Sony Computer Entertainment spent about an hour and a half onstage today during the Gamescom industry event in Cologne, Germany. For about 89 minutes, it talked almost exclusively about new games in the works for its PlayStation family of devices, but it took about a minute out of its time to take a whack its competition.
SCEI chief executive Andrew House, who is the man in charge of the PlayStation division, called out Microsoft for making changes to its Xbox One system and policies.
House opened up by talking up Sony’s next-gen PlayStation 4.
“PS4 embraces our always-connected world through companion apps and accessibility from tablets and smartphones,” said House. “This means that great game worlds will be more ubiquitous, powerful, and accessible than ever before.”
Then House decided to take a dig at Microsoft.
“And while others have shifted their message and changed their story, we were consistent in maintaining policies and a model that is fair and in tune with consumer desires,” he said to sporadic applause from the audience.
You can watch House’s full talk in the video at the top.
Sony found great success during the Electronic Entertainment Expo trade show in early June when it took similar digs at Microsoft. At that time, Microsoft’s Xbox One console didn’t permit used games and required an Internet connection. During Sony’s press event, it came out and directly addressed those weaknesses. Gamers ate it up.
Since then, Microsoft reversed many of those unpopular policies. It will play used games. The Internet isn’t required. Xbox One isn’t even region-locked anymore.
Maybe it’s just me, but Sony attacking Microsoft for giving in to market pressures doesn’t quite have the same effect as Sony attacking Microsoft for willfully going against consumer desires.