One of the most pivotal moments of this year’s E3 was Sony’s announcement that it won’t be pursuing DRM and/or ways to prohibit used game sales. Some have called into question if gamer backlash on Microsoft’s Xbox One reveal was the culprit. It appears that isn’t so.
Sony Group CEO Andrew House confirmed to The Guardian that the PlayStation 4 was never designed with limitations in place. He said:
Dating from about our February event, there had been questions about what our online policy would be. And I have to say that we were slightly perplexed, because we had no intention of changing from a model that I think has served us really well for several platform life-cycles.
In response to whether or not Sony felt pressure from publishers to employ DRM house stated the following:
We didn’t feel any sense that we needed to respond to any external pressure.
Microsoft’s daring move to employ limitations, which it sold as requirements for great features like family sharing, proved disastrous. Those once-existing policies didn’t appear to be the result of publisher demand as once thought which could explain why Microsoft was quick to reverse the implementations once feedback was overwhelmingly negative.
Microsoft’s misstep has been costly as the PS4 has a much better image in the eye of gamers and consumers. That’s nothing that can’t change with time, but for now Sony has an advantage heading into next-generation that could have huge ramifications.
