Capcom Potentially Losing Millions Due To PSN Outage

The attack and subsequent down-time of the PlayStation Network is a touchy subject for developers and publishers. Because of that, very few of them have been willing to throw their two cents in to the discussion. That recently changed for Capcom, when Corporate Officer and Senior Vice President, Christian Svensson, spoke out on the Capcom Unity forums.

When asked what Capcom generally thought of the PSN down time, this is what Christian had to say.

I’m frustrated and upset by it for a number of reasons.

As a consumer, I also play games online on PS3, which I can’t do… and likely my personal information is also compromised. Secondly I like to buy things in the PlayStation store and that I can’t do right now.

On a related note, as an executive responsible for running a business, the resulting outage obviously costing us hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars in revenue that were planned for within our budget. These are funds we rely on to bring new games to market for our fans.

In short, the hackers appear to be trying to “punish” Sony for some perceived injustice, and they’ve been effective in that I suppose. But they’re also punishing millions of other consumers and businesses which makes it impossible to be sympathetic to their “cause”.

Strong words. While I can certainly understand Christian’s frustrations as a gamer, I thought it was very interesting that he threw out a loose number to go along with his disgruntlement as an industry professional. As of thus far, it’s pretty much just been the analysts predicting how much company A and B are losing.

During their Q1 earnings call yesterday, Activision also mentioned that the PSN outage is likely going to affect their Q2 outlook but they didn’t offer any specific details or figures.

Source: Capcom-Unity via JoystiqOne of Swords

26 Comments

  1. Rather vague figure though isn’t it? Hundreds of thousands, if not millions. That’s a large monetary range right there. If it’s $150,000 then it’s not too bad. If it’s $5,000,000 then it’s obviously a lot worse. Will be interesting when some real figures come out for what this has cost companies.

    • You are right of course, but i would imagine that they would still be a little ‘ticked off’ even if it was $150,000. A loss is still a loss & even more frustrating when it is not your doing.

    • I think the point is they are losing money outright, I don’t think it’s about how much they lost

  2. ‘In short, the hackers appear to be trying to “punish” Sony for some perceived injustice, and they’ve been effective in that I suppose. But they’re also punishing millions of other consumers and businesses which makes it impossible to be sympathetic to their “cause”.’

    I totally agree with this sentement. They (the hackers) have completely lost any sypathy or support they may have had by pissing of millions people who have nothing to do with Sony’s business practices or descisions. Just simple gamers who want to kick back with friends online and couldn’t care less if Linux works on their PS3 or not. With all the worlds problems that need worked on it’s pathetic that what really seems to matter to these people is what OS they have on they console. Not hunger. Not the homeless. Not foiling terrorism. Not coming up with a replacement for fossil fuel or a cure for cancer. What these guys absolutely NEED is to use Linux on a lttle black box that works just fine without it instead of a computer. Oh well, priorities I suppose /facedesk

    • Well said

    • I agree, very well said. Imagine what these hackers (to rhyme with scum) could have accomplished.

  3. If they can make millions from the psn within 3 weeks then that is a bloody good business

    • It’s not good business, it’s underhand & dishonest – On that token remark, does that mean that successful muggers & bank robbers also have good businesses for example? Would you still feel the same way if they started preying on your bank account?

      • I think he meant Capcom, not the hackers.

      • Ah good point – I knew there was something that i meant to do today…Learn to read properly!

  4. The hackers should have thought much more before doing what they did.Now it has come clear that developers are also losing money due to psn being down.think before u leap.
    Most of all we cant play online.

  5. But what they obviously don’t realize is that when (if) the PSN comes back online they’re going to see a increase in sales from the normal rate. Sure they might miss out on a few sales from fanboy abandonment, but what new games do they have to sell at the moment. It does however ask the question is Sony liable for developer’s loses that are a result from Sony somewhat incompetence from failing to provide a secure system of digital distribution? If Sony is found to be negligent for inferior security I expect we might see a few lawsuits from publishers.

    • I guess it also depends how they release the due PSN games, if they just stick the last 3 weeks worth on at once, people may not buy the equivalent amount they would at a smaller released rate.

  6. If people wanted to buy their games then they will get them when the store comes back. They aren’t missing out just have to wait.

    • Sorry to sound a bit harsh but that simply doesn’t help one bit (in certain situations). If I have three regular clients say “you know what Mike? We’re going to pay you a month or two late” then that’s me screwed.

      The likes of the PSN provides a steady revenue stream and my heart goes out to all who’ve embraced this business model and is now suffering from the attack.

      When Sony sneezes, everyone else catches a cold. It’s always the way. Sadly, this time around, Anonymous (or whoever) shook the pepper shaker and induced said sneeze.

      This is the most angry I’ve been about it as it’s starting to affect smaller businesses.

  7. what about the people who bought capcom’s psn games with that ludicrous drm?
    no thought for them?

    with them doing stuff like selling on disc dlc and that drm, i have absolutely no sympathy.

    they have other revenue streams, the people who bought those games have absolutely no way to play them.

    like i said no sympathy for capcom.

    hold on, i’m think i’m getting something, a strange feeling in my gut.

    no, wait.. yeah, that was just gas.
    what did i eat that would cause that kind of smell?
    ^_^

    • I agree, they’ve made their bed now they can lie in it. I used to have a lot of respect for Capcom as a developer/ publisher but lately it’s been fizzling away!

    • Hear hear!

    • Are Capcom still doing the whole DRM thing?

      • bionic commando rearmed 2 had it, and that was released in february wasn’t it?
        so yeah, they still are.

      • Just curious. Still, it seems weird to “burn” them over a particular practice when that has almost nothing to do with the current situation.

      • Almost nothing to do? The whole problem with DRM was that it made your game unplayable when you can’t get online. Some responded that would never happen. Well the shit has hit the fan now, hasn’t it.

        I wanted to play Final Fight yesterday. That didn’t work out.

        Sure CAPCOM can moan about their loss, but you ‘d think they’d mention this? Tossers.

      • Thing is, Klart, one has nothing to do with the other. They’re both interwoven into the likes of the PSN but right now we’re discussing how companies are losing money because of the PSN being down. Not because of any questionable system they’ve had in place with regards to them looking after their own products.

      • Maybe. It’s still hypocrite of ‘m to only talk about their loss, while their DRM decision causes our loss.

      • whatever the reason, any loss of network connection means the people who bought the game cannot play it.

        but you’re right, they may not be directly related issues, but capcom’s total disregard for it’s customers makes me have a very unsympathetic view on their making less money than usual, because that’s what they’re talking about after all, they’re not losing money, they’re just not making as much.

        they’re not to blame for the outage, true, but unless they’re dumb on a, make forrest gump look like a genius, level then they know networks go down, not always because of malicious action.

        yet they still chose to employ a drm system that would in effect steal people’s games whenever that happens.

        and there is no sign they gave any thought to their customers that are unable to play legally bought games

        for example, on the official forums i asked if capcom would be changing their policy on drm after the psn downtime, and this sven person was totally unapologetic.

        “The outage was unanticipated in our planning but that said, we expect when PSN comes back up, that it will stay up making this largely a non-issue. As I’ve said in the past, we will continue to evaluate each game on a case by case basis for the appropriate solution. ”

        at first i was just unsympathetic to capcom’s plight, but after this guy sven’s attitude, i’m veering more towards, enjoying the irony.
        they’re not making as much money while people have had their games taken away, karma you could say.

        sorry for the length of this comment, this is not an attack against you, please don’t take it that way.
        you’ve been here long enough, you know my views on drm by now right.
        i get angry at these publishers, but i’m not very good at directing that anger, kinda like the hulk.

        HAZEL SMASH. ^_^

  8. Hey CAPCOM: how about saying something about all your (offline) PSN-games we can’t even start because they require you to be online. Yeah, thanks for that, tw°ts!

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