A UK-based PSN developer has predicted a huge backlash in spending when Playstation Network comes back online, revealing it's lost "thousands" thanks to the downtime.

CVC spoke to the anonymous head of the studio who claims his or her company has been stranded with "absolutely no revenues" for an entire week, while predicting further downfalls ahead for the PS3 online service.

"What we're concerned about is how many people are going to come back after the PlayStation Network comes back online," they said.

"There may be a lot of people who won't want to spend their money through PlayStation Network now. We're expecting a 5-10 per cent drop in business." "People will be a bit more wary about using their credit card on PSN, so obviously we're nervous about sales".

They also expect PSN to be down for at least another week which is bound to cause more suffering for studios that rely on digital content.

"For the last week we've lost a lot of money from the PlayStation Network being down," the developer said.

"This will likely be a two-week period where we literally have no money coming in. Zero revenues over a two-week period is definitely an issue for us. We've lost [£] thousands."

"Hopefully Sony will try to ensure this never happens again. We're certainly hoping we'll get something back from Sony. Perhaps they'll cut their royalties a little bit for a short period, to make up for the losses."

The knock-on effect for Sony could be even worse. Analyst have predicted that the estimated cost of a data breach involving a malicious or criminal act averaged $318 per case in 2010. With those figures in mind, and over 70 million registered users on the PSN, Sony's end bill could even run into billions.

Source: Forbes