Accusing the OP (who is being totally reasonable and backing his arguments up, much as I disagree with them) of being a paid Microsoft shill is pretty shitty, guys. I know they've been doing it all over Reddit recently but come on, we should be better than this.

How about we look at the hypothetical situation of what could happen if Sony had decided to be as restrictive as Microsoft? It would mean less freedom for consumers as time goes on, having to pay for even more things that are currently free. Even if Sony screws themselves over in a business sense, at the very least what they've done is help us consumers. Though if this does turn bad, that's basically us sending a message to companies that they can do whatever they want to us and we'll keep paying them for it.

From all that's been gathered, Sony is making a modest profit on each PS4 sold. They've said this in a few interviews. They can't afford to go into this losing money like last time, that was part of the design from the beginning.

Sony and Microsoft are anticipating that consumers will transition to buying digital over physical this gen, which eventually renders a lot of the disc discussion moot. They're both in good positions to do this, and policies regarding ownership and perks will evolve as the generation plays out in order to entice more folks towards building game libraries on the HD instead of on shelves.

Sony having consumer friendly policies when it comes to physical retail doesn't impact that long term strategy, and it's great PR in the short term (along with being the right thing to do).

@cool8man:

1- Sony can change policy anytime they want too. The tech for DRM is in the box, just as it was for PS3. If they build their install much larger than XBon'es through consumer friendly policies, it will make transitioning people to digitial easier (if that's the end goal)

2- Not necessarily, Sony's system has to be cheaper to make because no Kinect or camera, they might actually be making more money per sale as is than M$

3- Sony has said they intend for their hardware to break even at launch. It might really mean a small loss, but i bet it's not a big one this time. Also Sony make money off licensing fees from publishers, they may not care very much if you are playing 60 games or lots of 99cent ones. But what they do care about is having a large install base.

If courting indies makes a consumer choose their console to play Call of Duty on because Sony has a wider variety of other games, then Sony wins. If courting indies attracts the F2P microtransaction crowd then Sony wins. If courting indies helps develop their digital distribution platform and more encourages people to do Day1 download of AAA games as well, then Sony wins. If courting indies helps their image with gamers, then Sony wins. If courting indies encourages PS+ signups, then Sony wins.