When Microsoft announced their game sharing policy at E3, fans of the Xbox franchise were outraged by the new limitations, including having to wait 30 days before allowing any sharing of titles.
Andrew House, the president and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, told the Guardian that ownership has become an extremely important aspect of the current gaming industry.
On the heels of Microsoft's E3 announcement, Sony released a video highlighting their gaming policy, a simple exchange of the title between two people. Though the video was clearly meant to mock Microsoft, it sent a powerful message to the industry.
House was pleased with the positivity Sony received during the gaming and tech conference, but urged that gaming companies need to be more aware of the effects their policies have on the consumers.
"I think there's a very careful balance to strike. We're a game publisher ourselves, so there's a certain argument for us that there should be something of a model for content-creators to participate in second sales," House told the Guardian.
"Having said that, however, the consumer sees ownership as a very key benefit when purchasing a physical product. And the flipside of the argument is that retailers will tell you that the vast majority of trade-in value gets immediately re-purposed into new purchases of games, and those people in turn generate word of mouth and create more interest."
According to the Guardian, Sony has put more thought into gaming sharing and its users than Microsoft before the E3. House said in order to be fair to its users, they must think of their consumer experience before changing gaming policies.
"What you saw coming from gamers is 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," House said.
"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."
Sony's next-gen gaming console, the PlayStation 4, is priced at $399 and will be released this holiday season.
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