I'm sure they would have maintained the requirement if they could, despite the backlash. But money got in the way.
Too often, these corporations act all high and mighty when they make some tiny concession to customers or avoid a PR disaster. That's not them being generous or ethical, that's just them covering their own butts. They have all the money and power in the world, so the least they can do is meet basic standards.We should not reward this as if it is some noble, praiseworthy behavior.
Corporations have immense power and resources. When they finally decide to do the right thing after public pressure, that is not deserving of accolades. They are looking out for themselves first and foremost. So let's not act like they're heroes for it - they're just avoiding getting called out, that's all. True ethics and responsibility from corporations should be the norm, not some rare, praise-worthy occurrence.
What? If someone holds you up at gunpoint but decides to let you go after you scream for the police, they dont get praise they get jail time.
Sony did nothing right in a situation where the right thing would have been to do nothing at all to begin with. They decided to try to strangle a huge success for the sake of cash. The fact that They reverted after the game ene from “overwhelmingly positive” to “overwhelmingly negative” and they got bombed with refund requests isn’t something to praise, it’s a given. They realized that they fucked up royally and that their plan to spin the community to PSN would not work so they stopped.
The people deserving praise are the players and the community that united against Sony, and the developers and leads who listened to the community and honestly and openly said “if you don’t like it speak up, we can’t change the decision but Sony will have to listen to the response”
I have no doubt if refunds were not an issue, then Sony would have given gamers the equivalent of a middle finger.
Forget your privacy concerns.