The entire PSN hack was stupid. Sony essentially provided a network for free which people thought was great but when they were losing money on every console made people should have been questioning what security upgrades or server upgrades were getting done. It's one of the main things Microsoft definitely had in the bag even in the days of PS2 and Xbox original console.

Sure paying for your Online Gaming Access kinda sucks as you pay for your Broadband already. Especially when, you could get it free but the promise that the money from Gold is funnelled in to improving XBL and expanding it's pool of dedicated servers meant that at least you knew that it was secure (You could also throw in how it is also more stable but lets not start a debate over consoles pointlessly). It now seems that Sony have realised this as you're given rewards similar to the Games with Gold (2 free games per month, sometimes there's an additional game given for fun, not to mention the deals with gold which ensures a sale on different content and games each month) feature for paying and the PS4 if I recall reading correctly actively demands you have PS+ to use Multi-Player gaming.

Whilst I'm glad to see Sony seem to have learnt from the incursion to their systems and the negative press. I'm still not certain they won't repeat the same feat by funnelling cash from PS+ in to the hole made by the production cost of PS4 consoles being more expensive to make than they retail for which is something I sincerely hope I am wrong about.

That being said; $15million isn't even all that much when you consider the scale of the attack and the people who held out for the law suit, clearly have been dicked by the lawyers settling. What makes it worse is that they've settled in a way which isn't going to actively offer anyone who stopped using Sony consoles as a direct result of the PSN hack any benefits or compensation at all even if it does turn out that they were one of those whose bank and other personal details were actively compromised as a result.