Friday, July 26, 2013

How Sony's Online Marketing Has Trumped Microsoft's

By Rob Sutter


E3 is slowly building and I am very much prepared for all of the news that is to come out of the conference. While there will be those focused on the third-party companies, the bulk of the attention is going to stick to the big three console developers. Some of them have stronger online marketing efforts than others, from what I have seen. After reading up on the recent news concerning the PlayStation 4, it is hard not to give the edge to Sony instead of Microsoft.

Going into this trade event, it's clear that there has been a lot of mystery concerning the Sony PlayStation 4. Some people wondered how much it would cost while others wondered what kinds of features it would have. Compared to the news about the Microsoft Xbox One, Sony would have to knock the conference out of the park. After it was all said and done, I must say that the PS4 looked like the much better option, which is something the majority of gamers will agree with.

It's hard to deny that the Xbox One has received a great deal of criticism, most of it centered on the fact that DRM would play a bigger part than ever before. For example, if you enjoy used games, then you can pretty much kiss the option goodbye. Sony has seemingly looked out for this type of audience and this is heightened by the idea of pricing as well. The Xbox One has had an announced price of $499, which is something that's been overshadowed by the much cheaper $399 PS4.

I believe that Sony's ability to heighten its online marketing has far surpassed that of Microsoft's. All of the news concerning the PS4 has had the gaming public excited, especially when they've heard about the underwhelming stories about the Xbox One. Why should they invest in a console that seems to do more to hinder their experiences for the worse as opposed to help make them great? In short, the gamers are the company's clients, which firms such as fishbat will claim should be valued.

While I may come off as somewhat rant-like, I did not want to dislike the Xbox One from the start. I wanted Microsoft to unveil a console that could prove to be stiff competition for Sony and Nintendo but is that what we had received? After all of the news concerning the console spilled, I don't think that it will be able to reach the same kind of success that the 360 did in the past. It's a case of online marketing and that of Microsoft's has been anything but robust.




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