That day kiddos, was one of the
darkest days of our gaming lives; the PlayStation Network was hit by an outage
caused by hackers. Stealing credit card information, stopping all PlayStation Network
services and all and such. I was still jamming with buddies at that time in
PlayStation Home when it hit. At first I thought my parents had shut off the
internet by accident but no; my brother is still surfing the net on his laptop
and the cable is still broadcasting sports. Only my PS3 lacked network and as
time went on, my worst fears were realised; PSN got hacked!
Anonymous, the mysterious hacker
group had hacked PSN days or weeks earlier in response to Sony suing George
Hotz, who hacked into the PS3 console. They stopped later but the damage had
been done and possibly another group went in to grab credit card data and
various other customers’ information. To gamers; one minute you’re playing
online with friends and other players and then you got kicked out by the
outage. All because of those hacking bastards.
The outage lasted over 40+ days
and costing Sony $171 million in damages. Though things have improved, and
issues settled and some questions answered. Some people like myself have felt that
the other reason why the PSN got hacked wasn’t about money.
If I may say so myself, it’s a
console war issue here. Many will definitely disagree with me on this but this
is my conclusion.
The other reason why PSN got
hacked by hackers wasn’t for money. Rather, it’s a console fanboy issue. In the
past few years since 2009, believe it or not, the PS3 was beginning to see
momentum in the gaming business. Apart from losing exclusives, PS3 also gained
some in return in the form of the Ninja Gaiden series (retitled Ninja Gaiden Sigma)
and the Mass Effect series; both are formerly Xbox 360 exclusives. PS3 games
are also become blockbusters like the Uncharted series having won more GOTY
(Game of the Year) awards than Halo, Gears of War and Forza combined. Blu-Ray
disc technology used by Sony as their standard format eliminates the need for a
second disc and most games now support 3D function, something that the Xbox 360
lacked. The EVO Fighting Game Championship uses the PS3 as their official
console for their tournament because of its reliability and low breakdown rate
compared to the Xbox 360.
As a result the hackers, believed
to be Xbox 360 fanboys, then hired by Microsoft, decided to team up and hack
the PSN, denying innocent players online gaming and other services. It is
likely aimed at gamers who are playing Killzone 3 (released in 2011 as well)
and also to vent their anger at PS3 owners finally playing former Xbox 360
exclusive games. If not for the decision made by EA to port Mass Effect 2 over
to PS3, the game would’ve won another GOTY award for the Xbox Empire since GOTY
games by the PS3 outnumber the Xbox 360 games by a huge gap (Xbox 360 only has
Halo as the sole GOTY winner). Microsoft (Xbox 360 creator) also helped fund
hacker George Hotz’s lawsuit leading to speculation that he worked for
Microsoft and has helped them hack the PS3 to find a weakness of sorts.
 |
| UNCHARTED 2 Team receiving their VGA Awards for Game of the Year |
While the lawsuit between Sony
and George Hotz ended, the console war reached an all-out high. Xbox fans
despite the hacked felt insulted that another PS3 exclusive has won another
GOTY award, Uncharted 3, as well as seeing Sony still picking up the pieces and
stealing the show at E3 that same year. Even the delay of the next PS3
exclusive, The Last Guardian, wasn’t enough to damper the PS3 image. The
Japanese console has seen a lot of damage that year, especially that earthquake
in March 11 but it still fight on to see another day.
And regardless of reason no
matter what reports or others will say, I (any many others) will always believe
that this hacking on Sony PlayStation 3 and the PSN was instigated by Microsoft
and their Xbox 360 fans whom some are also hackers themselves because they hate
the console for its successes. There’s nothing I can do about it, except to
sneeze or spit at every Xbox 360 demo-station I may see at game shops, IT
bazaars or road-shows whenever the chance arises. Just recently, as I passed by
a HALO 4 standee, I kicked it down and spat on it. The worst I’ve actually done
some time back was to fake a collapse so as to push down an Xbox 360
demo-station. But to aid my claim, one of their staff next to it actually
shoved a brochure at my face; the paper poked my left eye hard.
Some wounds will never heal…maybe
until Microsoft discontinued their console business now that Japan last year
showed that the Xbox has no place in the gaming world. Well, only USA will be
their home for good. And rather than to expand worldwide. I rather prefer the
Xbox 360 not to exist at all.
“What a childish fanboy rant!”
will be the answer by many of you for sure. But then it’s to each his/her own.
Denial is futile, for the true lies in the many actions that happened before
everyone and that the PlayStation Network was indeed hacked by Microsoft-hired
hackers, to retain the lead in console gaming dominance.
Fuck your mother George Hotz. And fuck you Xbox.
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