So far, Sony’s response to its big data breach has been wearyingly formulaic: limited initial disclosures, a host of clarifications and a ritualistic apology. Shares in the company have lost almost 6 per cent in the four trading days since the hacking came to light, amid a gathering sense of crisis. With Tokyo markets (mercifully) closed until Friday, management should now take a step back.
If it does, it will see that there is no compelling reason why Sony should continue to back PlayStation Network, its online gaming network, or Qriocity (“Curiosity”), the regrettably named streaming service that comes with it. For one thing, PSN accounts for less than half of 1 per cent of group revenues, as most of its 77m account-holders use the network for free. More fundamentally, network security is not what Sony is good at. By partnering with Google’s Android platform – as Sony has already done in PlayStation portables and tablet PCs – the Japanese company could play to its real strength, which is its reach into the living room, through TVs, laptops and DVD players. Why should Sony’s “strategic alliance” with Google to develop Android-based hardware, announced a year ago, exclude its 50m PS3 consoles?
In the past, Sony has quarantined business areas until problems are fixed: a big recall of combustible laptops five years ago, for example, had little discernible effect on sales of televisions or cameras. That seems to be the default reaction this time, as Sony has tried to bind in PSN users by offering free premium services, while hoping that the risk of credit card fraud recedes. But if games division head Kazuo Hirai, the favourite to succeed Sir Howard Stringer as chief executive, really wanted to mark his card as a genuine reformer, he would pull the plug altogether.