It's still happening: Sony's PlayStation Network (PSN) has been down for sixteen days after an absurdly large and successful attack compromised the accounts of 77 million gamers. They've offered a month of free service after it finally returns, plus a year of identity theft insurance coverage, which is foolishly, insultingly stingy. Online play is this generation of console's major primary innovation, so this a very big deal for Sony. It's an existential threat to their lucrative gaming division, if not to the business as a whole, and they should be groveling hard.
It's still unclear who did it—though the hackers planted a file with the name and catch-phrase of the Anonymous collective, the group quickly denied responsibility for this attack (though not for other, much smaller attacks vs. Sony). Also unclear: how many accounts were compromised, whether or not encrypted credit card info was taken, how the hackers managed to pull it off, and how long it will take Sony to rebuild the PSN to defend against similar attacks in the future.
Microsoft could play hardball and promote the shit out of Xbox Live for the vast numbers of angry, single-console PSN users, but either they've taken pity on Sony's gentle, bumbling giant—or they've got their own problems with flexibility and reaction speed.
The Stranger Testing Department is Rob Lightner and Paul Hughes.