But, some things just are too stupid to not penetrate my apathetic barrier. It begins with a single word: Sony.
Sony was founded originally, just after World War II, in 1946. An small electronics company inside of a department store. Simple origins, big success. Hell, I grew up with Sony. What, with Playstation, and Televisions of my childhood, all the way to Blu-Rays and one of my own monitors. They've affected all of us, whether by products they've made, movies or games they've produced, or technologies they've founded. So, before I really begin, let me start here: I like Sony.
Hackers have been on the rise in recent years. You can't go 2 months without hearing of some sort of DDOS attack, leak of information, or mass shut down. I've seen hacking done for the greater good, and some for the worst of reasons. Hacker groups used to be a cool villain in old 80s and 90s movies/shows, and now they've become real, hacking corporations and websites like Staples, Target, Home Depot, and even the US government sites. Celebrities get their private pictures stolen, credit card information gets put out on lists and put on the web, and innocent people get every aspect of their life put onto the net to abuse for fun. It's stupid and really shows where civilization is heading.
Sony decided to make a movie, called The Interview. You've probably heard about this entire scandal now. It involves North Korea, the death of their leader, and what appears to be normal Seth Rogan stoner humor. North Korea said not to let it premiere, Sony ignored it, and supposedly, North Korea hacked every aspect of their business, including e-mails, finished movies not yet released, and so much information about their business and other businesses' secrets that they radiate around, like Marvel. This sucked for them. Bad. More than you think.
As an avid gamer, I've had my eye on Microsoft and Sony for years, but, also specifically, in the recent couple years of the newest generation. Sony had been thought of as King of the war this Holiday season, and then BAM! XBox One swoops in for the kill, overtaking Sony domestically very recently.
As a movie lover, comic book geek, and sci-fi fan, I was excited for Amazing Spider-Man, and its sequel. The first one was tolerable, especially after the atrocious Emo-Flip-Dance-Scene of Spider-Man 3. Amazing Spider-Man 2 was noticeably lower-grade, and it showed in their box office numbers. Hell, It was the first Spider-Man movie I hadn't personally bought for my own collection, and I own X-Men 3, Constantine, and both Fantastic Four movies. That's saying a lot.
Sony is on a downward slide. It sold off the Sony Vaio line of computers, due to what appears to be loss of money, it's only real big geek movie franchise is failing, and it's rival in video games is beating its' ass. It does have Blu-Ray still, and they can get by on just licensing alone. Their TVs are among the best, but with Samsung coming in for attack, it's only a matter of time. Sony is dying.
This hack came at the worst possible time. All of their secrets revealed. Spider-Man in talks of going back to Marvel, 21 Jump Street getting a Men in Black cross over, Ghostbusters spin off? What the hell, man? Are you kidding? Their secrets only told us one thing and that's that they are in trouble.
New information gets leaked every day from their big hack. Secrets, both minute and massive. Things that will cost them money. Lots of it. And they bowed to North Korea and/or the hackers. They let themselves get stepped on and pushed around. Sony is at its weakest, and things looks grim. Saying this as a fan of Microsoft, I do hope Sony wins this time. They need to keep afloat this generation to survive. They need a win.
"My fault -- all my fault! If only I had stopped him when I could have! But I didn't -- and now -- Uncle Ben -- is dead..." - Peter Parker (Earth 616; Marvel Comics)
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