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You can be certain of one thing – Xbox and Sony execs won’t be able to hide from the pre-owned question at E3 next week.
Having already successfully elevated the question to the forefront of the games industry last week, the NeoGaf-based organisers behind the #PS4NoDRM are planning a second push starting tomorrow and running through the LA trade show.
They will also be pressing home the new #XBOXONENoDRM hashtag. Both the PS4 and Xbox One campaigns now have their own dedicated websites.
It’s amazing to think that after the sustained pressure Microsoft had to endure about pre-owned game in the wake of the Xbox One reveal the world still doesn’t know what the company has planned.
Sony, too, has survived a second wave of questioning– althought it has very much been giving out positive signals.
The question is, will we actually be any the wiser after E3? That probably depends on what strategies the platform holders are planning.
If the answer is no, neither machine will limit pre-owned games” then yes, we will likely hear the big news on the LA stage. In the more likely event that the answer is no, neither machine will limit pre-owned games unless publishers choose to implement them” then we can perhaps expect a further period of silence.
The impressive thing about the #NoDRM campaign is that it not only proves that consumer power is still very much a real thing, but it also highlights a worrying trend on modern games PR – the belief that refusing to answer a question will eventually make it go away.
In this modern world of interconnected social media, it’s a strategy that seems embarrassingly out of date.
