In a revision of its consolidated forecast for the fiscal year 2010, Sony has unveiled that the hacker attack on the PlayStation Network, which took the service down for nearly a month, will cost the company a whopping $171.2 million by the end of the 2011 fiscal year.
Millions of gamers were unable to play the multiplayer component on any of their PlayStation 3 titles during the network shutdown, and both developers and publishers were unable to sell their products, costing them millions.
"Next, I would like to briefly address the impact on our financial results of the unauthorized access to the PlayStation Network, Qriocity and Sony Online Entertainment network services that occurred this April, since there have been so many media inquires about this incident," said Sony according to their script of the investors’ call. "As of today, our currently known associated costs for the fiscal year ending March 2012 are estimated to be approximately 14 billion yen ($171.2m/£106.1m) on the consolidated operating income level."
The cost was credited to Sony’s welcome back program to PSN users, customer support, enhancements to network security, legal and expert costs, the identity theft protection program provided to customers, and profit hits due to "possible future revenue decrease".
"So far, we have not received any confirmed reports of customer identity theft issues, nor confirmed any misuse of credit cards from the cyber-attack," the company continued. "Those are key variables, and if that changes, the costs could change."
All of this information also came from a report that claimed the console maker will face a $3.2 billion loss, where part of the blame was placed upon the massive Japanese earthquake and tsunami that rocked the country back in March.
Sony expects the disaster to affect its operating profits by nearly $208.2 million for the 2010 fiscal year, and another $1.5 billion for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012. Despite that impact, the company still expects to return to profitability by the end of the 2011 fiscal year.
[Sony]
