Sony’s Race To the Bottom
In my last blog post, I went into detail about the unintelligent decisions made by the braintrust that runs the Xbox brand for Microsoft. Believe me when I tell you none of that has changed, and they are still on a collision course with the center of the Earth as far as where they are going to take their business. But in writing about that, I’m well aware they are not the only brand that’s currently punching itself in the face. Far from it actually.
Their biggest competitor in this space, Sony, is seemingly going the extra mile to infuriate their most ardent customers since July. It’s remarkable to watch, if I’m honest. Now if you’re not up on what’s been going on, then let me show you. It began back in July when Sony announced it was no longer going to offer physical media for games in 2028, which means no more discs. Never mind the fact that they still print CDs and vinyl records. That set off a firestorm from PlayStation fans, and with good reason. Many of them like having a physical copy of their games. I was one of them when I still had any gaming consoles in my home.
Now let’s think about all the effects this is going to have. First, this will allow them to charge absolutely anything they want for those games because you won’t be able to buy them anywhere else. As a result, that’s a monopoly. If a new Spider-Man game has your eye, it could be $60. $80. $150. Whatever Sony wants to charge because they are the only game in town. Now you’d think the Digital Markets Act that the EU uses as a bludgeon might come into play at this point. But Sony is safe from them, because they only want to shake down American companies. Any other countries that want to do this? Carry on.
Two, it further reinforces that you own nothing, which is at the heart of this, if we’re being honest. Those games you downloaded are not yours, and never will be. A lot of discs don’t have the full game on them anyway, acting mainly as stubs till you log into the PlayStation Network to download the rest. So much for that. I suspect what follows after that is you won’t be able to even access your games unless you’re on the PlayStation Network the whole time. And they can take away your content for any and all reasons. They already robbed untold numbers recently who were buying movies on the PlayStation Network. Silly customers. When they clicked Purchase on a movie, they didn’t know that meant Rental instead. These weren’t indie films. No, it was highly recognizable titles such as Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Heard of that one? So whether they take back your games or movies, you’re left with nothing but that empty spot in your bank account.
Since that announcement of no more media this past July, there’s been a lot of blowback. Let’s start with the petition that was created to encourage them to change their mind about the decision. As I write this now, it has over 372,000 names on it. Do I think it’ll change anything? No. There’s also currently a boycott this week asking PlayStation owners to completely log out of the Network all week and essentially unplug the console. While I respect and appreciate this idea, it’s also not likely to work. Why? Because you’ve told them when you’ll be back. Sony is a multi-billion dollar company. A week of possibly lighter server usage isn’t going to make too much of a difference to them.
Then over the past few days, Sony decided that the dumpster fire wasn’t burning bright enough and decided to email many of its customers to remind them that you own nothing and they have all the rights. As a result, it just made the flames go higher with their fanbase. That was Xbox levels of stupid in terms of trying to make customers happy. It made me wonder if Xbox CEO Asha Sharma was offering insight to the company on the side.
None of these ideas are going to change anything, unfortunately. I wish they would, don’t get me wrong. But the only way to change ANY company’s mind is hit them where it hurts: money. If you want their attention, stop giving them your money. Don’t buy games from them. Don’t renew your PlayStation Network membership. Cut off the money that you give them, and that’s going to get their attention most of all. It’s like death from a thousand cuts. Or millions in their case. If their revenue drops precipitously, that’s not going to make their investors happy in the slightest. Cut them off.
What we have here is a company that doesn’t learn from its own history. It’s run at the top by men old enough to be your grandfather in many cases who think they know the public sentiment or can control it. Whether it be the multiple breaches of the PlayStation Network that causes countless people to have their data stolen or making their games region-locked, Sony has proven that intelligence isn’t required to be the top brass in a major tech company. As a matter of fact as we’ve indicated from Xbox, it can be a reason they don’t want you in the role.
Cutting off these companies from your money is the only surefire effective way to change their minds. Boycotts and petitions are all good in a performative sense, but what every company requires is your money to operate. If you take it away from Sony on a big enough scale for long enough, you can sit back and watch as they come groveling back and trying to tell you how they’ve changed. I enjoy watching companies like this suffer due to their own incompetence or flat out stupidity.
Between Sony and Xbox in the gaming space, what we have right now is a race to the bottom. And it’s starting to look like it’s going to be a photo finish to see who arrives first.
