Monday, July 29, 2013

Has The Online Marketing For Microsoft Fell To Sony?

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.

I think that the attention granted to this event is extraordinary and it says a lot about the massive audience tied into gaming. For example, most of the attention in the past day or so has been on the Sony PlayStation 4, which many people are going to compare to the Microsoft Xbox One. After hearing about Microsoft's news, it should come as no surprise that I'm not a fan of the upcoming Xbox. The PlayStation 4, though, is an entirely different story and one I'm in support of.

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.

It's clear, when considering all of this news, Sony has done more to elevate its online marketing than Microsoft has. Gamers have immediately flocked to the PS4 when they heard all of the news because it was the kind that benefitted them. Microsoft, in my mind, seemed to just be looking out for the companies while making sure that the gaming masses were given very little. Firms like fishbat can tell you that the audience should remain the priority, no matter what kind of field you're talking about.

I'm sure that some of you will consider this a rant of sorts against Microsoft but I did not want to talk this badly about the Xbox One. In fact, I wanted it to be a great console that could be a viable option next to the competition. However, it has not had a great bolt out of the starting gate and I don't think that it will be able to catch up to the competition. Whether or not better online marketing can help the company's stature is, in my mind at least, difficult to say.




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