Sony chief executive apologises to gamers; shares fall

Sony Chief Executive Officer Howard Stringer apologised to users of its PlayStation Network and other online services, breaking his silence on the biggest Internet security break-in ever. Stringer's comments, which did not specify when services would resume, come after criticism of his leadership since Sony revealed hackers had compromised the data of more than 100 million accounts used for accessing games and music over the Internet.
"As a company we - and I - apologise for the inconvenience and concern caused by this attack," Stringer said on Sony's US PlayStation blog late on Thursday. The incident may prove to be a significant setback for a company looking to recover after being outmanoeuvred by Apple in portable music and Samsung Electronics in flat-screen TVs and which faces a tough fight in video games with Nintendo and Microsoft. One analyst said security concerns could weigh on sales of Sony's gadgets and hurt growth prospects for its network services.
"There is a real concern that trust in Sony's business will decline," Kota Ezawa, analyst at Citigroup Global Markets Japan, wrote in a note ahead of the comments from Stringer. The Internet breaches sparked thousands of comments on the official PlayStation fan page on Facebook and on its blog, some of them from users who said they would switch to Microsoft's Xbox Live games network.
Although video game hardware and software sales have declined globally, the PlayStation Network is a key initiative for the electronics company. On Friday, Sony shares ended 2.3 percent lower in a broader market down 1.5 percent, extending its total losses to about 6 percent since it revealed the breach. The Nikkei is up around 3 percent over the same period.
Sony issued its first warning on the break-in a week after it detected a problem with the network on April 19, infuriating many PlayStation users around the world. Sony said it needed time to work out the extent of the damage. WHY THE "I know some believe we should have notified our customers earlier than we did. It's a fair question," Stringer said.
Stringer said Sony would restore network services "in the coming days", but gave no date. In the United States, several members of Congress have seized on Sony's breach, in which hackers stole names, addresses and possibly credit card details. One US law firm filed a lawsuit in California on behalf of consumers. The theft prompted the US Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation to open an investigation and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has subpoenaed Sony entities over the breaches.