The console war hasn't even actually started yet but Sony is reeling in success from the PlayStation 4. How can that be? How is it possible? Well, a lot of it boils down to public opinion and how a company markets their product and the #PS4NoDRM movement played a pretty big part in that.
Polygon picked up some words from Sony Computer Entertainment's worldwide studios president, Shuhei Yoshida, who spoke with Famitsu, saying...
"There were lots of people who gave their opinions on that issue to my Twitter account before E3," .. "It's not that our hardware policies are decided strictly based on user reaction like this, but when we were thinking about what we had to bring across and how to bring it across, it was a very useful source."
The “opinions” on Twitter were fueled by a community-spawned movement from a Peter Dodd, who started the rebellion against the next-gen DRM on Neogaf, where gamers congregated, formed up and laid out a structured plan of civil attack to get the companies to recognize and rescind on their DRM measures. It was one of the rare times gamers put their laziness aside and used their keyboard warrior skills for the greater good.
Despite Microsoft's rodomontades about “listening to the community”, they went through with their policies, just up until pre-order stats made them think twice and check the dollar bill signs at the door.
Sony, on the other hand, took full notice of the movement and used the full momentum from the #NoDRM worldwide campaign as ammunition for their E3 press conference. And with that, Sony absolutely obliterated Microsoft in one of the most brutal flawless victories I've ever seen. Sony made sure to mop the market floor with Microsoft like they were rocking an O-Cedar ProMist on a dirty old boot stain. Sony mopped them up so good, in fact, that Sony's head honcho Kaz Hirai complimented the good looks of the chap starring at him from the floor, before realizing that he was, indeed, looking at himself.
The overwhelming response from the community wasn't limited to gamers and consumers, though. As noted by SCE Japan Asia president Hiroshi Kawano...
“As of now, I feel like we're getting a very positive response,"... "For this system, we made a list of what people expected from us, debating over each point, with user feedback forming the main basis for the list. The software makers are also telling us that they feel like they really make some fun stuff with it. A new platform always provides the basis for new forms of play, so I'd like to see it connect to a revitalization of the marketplace."
Yes, that's right... even developers have jumped on board the PS4 love train. This brand loyalty originally spawned from the company's commitment to allow indie self-publishing on the PS4, as well as enabling true free-to-play games from studios like Digital Extremes to bring mid-budget titles like Warframe to the PS4. It also enabled developers to bypass a lot of certification and patching fees, making it easy to get their games on the system without a hassle.
Due to all the great relationships Sony has made with developers over the PS4's policies, the system has more than 140 games in the works, 30 of which are PS4 exclusives.
Being $100 cheaper than the Xbox One and having tons of positive community feedback and support, it's no surprise that Sony will waltz into the start of the next-generation with a very comfortable position over Microsoft and the Xbox brand... especially if the pre-order lists are anything to go by.
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