While I honestly can thank Sony for forcing Microsoft to quickly do a 360 on a business model that's more consumer friendly, it could be argued that had Microsoft not announced to the world their plans for the Xbox One, Sony would never have elected to be so vocal on the other side of the fence. In other words, I thank Microsoft for forcing Sony to be the "good guy" and Sony for forcing Microsoft to quickly do a 360 on their business model. Because now we are stuck with two companies forced by each other to pretend to be good guys. In a battle that we as the consumer might lose. It is all about PR and spin and the way you represent yourself as a company.
Does your opponent do/say something that you the consumer hate? Loudly proclaim that you are going to do the exact opposite thing. Then the obvious happens: The opponent bows to our pressure and changes their stance to match ours. And the final death blow: Point out that your opponent has been inconsistent and unreliable while you have been steadfast and trustworthy in your business model. People who think there is a difference between Microsoft and Sony in the next generation battle are missing the bigger picture. Both companies want to make money out of us the consumer.
Microsoft tried their own way of doing it and Sony in all their infinite wisdom was wise enough to wait for the backlash and get a win. Does that make Sony any less greedy or any more trustworthy than Microsoft? I don't think so, it rather boils down to the devil you know than the devil you don't kind-off scenario. The old adage that the customer is always right is bullshit; the trick here is to make the consumer think that he is always right. That is sales one on one, Microsoft just said: Screw being polite about it, you are going to do what we tell you and pay us for that honour. In my opinion Sony had a much better E3 presentation but I was not sold as much on their product as much as I was with Microsoft's.
Sony kept on dodging the tough questions; even after E3 was done they still shifted the questions of DRM on "it's publisher's choice". So after the events of E3, I know a lot of Xbox One's can and cannot's but very minimal of what PS4 can really do or not do. Sony is now using that famous PR attack they used on Nintendo the last generation of consoles; I don't respect a company at all when all they do is attack the opponent instead self-promotion when they obviously have a stronger product. I get what Sony is saying: "Oh hey, we are not the bad guys in all of this; we are not doing all that scary stuff that Microsoft is doing or wanted to do."
But Sony will be doing some of the exact same things on their console, they just don't want to have it look like they're going to have anything to do with it until it's too late and their console is released. To be honest there was nothing wrong with what Microsoft wanted to do with the Xbox One, it may just have been a little ahead of the times. This was also compounded by the fact that the whole release announcement was totally mishandled by their PR department. Naturally, people fear change and Sony is just cashing in on that fact, does that make them more honourable than Microsoft? I don't think so do you?
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