Sony is quickly reacting to a massive fan-created campaign against the rumoured digital rights management (DRM) on PlayStation 4.
The campaign stems from a recent flurry of rumors, originally reported by game journalist Geoff Keighley, suggesting Sony may use DRM to stop pre-owned game sales on PlayStation 4. The rumor mills has flared up the issue so much that a thread was immediately created by user famousmortimer on the popular message board NeoGAF asking players to reach out to Sony's top brass to express their views on the issue.
Following this, a campaign was set up on Twitter with the hashtag #PS4NoDRM which gained massive popularity in a very short period. Users flocked to the popular micro-blogging website and pleaded with Sony not to do what Microsoft is planning to do with its next-gen gaming console Xbox One.
The social media backlash was immediately addressed by a number of top-level executives associated with PlayStation 4 including SCEA producer Nick Accordino (spotted by Gameranx) who wrote, "Humbled by the outpouring of passionate PlayStation fans and their willingness to talk to us directly. Please know that we hear you."
"This is why I love PlayStation fans- the passion bucket overflows," Head of Hardware Marketing at Sony PlayStation John Koller tweeted later. Two more top officials such as Shadid Kamal Ahmed, a senior business development manager at Sony and Scott Rhode, head of software product development for PlayStation reacted to the campaign with similar comments.
Although Sony is yet to offer a satisfactory explanation as to how it is going to support pre-owned games with its next generation video game console, the company has seemingly successfully managed to avoid much of the backlash and negative press being compounded on the Internet. At least for now.
