Sony has been very eager to capitalize on the multiple mistakes Microsoft made in rolling out the Xbox One and now a new report from IGN suggests that Sony’s plans to stick a shiv into Microsoft may have been in the works for months. Unnamed sources tell IGN that Sony decided to scrap plans to require gamers to buy a PlayStation Eye sensor long before it unveiled pricing information at E3 in June. Ditching the Kinect-like PlayStation Eye let Sony knock a full $100 off the price tag for its next-generation console. More crucially, Sony also didn’t tell any of its partners about plans for a price cut to keep Microsoft in the dark. The result was that Sony earned the good will of many gamers by offering a lower-cost console that didn’t have any of the controversial DRM restrictions that Microsoft last week removed after weeks of intense criticism.

Prior to joining BGR as News Editor, Brad Reed spent five years covering the wireless industry for Network World. His first smartphone was a BlackBerry but he has since become a loyal Android user.