For gamers who’ve been following industry news long enough, Sony’s recent announcement of plans to end physical PlayStation discs echoed Microsoft’s plans for always-online DRM back on the Xbox One. Now, Sony is spiritually following another dead-end path first embraced by Xbox One: live TV.
A PS5 update today adds a “Live TV on PS5” app to the media tab on US consoles. The results look like any other faux-cable streaming service, with a big list of channels to tune into. The service promises an array of movies, TV shows, anime, sports broadcasts, and more, and specific shows like Naruto, Sailor Moon, Community, The Walking Dead, and others are noted in the announcement.
It’s along the same lines as the speciality TV stations provided on Roku boxes and similar devices, and honestly, it’s a decent value-add for PS5 users. Did I buy a game console to watch Community reruns? No, but I don’t mind the option to put on some background noise in the afternoon.
But there’s a reason that the trailer for this feature is filled with comments like “it’s like Xbox One all over again,” “they’ve gone full Xbox One,” and “hey Don Mattrick is that really you?” When the Xbox One was unveiled in 2013, it was presented not as a game console, but as an all-in-one home entertainment box, which would work as a sort of souped-up DVR that would integrate with cable subscriptions.
This initiative, led by executive Don Mattrick, helped build the impression that Xbox One was abandoning the core gaming audience that the brand was meant to serve. Then came the controversy over the console’s always-online DRM plans, which Sony was happy to dunk on alongside the rest of the gaming world.
While Xbox One eventually ditched the DRM and the TV stuff was ultimately a footnote on the console, bad PR dealt the platform a blow that Xbox as a whole has yet to recover from. Now, over a decade later, it’s a much different world. Consumer buying habits have shifted mostly to digital. People use their video game consoles as streaming boxes all the time.
But bad PR is bad PR in any era, and Sony’s decision to end discs has kicked off a controversy that’s shown no signs of slowing down. Whether it actually affects the company’s bottom line remains to be seen, but one thing’s for sure – PlayStation is making all the wrong choices if it’s hoping to win in the court of public opinion.