The PlayStation 4 won’t offer MP3 playback or media server features at launch, but Sony took note of the immediate feedback to those revelations and is working now to address consumer concerns, Sony Worldwide Studios President Shuhei Yoshida confirmed to Giant Bomb. “As we speak … the teams in Japan and U.S., the system guys, are discussing how and when we can put these features on PS4,” he said.
Yoshida also offered an explanation for the oversight; he admits that the people responsible for listening and responding to feedback at Sony were surprised at the near-immediate angry outcry from consumers. “It’s not like we actively decided ‘Let’s not do this feature so that people will subscribe to Music Unlimited,'” he said. “Like we have been saying, the focus has been always on the game features. And some of the features we wanted but we couldn’t get in on day one we are very disappointed and worried about not having on day one, and that have been the higher priorities.”
Yoshida specifically mentions the absence of MP3 playback and DLNA support as the source of consumer frustrations. There’s a subtle jab here at Microsoft’s Xbox One console as well, since the sales messaging around the competing box paints it as an all-in-one entertainment system. This “more than just the games” approach has drawn criticism from the online gaming community since the console was revealed in May, whereas Sony has stuck to a “games first, always” approach in its own marketing.
Whichever console you choose to kick off the next-gen with – just think: it’ll be current-gen come Friday! – there’s no denying that the competition is a good thing. Consumer dissatisfaction over both machines at varying times has led to any number of content and policy changes. Just look at Microsoft’s dramatically shifted treatment of secondhand games and user licensing. Do you think either that or Yoshida’s MP3/DLNA comments would have come as quickly if there were no competition to contend with?
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