Sony has continued its plans to make digital the future of its platform. Their response is this, it isn’t affecting their bottom line. At least not yet, and because of this they’re cautiously riding the storm in the hope that there isn’t any blowback in terms of continued purchasing of content on their platform. It’s a bitter pill to swallow from a gaming brand that used to be ‘for the players’. It’s become increasingly clear, this isn’t anymore about just being tone-deaf. This is now a brand run by very different people to the PS4 era and they’ve shown themselves to you all.
They amassed so much success through the previous leadership there where you all amassed big digital libraries in that generation that they now think they’re virtually untouchable. It’s now becoming clear that this isn’t solely a physical media battle anymore. It’s about who is going to provide the better digital storefront and consumer protections going into a future where this future is inevitable anyway. I think the physical games debate was sadly lost when more and more consumers chose this way. Those that are annoyed right now, have every right to be, but at the same time, Sony are looking to a future of next generation gamers where digital and cloud gaming are prominent, while also, trying to amass huge revenue streams with live-service games.
For us older gamers that have been around since the very first PS1 and first XBOX. It certainly feels like the future of the gaming industry is moving into a period where there isn’t going to be as much in terms of risk taking. Could that mean the golden era of gaming that we all grew up with is now over? Maybe for us, but gaming is going to continue to have its place. It’s just going into a direction that we’re becoming increasingly irked by.
We don’t have to like what is happening around us, but it’s also important that we make sure that we do our bit to raise the level of awareness for consumer protections where it’s needed. Because that’s now our future battle with everything going digital. We’ve lost the battle with physical media.
It’s clear, we have to win the war with consumer rights by making sure that when we buy into something in the future, we’re doing so, on the principle where there are better protections in place around that. Because it’s more important now than it ever has been with the way gaming is going. We need the right protections in place, because as of right now, we’re not being served in the best way, and to enjoy gaming again, and the sense of ownership we all need over our libraries that has to be moved forward.
All I can say is, pick your next platform of where you game carefully. It’s not going to matter to the vast majority of consumers. But if it matters to you, it’s worth standing up for.
If any platform needed a PR win it’s XBOX. If they even considered pushing this forward on their storefront and leading in respect to consumer rights. They could potentially get a big upwind and that might even persuade Nintendo to take a look at their own store to make things better there.
If anything, what a turnaround it could be if Asha plays her cards right with this one. It could choose to lead on something that hasn’t been more important than it is now, which is important within their eco-system as they have a massive say with PCs. Or, they could choose to not listen and make consoles a place where consumers feel they have no protections at all. We’re at a pivotal moment here and it’s going to be interesting what the future presents to us.
Craig Clark
From gaming industry headlines to all things Manchester United and entertainment, Craig covers the stories everyone's talking about — alongside his own published works.