PR and the PSN

Well, the big news in gaming over the weekend was by far the return of the PlayStation Network on Saturday. Sony has been working very hard from what we have heard to get the service back on it's feet, and all the work has finally paid off. The service has not returned in it's entirety but most of the functionality that gamers care about is there. The one major missing piece is the the store but it sounds like that will be up by months end.

I think Sony has hit the mark that they desperately needed to hit in getting service up and running so that this is not a topic at E3 this year. The timing of the announcement could not have come at a more convenient time, three weeks before the beginning of E3 with what looks like a pretty bust pre-E3 week ahead for both game news and game journalists. The triumphant return of the PSN will quickly be swept under the rug as the preview of the big games that will be shown at E3 start coming in. The perfect setup for Sony to launch the service get publicity for it but quickly be able to go back to business as usual.

When the outage at everything associated with the breach first hit Sony I thought it could not have come at a worse time, with E3 right around the corner. It turns out, with all the other hype surrounding it, E3 will be the best thing Sony could ask for. By the time we get done with the piles of stories leading up to E3 Sony isn't even going to have to mention the outage in it's E3 press conference. They can literally pretend like nothing happened. Kaz Hirai, the face of PlayStation, has already said what needed to be said in a video that was released along side the revival of the network. Now when the the biggest press conference of the year comes along in three weeks he can concentrate on what Sony has going for it, the best and most expansive list of exclusive games of any platform this year.

Although Sony may have made some mistakes in allowing the attacks on their network and in the ways information was released to the public shortly after, they have hit every note perfectly in the PR game after. Congratulations to Sony on a game well played and what looks to be the biggest year to date for the PlayStation and it's Software. Well Played Sirs!