Commentary : The Debate About Reimbursement During the PSN Outage

During the outage of the PlayStation Network there has been quite abit of talk going on in the blog, and quite abit of discussion about not only how long the outage will be (now indefinite for the time being while Sony retools the entire Network from the ground up, fingers crossed it doesn't mean all of us losing our download records of stuff we purchased in the past) but whether or not Sony would, or to be more precise should, compensate us.

Sadly, as if to make the point moot, there is already writing in the PSN contract which makes any such compensation a pipe dream at best, and something Sony has no obligation to fulfill once the Network is back up... but not so much am I saying whether or not they are obligated to compensate us as whether or not it is in their best interest to do so... and I have to say that it a big yes in that regard.

First off Sony loses nothing by compensating us with... say a $20 card worth of stuff for regular members and $50 for Plus members... a rather conservative number kicked around by some posters though some said $25 for regular members... and I for one never remember seeing a $25 PSN card... so we'll stick to $20. This isn't a check, this isn't a payment that we'll all run out and cash at the bank, costing Sony millions, this is digital money used to get... yes... Sony product. Sony loses nothing by this, and in fact can only gain. How so?

One. It's a good faith gesture to the 70 or so million subscribers to the Sony service. It says that Sony thinks each and every one of us is a valuable commodity (those of us not in groups called "Anonymous" and secretly plotting to crash PSN because of some hardware or software change to the PS3 done some time ago) and that our membership is valued... and more importantly we are valued by them. You couldn't write better PR than that I can tell you right now. Also it is something to encourage new members...

Two. Why? Well alot of us will have nothing but good things to say about Sony once they grease our virtuaal palms and we praise them to high heaven over it. The past days will be all but forgotten, and we'll be in tighter than ever. And, more importantly, we'll be dropping our money on Sony once again as they are the best best of the three game companies if they only give us a reason to treasure them and express our gratitude to them.

Three. Did I mention it's good for PR? Especially since amongst the 70 million are people like me, who review Sony's product on a daily basis. I can say that I'll have only good things to say in my commentaries if Sony steps up to the bat, keeps us informed of the PSN recovery, and more importantly compensates us for the time as to affirm that they are indeed the best game company out there... as if Nintendo doesn't already do enough to prove that with their rather anti gamer stance on the WiiStore and the DS Store.

Four. Finally it is an investment in Sony, but it is also a pretty good chance to take notes because when we all go in to turn in our points Sony will have a pretty good idea what is their top sellers in games, TV and Movies, and comics from the sheer volumes of sales they'll be doing days after everyone is reimbursed. Far better than a survey and far quicker too.

It's only win/win on all sides if Sony does this. And while I don't expect Sony to do anything of the sort... I think it would be wise for them to consider it as they can only gain from such an act, and really after these few days of public relations hits upon hits on them by an increasingly angry fan base they could use all the positive press they can get right about now... updates on this as it goes along so stay tuned!