How Sony is Getting it Right with the PS4

Following on from the Xbox One announcement this week, its clear that Sony is putting the consumers and developers first, while Microsoft is more concerned about themselves and publishers. As a result of the Xbox One announcement, Sony’s share prices increased by over 9%, showing that investors are putting they money on the PS4 over Microsoft’s new console. The reason? There’s actually a few of them.

24 Hour Check-in

While the console doesn’t need an always-on internet connection, the console needs to connect to the internet at least once every day. Even when playing single-player games, the console will need to connect to the internet at least once in a 24-hour period.

With the PS4, Sony has already confirmed that an always-on internet connection won’t be required. And, like the PS3, you won’t need to connect to the internet every day, so you can go weeks without accessing the PlayStation Network. Something that Xbox One owners won’t be able to get away with.

Pre-owned Games

The Xbox One will require games to be installed to the console and then registered against the player’s Xbox Live account. One installed and registered, you can play the game, even without the disc still in the console.

However, if you sell the game or give it to a friend, they won’t be able to play it unless they pay an additional fee – which could be anything up to the price of the full game. The game is registered to the original owner’s Live account, and it can be played on any console, as long as the original owner is logged into Live on that console.

With the PS4, Sony Worldwide Studios boss, Shuhei Yoshida, has confirmed that the PS4 won’t block used games. Although, publishers may still choose to adopt an online pass, which second-hand game owners will have to fork out for if they want to access all the game’s features.

Indie Games

Microsoft have revealed that they have no plans to allow independent developers to self publish on Xbox One through the Xbox Live Arcade. This means that indie developers will have to go through a publisher in order to get their games online.

According to Matt Booty of Redmond Game Studios and Platforms, indie developers can use Microsoft Studios, a publisher, to get their games on Xbox Live, but only if the publish likes the game.

Sony and Nintendo are really pushing the indie content on the PlayStation Store and eShop respectively, with titles such as Thomas Was Alone and Velocity Ultra being self-published titles. Hopefully the PS4 will continue to support indie game developers. The PlayStation has been especially popular with indie developers recently, with lots of self-published games now available on the store in the new Indie Games category.