SONY CEO apologizes to gamers
Friday, May 6th, 2011
PSN still down after security breach.
(Reuters) – Sony Chief Executive Officer Howard Stringer apologised to users of its PlayStation Network and other online services, breaking his silence on the biggest Internet security break-in ever.
Stringer’s comments, which did not specify when services would resume, come after criticism of his leadership since Sony revealed hackers had compromised the data of more than 100 million accounts used for accessing games and music over the Internet.
“As a company we, and I, apologize for the inconvenience and concern caused by this attack,” Stringer said on Sony’s U.S. PlayStation blog late on Thursday.
The incident may prove to be a significant setback for a company looking to recover after being outmanoeuvred by Apple in portable music and Samsung Electronics in flat-screen TVs and which faces a tough fight in video games with Nintendo and Microsoft.
One analyst said security concerns could weigh on sales of Sony’s gadgets and hurt growth prospects for its network services.
“There is a real concern that trust in Sony’s business will decline,” Kota Ezawa, analyst at Citigroup Global Markets Japan, wrote in a note ahead of the comments from Stringer.
“The network business itself still only makes a small direct contribution to earnings, but we see a potential drop in hardware sales as a concern.”
