Two titans in the next generation of gaming consoles emerged this month, leading up to the release of the Xbox One on Friday.
Sony’s PlayStation 4 launched on Nov. 15, giving it roughly a week’s head start on Microsoft’s Xbox One.
Dennis Moreno, an electronic sales associate at WalMart, said he heard the PlayStation 4’s launch was relatively more stressful to employees than the Xbox One.
“They weren’t ready,” Moreno said. “They didn’t know where all the PS4s were, they didn’t know where all the pre-orders were. They just weren’t ready.”
Sales have been successful, exceeding one million on the first day, according to Microsoft. Since the summer, the company has been trying bury the Big Brother comparisons of its new console’s functions.
During the Electronic Entertainment Expo last June, Microsoft explained how 24-hour log-in for someone’s console was required. Marc Whitten, corporate vice president, retracted these statements in an interview with gaming website Polygon after the press conference. He also confirmed that public opinion, which denounced most of the new features, compelled the company to change that policy.
Thus, digital rights management was a central issue consumers took away from the conference. Other features, such as a used games policy that would have limited sharing, had to be reformed. All limitations related to their previous used games policies were scrapped, according to a post on Microsoft’s official Xbox Wire blog.
Zachary Hoppes, a customer browsing the bargain bin at GameStop, said he prefers to play games on his customized PC; so new consoles don’t deliver a new, cutting edge technology over his $700 rig. If he had to choose, he said, he thought the PS4 did a great job at marketing itself as a console that doesn’t constantly collect consumer information.
“I know there was a lot of controversy about the whole DRM, always being connected to the Kinect,” Hoppes said. “The PS4 didn’t have a lot of that controversy behind it, which sways me more towards it.”
Moreno said if he could leave the console’s Kinect camera off all the time, he would.
“It gives me a little more faith in Xbox knowing they will not watch everything I’m doing,” he said. “I do not want a big corporate party watching everything I do.”
Microsoft’s last update for its privacy statement was this month, clarifying how and why the information is obtained. Data is stored and used to tailor a player’s advertising experience and to analyze the tastes of consumers, according to the statement.
While Moreno understands the goal of optimizing a product, he said his purchases should be the only metric for that analysis.
“I understand that they think they would make money off knowing what I like and dislike,” Moreno said in an email. “But I would rather just let them know what I like and dislike with my wallet.”
Despite discomfort with digital rights management, he said he’s eager to get his console on Black Friday, especially with the 25 percent discount granted as a WalMart employee.
About Jeffrey Bunnell
