would all of the advertised features be considered core since they are integral to the experience you purchased?
And so the Achilles’ heel of digital distribution rears it's ugly head.
The answer to your question is completely dependent on what you bought your machine for. I don't subscribe to Hulu Plus, Netflix, or have any games on demand. I bought my Xbox just to play games. Playing deathmatch or capture the flag within those online-enabled games are secondary. So for me, not being able to go online is not a problem. In fact, for the first year after I got married, I was in a temporary apartment and did not have any access to DSL or broadband. In that year, I played Bioshock, Oblivion, Halo1, 2, 3, and Guitar Hero 2 and 3. I enjoyed all those games and did not regret being able to play online once.
So, if this PSN fiasco happened during that time (and I had a PS3), I wouldn't have been fazed by it in the least.
-M
Indeed it is more relative to why you bought it.
How did you live without broadband?
I can't imagine that. I haven't been without internet access for probably 10+ years now!
Well, guys, I repeat: it was my first year of marriage. Bsukenyan, as you will find out, there are many pros and cons to being married and you will quickly find out what they are during in first year. Usually the "pros" greatly outweigh the "cons" during your first year, so even though you don't have internet access, you will find other ways to *ahem* entertain yourself. I would rather not get into specific situations, but believe me that you can go an entire year without internet access at home if you use your imagination.
-M
Read: "We had lots of crazy sex." Thus, the pregnancy thing.
So I should keep Internet so we don't have kids. Gotcha!
It only works if your married first. Without the ring, it's still a risk.
(You're welcome significant other of Smartguy)
Thank god we aren't married. lol
The XBOX 360 keeps selling despite the RRoD. It remains to be seen if the PS3 takes a sales hit.
Outside of hardcore games I know very few people who even know the Playstation network is down or was hacked. 2 of my friends with PS3s just found out this weekend.
So with that, so far I think the RROD was more damaging especially since it hit a new high in consumer electronic failure rates. They should be in Guiness for that rather than the Kinect.
It's been a story on the mainstream news due to the identity theft implications, so I'm guessing that people who don't know haven't been paying attention at all.
I found that out in the real world… people don't tend to pay attention like we do.
I get all my news from the internet because the TV news is determined to depress me. Whereas the internet writers tend to keep to what's important and have more of a personal stance.
I hypothesize that other people who aren't like us (muggles, if you will), find the TV news depressing as well. However, they feel computers are for Facebook and email.
This is why we are geeks, and they aren't.
The Xbox RRoD was a widespread problem, like 50% of consoles or something ridiculous like that, but it was something that happened over years to random individuals. As long as MS made good on it which they did it wasn't "a big deal" generally speaking.
The Sony thing is a highly publicized story effecting everyone who uses the PSN at once, so its more interesting to the news sites.
I can't imagine things being as frustrating as PSN right now. Thankfully I just want nothing more then to upload my trophies, watch Netflix, and chat with friends on PSN. But I feel just as bad for 360 users b/c of the countless RROD's, laser burns, and disc drive eating discs. I saw that happend the other day at work o_O.
I say RROD because it hit more people.
Sure, 77 million accounts had some info compromised, but only a fraction of them put credit cards and alot of those accounts are multiple accounts by one person (I'm looking at you, Thundercracker).
Also, alot of people don't even connect their PS3 online. Alot of people don't connect their 360's either… but I'm willing to bet it's on the smaller side of the ratio.
Just about everyone I know with few exceptions (I'm looking at you, Slicky… and again Thundercracker) that has both consoles prefers the 360 for multiple reasons, but mainly because of the network and it's overall performance.
Also… when the RROD was in it's prime… 360's were much more expensive. An Elite cost more than a PS3 bundle pack does now.
I say RROD was a bigger stain. Sony will shake this off soon after the network gets back up. MS will NEVER live down the RROD. At least not in this generation.
I think people are underestimating the effects this will have on their MMO subs. That stuff is addicting and once you get away for even a week you realize how long a day actually is and how much stuff you can get done. Good chance quite a few of those subs for those MMOs don't come back either due to detox (haha), or have joined up with the competition.
True… but that still doesn't make it a bigger blemish on Sony than the RROD did on MS.
If this continued disruption of services affects their subs so much that they lose a 100k or so, I'd think it would be as bad if not worse. Nightshade pointed out that the RROD didn't hurt 360 sales. So I think this discussion is still premature. We'll know more in 6 months or so.
Yeah, we'll know more over time dependent on the sales figures. – But we'll also learn more over time based on any other complications from all of this. Sure no C/C data has been used yet, but that's not the only info that was taken. On first blush, the RRoD didn't compromise my identity in any way, shape or form. PSN being hacked did. That's a much bigger deal in my mind.
I think we are viewing this from 2 different angles.
I'm seeing it from the consumer stand point (the group I am a proud member of) and you seem to be looking at it from the shareholder standpoint.
When I asked myself which one I thought was worse, I saw it from the aspect of "If I am in the market for a console 6 months to a year from now, which of these scenarios would affect my purchase choice more?" Because, this is really the only view I could logically see myself in. From the other side, I'm pretty much pissing in the wind due to my ignorance of what really goes on behind the curtain.
As for the sales numbers thing, it's arguable that the RROD actually helped sales of all consoles across the board. You had the people who bought more 360's as well as the people who went to PS3 or even bought a Wii instead because of it.
I hate to say that something like the RROD could potentially be an effective business model… but the facts are the facts.
As far as I can see, more people are pissed about PSN. The question is which was a bigger stain? and my answer is PSN. While the RROD was pretty damaging to some systems, PSN is a hassle for everybody. Naturally, more people will be pissed if more people are affected by the problem. I am more pissed at the hackers responsible, as they not only damaged their own name but pissed off the entire Sony fanbase. That is not the best way to say "Hacking isn't as bad as you think!"
Also, Sony has already been on thin ice since their PSP and PS3 releases that so few appreciated; this recent outrage is like the icebreaker for the company's rep.
Dude… mark my words.
6 months after PSN goes live again, people will be like "Oh yeah… I remember when that happened… oh well." And that will be that.
The only thing that could make it bad enough to stick is if someone uses CC info that traces back to this attack. However, the odds of it happening are slim since no signs have shown up yet. Think about it, if you stole someone's CC info(which I neither recommend, condone, or endorse), wouldn't you be trying to max out the card before anyone even knew it was stolen? If nothing has happened like that yet, it's pretty unlikely that it will happen. This of course, doesn't stop the media from trying to scare us.
Sony is paying for a year of identity theft protection. The emails should go out this week. I'm not familiar with these services, but the one Sony is using looks comprehensive.
I know… and to be real… it's more than likely going to have a very high percentage of people who didn't use it by the time it expires.
Of course, eventually everything will be forgotten/forgiven. But for now, it seems like people are making a huge fuss about it. I don't remember much about the RROD, but this will be more lasting for me at least. I guess it helps that I don't have any Xbox systems…
As I guessed, the May 31 date for PSN service restoration was a case of bad reporting. Bloomberg did a bad job with a story and everyone else spread it. It's like herpes — there's no cure for bad reporting.
So 5/31 isn't the restore date?
No, it will be before that. Bloomberg interpreted "by May" as May 31.
Calling it a stain feels wrong. I feel that it's more like:
PSN outage = The kid who pissed himself at school
RROD = Kenny from South Park
HAHA. 4CHAN/Anonymous is being DDOS'd right now. The guys claiming responsibility say it is for hacking the PSN and stealing Credit card info.
haha
I think that RROD is what people will remember the most, but that the PSN outage has more implications than RROD could ever hope to. It will take longer to really determine how much this will affect everything. It's been 4 years since the RROD was first around, it's only been weeks since the PSN has been down.
Also, I would agree that many people don't know/understand what the PSN outage really means or that it happened. I know people with PS3's who didn't know what had happened other than they couldn't play CoD online yet.
I see some of you saying that RROD did'nt negatively affect sales.I think there is some truth to that.I also think however it actually increased sales due to people who were not aware of the extension on the warranty for RROD.Also people who bought an extra as a spare if it bricked.
As far as the outage I think it is more damaging to Sony's bottom line/stock prices than anything else.Also putting a hurt on developers that are losing sales DLC socom 4 MK Portal 2 Brink etc.
Yeah it was down 6% on Friday.
Yea it may continue to dip until the network is fully restored/secured.
both RROD and the psn hack will lead to improvements in both build quality and infrastructure in the next gen
Good call TC.
i vote RROD because its costed me hundreds of dollers and everyone i know is on there 3rd or 4th xbox because of it.. i know ppl that after they got a xbox replacement they had the RROD happen within just a couple months, ive only heard of a small amount of ppl needing to get new ps3s cuz of hardware malfunctions.. and the ppl that have are few and far between.. and as far as Psn outage Vs Xbox RROD…RROD costs ppl money like crazy.. ppl are now just used to the fact there xbox will prolly stop working at some point..where as psn is a free service that is temporarily down (wich sucks so so sooooo bad for online gamers like myself). yes "ps+" costs money but thats by choice.. and it pays for itself anyway with all the free games and deals that come along with it.. plus everyones getting a free month of ps+ for the outage anyways (even ppl that never have had ps+) …But!..for psn…, ppls credit cards were in open view -(coded but accessible)- but no ones done anything with the info, the main reason of intrusion was to get free sony software and screw sony over with there virus they uploaded.. because the hackers had access to anything they wanted, sony also had to say credit cards may have been compromised.. and if u recall xbox live was being hacked a couples years back and these hackers were buying stuff on ppls msn accounts and changing there passwords on them and crazy stuff like that.. yah xbox live wasnt down for this long but it was affecting ppl on a different level .. to this day there has been no reports of unautherized credit card use that has been linked to the sony disaster… so its an easy vote for me.. RROD is much worse.. at least my ps3 still works during this temporary outage..