Make no mistake the gaming industry as a whole is in flux. With studios doors shuttering and the word restructuring being thrown around the industry we’ll be looking at in 2 years will be 100% different. Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo have acknowledged this in their own way and their consoles are moving forward to “change the landscape”, and keep themselves in the good graces of stock holders. Stock holder’s are usually a word thrown around with venom in the common circles, and they do, indeed, earn their fair share of distrust. It is because of a duty to them that Microsoft and Publisher’s are making the current decisions thus far. People invested in a company are looking for a short list of things to make their stocks valuable. They need return on investment (profit) and good public image with an outlook of growth. It’s with this pressure that Publishers and Microsoft decided to roll out their new used game policy, and always-on connectivity. To guarantee they can squeeze as much cash out of a title as possible. From a developer standpoint they can, or at least expect to begin taking a cut of used game profits with the Xbox One, therefore expanding their profit margin and making their share holders happy. What Microsoft didn’t expect was the venerable backlash that hit the media shortly after the announcement, before they even had a chance to announce how used game sales would be handled.
With Sony sitting on the fence there are really only 2 potential outcomes in the next-gen battle. If, Sony sides with the publishers and Microsoft and embeds this same technology, then the consumers have the choice of 2 evils. The decision then falls to the usual console war problems, who has the exclusives I want and who has the synergy between all of my products. For this reason Microsoft has developed their system into an all purpose media giant. It will run your cable, blu-ray, integrate with your Windows PC media, browse the web, and play all of your next gen consoles. If Sony follows the trend Microsoft is loaded for bear. The hard core gamers like the crew here at BSR will switch to PC and Steam where we know the company has their customers in mind and their shareholders second, but the market will continue on divided with the casual and every day crowd sticking to what they know while the marketing pulls customers here and there. To cut down my yammering, if Sony plays ball with Microsoft’s plan, things won’t change a whole lot.
We know Sony has been watching the media explosion from Microsoft’s information, they had to acknowledge the stock drop for MSoft and the stock spike for themselves. It makes you wonder if they were smart enough to wait on integrating this type of solution until they saw Microsoft’s backlash. They already have content available at the click of a button with back ground enabled downloading, Blu-Ray, and live streaming direct from the console through U-Stream. Let’s say Sony doesn’t tap into the publisher’s need for more profit and simply allows gamers to trade their software the old fashioned way, while making it more convenient to buy the software directly from them. Industry greats like Gabe Newell have related issues like Piracy and resale to a “customer service problem” not a consumer problem. And this is the perfect example. Requiring an internet connection alienates that 10% of Americans that don’t have a connection available. Building your system as a connected device is a phenomenal idea with everything moving towards data connectivity, but requiring it on a high end game console when you can’t guarantee 100% connectivity across the board is risky. Sony has an opportunity to simply ignore the situation and continue doing business as they had before. At first Sony’s share holders may be upset, the company outlook might not be “as good as expected” and their stock may take a hit to the tune of a few points. But if we as gamers then vote with our wallets Sony could force the hand of the publishers to come along for the ride. If sales of the Xbox One are abysmal then the Publishers launching exclusive content for it won’t sell what they need to make their profit work out, they’ll have to launch multi-console or give Sony the exclusive rights.
I don’t usually consider myself a fan boy, I own all 3 consoles both handhelds and a high end gaming PC. I can’t help but watch what’s happening right now with fixated horror and excitement. I don’t really want Microsoft or Sony’s new console to fail, but I want the right thing for the customer to be done by a major manufacturer. Many companies (I’m looking at you Apple), started with the mantra of making customers happy and then slowly began to reign in their profit control, (usually by making policy changes that upset their customers.) I’m not saying that the gaming industry can survive on the status quo, THQ and the mountain of closed studios next to it are proof enough that change is needed. I’m simply stating that some of the developers and console manufacturers may be looking for change in the wrong place. Sony has all the tools in place this year to crush Microsoft this fall, all they have to do is vote with their customers.