In the same Gamescom presentation where he announced PlayStation 4 launch date, Sony Computer Entertainment's Andrew House took a slammed Microsoft for its repeated Xbox One policy reversals.
"While others have shifted their message and changed their story, we were consistent in maintaining a message that is fair and in tune with consumer desires," he said.
Responding to Sony's jab, Microsoft Studios head Phil Spencer pointed out that this flexibility is actually a good thing and that it highlights the "two-way conversation we have with our customers."
"Certain people have tried to turn that into something that's a bad thing about what we're trying to do, and I just disagree," he added. "That two-way conversation with gamers has to be core to who we are as a platform. And if we don't have the capability of listening and reacting to what people are saying about our platform, then we're being too disconnected from customers who make investments in our platform and the games we build."
Spencer explained that Xbox One is an ongoing service as much as it is a piece of hardware, so changes are expected and welcomed as long as they don't affect the platform's core experience and philosophy.
"Now, we have a vision, and we've stayed on that vision around the digital ecosystem we want to put on Xbox Live," he said. "It remains a core philosophy. We heard people valued some of the existing generation's disc-based DRM, so we said we're going to add that to the digital ecosystem we're building. It meant some delays in some of the stuff around digital so we could fit in the time to get physical done at launch, but our vision remains the same."