Sony PSN Failure Impacts More Than Just Gamers
If you are part of the minority of PS3 console owners in the world you are undoubtedly aware of the recent problems with Sony's PlayStation Network. If not then let me briefly state that it has been down for four days.
PSN is Sony's version of Xbox Live. While the service is free for all they also offer a paid version which gives you discounts, advance access to betas and a few other things. You can get everything Xbox Live has to offer for free with PSN so most folks don't pony up the $50 a year for it. Some folks do, I'm one of them.
Why do I pay $50 a year for a service that already does everything I'm paying Microsoft $50 a year for? Hulu Plus.
The only way to get Hulu Plus on my TV(in an easy to use manner) is via my PS3. I could connect my computer to my TV but why go through all that effort? I'd rather pay for the ease of use factor.
Before I go on let me also remind the viewer that not only do I have to pay Sony for the privilege of having Hulu Plus on my TV but I also have to pay Hulu for this privilege. So right now I'm paying two parties to run a third party application on my PS3. It's about to get good...
One might think, that since I'm paying Hulu directly for this service that I could still watch Hulu on my PS3 (or Netflix for that matter) but one would be wrong. When I try to access Hulu Plus or Netflix I get an error because both applications require me to be logged into my PSN account to function. Yeah...
So, while many gamers are fuming mad over their inability to ply the new Mortal Combat game online I'm fuming mad because I can't watch either Hulu Plus or Netflix on my PS3. So, when Sony starts issuing refunds for the service being down what will they do for those of us who:
- Pay for the service
- Pay for additional services outside of Sony that are being blocked due to Sony's PSN being down.
I'm guessing they might offer me a free month of service and possibly offer everyone else a free trial of PSN Plus (the paid service) but what about my third party media apps? Eh, Huh? And why do these apps need me to be logged into my PSN account when I have to log into these apps with the third party account as well?
You can actually access Hulu Plus without paying for Playstation Plus. The restriction for needing Playstation Plus for Hulu Plus was solely for the preview period before the app was finalized. I have Hulu Plus myself, and am able to use it without subscribing to Playstation’s pay service (though not at the moment because of the PSN outage). But I thought I’d let you know so you can get rid of the service if all you were using it for was to have Hulu Plus.
I was not aware of this. I will not be re-upping my PSN Plus account after this.
Oh, also, because of the outage, the Netflix login is currently bugged for the better. It seams you can log on if you try to log in, then cancel when you receive the error message. Sometimes you have to do it twice, but then you should be able to use Netflix normally.
Wow! Thank you! I continuously wanted to write on my website something like that. Can I take a fragment of your post to my site?
thanks for the heads up, I knew there would be some psn bugs one day or another
after reading this i will be back to xbox, 50$ a year isn’t much and knowing your data is safe(er) is a bonus, 2 of my friends have lost money due to the ps3 blunder one 80 pounds and one 600 pounds, only the 80 pound victim is being refunded and this is by Microsoft (they bought xbox points with his card)
I can’t believe the problems Sony is having, to be honest. Just didn’t even think it would go so far. Hopefully, the hackers have had enough and let it be.
At this point they’ve been hacked about 6 different times. Their incompetence is plain for all to see.
“I took it apart to find the problem” when Sony sees that the Warranty sticker has been murdered, they will tell you that they think you are a funny munchkin. Right before they send it back to you and DONT fix it.
Finally a smart blogger-man…I love how you’re thinking…and writing.
PSN would always stand a great place for providing the quality video games ever. But,what the problem now occurs with them, is the time dependent what it want’s to become on the right place.
I recently brought Sony PS-3 and I have never thought a company like Sony will face problems like this anyway thanks for letting us know….
I think sony didn’t prepare it well and continuously causing the problem