Following the reveal of the Xbox One’s pricing strategy and digital rights management requirements, Sony was put under a lot of pressure to reveal its strategy to combat Microsoft. Today, Sony did just that, and it would appear that they indeed have every intention of fighting the company head-on.
First off, the system’s price point. During its E3 press conference, Sony announced that the PlayStation 4 will launch at $399.99 in North America, €399 in Europe, and ₤349 in the United Kingdom. The system will be released this holiday season in these regions.
As for the system’s requirements for playing games offline… there are none. Sony revealed that much like the PlayStation 3 before it, PlayStation 4 discs can be freely shared between friends and family with no restrictions or limitations, and the system does not need to connect to the Internet at all to play video games. This is a direct difference from the Xbox One, which requires that users connect online at least once every twenty-four hours to play any games, in addition to requiring that any retail games be registered specifically to an Xbox Live account. Despite this, Sony is adopting one thing from Xbox: in order to play a game online, users must have an active PlayStation Plus subscription.
Speaking of PlayStation Plus, despite making the service required for online play, Sony is keeping the service’s benefits from its PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita iterations. All current PlayStation Plus subscribers will have their subscription carry over to the system, with at least one new game being made available to Plus subscribers starting at the system’s release. The first game made available will be a “PlayStation Plus edition” of launch title DriveClub.
Aside from Plus being required for online multiplayer games, Sony seems keen on making is platform as accessible as possible to fans and newcomers alike. For more PlayStation 4 news, click here.
Source: Sony E3 2013 press conference
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Sony was brave throwing those punches at Microsoft with the DRM and price details. It worked though, as I have no interest in the Xbox One and lots with the PS4.
Love their video on how to share games on the PS4. Brilliant!