Xbox One and PlayStation 4 Need to Retain Followers

Well, Microsoft is clearly doing everything they can to retain the Xbox followers.

Microsoft just recovered from a backlash by gamers and game stores, with a late flip-flop on the Xbox One, to address the issue everyone was having with the terms of the Xbox One’s DRM policy. Surprisingly, a simple 180 was all it took to send pre-orders for the Xbox One skyrocketing. Pushing things further, Microsoft has gone out on a limb to extend the benefits of Xbox Live Gold membership by giving away 13 major titles as free downloads from now until the end of this year. They even joined up with some developers to get more free-to-play games set to launch for Xbox Live Gold members. They are making much-needed choices to help encourage owners of the Xbox 360 to go out and renew their ended subscriptions. Personally I bought into both consoles for their exclusive titles years ago and I put them both on the back burner for quite some time while I delved further into the world of PC gaming and all its wonders, but these moves by Microsoft were enough to get me to buy my way back into an Xbox Live Gold membership.

What’s even nicer to hear is that Microsoft intends to keep existing Xbox Live Gold memberships working on both the Xbox 360 and the Xbox One. Polygon.com posted in May that Microsoft’s Phil Harrison told them:

“If you have an Xbox Gold membership today for 360 and you buy an Xbox One, your membership applies to both systems. You don’t have to get another subscription. Multiple members of a household will be able to share a single account. Anybody who has usage privilege on that machine can use it.”

They went on to discuss how the aim was to create a way for multiple Xbox Live accounts to be used on the same Gold membership via the same console so that families can retain their separate accounts, but they wouldn’t have to pay for multiple Gold subscriptions. This is a huge win for both Microsoft and gaming families everywhere.

Sony, on the other hand, will likely upset its followers with their new online policy.

New owners of a PlayStation 4 will now be required to purchase a PlayStation Plus subscription in order to play online multiplayers. This comes as a bit of a surprise, but it is understandable as subscriptions equal extra revenue for Sony. I believe it was only a matter of time before it would come to this anyways and it doesn’t come at a very steep price considering you could buy PlayStation Plus for the same price as an Xbox Live Gold subscription through Amazon. Either way, it won’t be the happiest of days for PlayStation fan-boys (and girls). Like the Xbox Live Gold subscription, PlayStation Plus offers its users some free games and discounts, but they have done nothing to combat the free game giveaway that Microsoft has officially announced. If they want to get their users onboard with the newly required PlayStation Plus subscription, they should at least make it feel worth our time. I feel that this should be addressed soon before we get any closer to the console launch dates.

Now to address the biggest issue currently:

The main perks of having a PlayStation Plus subscription are having the free games, the online storage, discounts, and priority access to newly added content. The problem with the subscription is having your console’s firmware automatically updated. This shouldn’t be a problem, but it recently became a very serious one. On Tuesday, Sony released a firmware update (Update 4.45) that apparently bricked many gamers’ PS3’s. For those who have a PlayStation Plus subscription, their consoles automatically downloaded this firmware update and installed it for them. Thankfully, I hadn’t yet been given incentive to buy back into PlayStation Plus, so my console was safe. Do you see where I’m going with this? Microsoft is rewarding their Xbox Live Gold members in dividends, while at the very same time Sony just ruined its strong showing at E3 by bricking many of their user’s consoles. If the price for their new console wasn’t $100 cheaper than Microsoft’s product, I get the feeling that the Xbox One would end up outselling the PS4 by a sizeable margin.

Now, my concern going forward is that future PlayStation 4 owners will be required to use PlayStation Plus if they want to play online, and if so what will keep precisely the same thing from occurring on the newer console somewhere down the road? Sony may want to consider eliminating the “Auto Update” feature of PlayStation Plus going forward to save face and give their users a nice gift basket of games for their troubles. Until then, it appears the Xbox One might be gaining a late edge on the PS4. In the meantime, for those who haven’t fallen victim to the 4.45 update and would like to download the most current update, Sony has removed the 4.45 and announced that it will be releasing a newer update on June 27^th.

 
Join the Forum discussion on this post