‘We need to be fair and to think of the consumer experience first,’ says SCE CEO
Speaking to the Guardian about Sony’s same-old used games policy for the PlayStation 4, Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Andrew House says that feedback from gamers demanding the current system remain in place was “not just, in my view, the views of the vocal minority.
“It became an expression of a little bit of concern bubbling up around the subject of what ownership means in an age of digital content overall. We and other entertainment industry players need to be very conscious of that and very careful. Bringing it back to the fundamentals again, we need to be fair and to think of the consumer experience first.”
The fear leading up to E3 was that Sony would implement anti-consumer practices, despite it assuring the contrary. “I guess, dating from about our February event, there had been questions about what our online policy would be,” said House. “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. And then, of course, it was really the actions of others, and the reaction coming from consumers, which led to more speculation. So we felt that with E3, and Monday night’s press conference, it was a really good opportunity to set the record straight. But there weren’t any changes that we’d been considering.”
Asked if third-party developers lobbied Sony over second-hand games, House replied: “Not that I’ve been aware of, no. And we didn’t feel any sense that we needed to respond to any external pressure.” It’s times like these that make me feel like a cynical jerk. Props to Sony and Nintendo for not attempting to enact the sort of largely unwanted change Microsoft planned to with the Xbox One. We’re good, at least for another few years.
Sony chief on the PS4 and E3 battle [Guardian]
