Have you lost faith in Sony since the PSN data breach?

On 20 April 2011 the PlayStation Network (PSN) went down. PlayStation 3 and PSP gamers went cold turkey without online gaming, and users of Sony’s Qriocity suffered withdrawal symptoms when their movie and music services were also withdrawn.

For many the pill was especially hard to swallow, as Valve’s highly anticipated Portal 2 came out the very next day. As well as featuring online co-op, the PS3 game included a free PC version, which required activation through – yes, you guessed it – the PlayStation Network.

Delayed communication from Sony

It was almost a week until Sony admitted that the service had been hacked, with the personal data (potentially including credit card details) of 77 million PSN users being taken.

We’ve already questioned why it took Sony so long to let customers know that their details may have been compromised. The delay was said to be due to an investigation into the breach taking time. Still, the message I’ve heard from many gamers is that they would have liked Sony to have been more open, sooner.

This feeling continues with gamers waiting for news on when the PlayStation Network would be back up. The message falling out of Sony HQ continued to be ‘in a few days’. Helpful.

Thankfully, almost all countries (apart from Japan) were back online yesterday. And although the service has been buckling a little under the weight of PlayStation gamers jumping on-board, I suppose that’s to be expected.

Will you stick with PlayStation?

Kaz Hirai, Sony’s executive director, has explained that the company’s making ‘consumer protection a full-time, company-wide commitment’. This, of course, raises the question – why wasn’t it a commitment before? And is Sony’s renewed vigilance good enough?

Hackers might be to blame, but in the end, Sony’s lack of security was also at fault. The company may have beefed up the service, but are you willing to put your trust in Sony and take the chance again?

This was the question put to CNET’s readers in a Facebook poll – 53% said they’d possibly trust Sony again, with 34% happy to let bygones be bygones. Only 13% said they’d never trust the company again and were out to buy an Xbox 360.

So we’re interested to see which side of the fence you come down on. Have you lost faith in Sony? If you have, will you move to the Xbox 360, or simply keep your credit card details well and truly off the PlayStation Network?

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