I must say I am surprised about the 180. I found their (now defunct) DRM policies to be extremely stupid, offensive even, but I assumed they knew something we didn't know. I assumed they did some marketing research and that it showed the DRM policies did not hinder the mass appeal of the product. I guess there was no research. Or did not realize how generalist media would relay the E3 info and how through blogs, twitter, facebook, reddit and the likes, the so called "hardcore gamer" could get the word out to the masses of average customers just how bad the DRM stuff was.
Then again, I should have remembered that Microsoft is the company that released the Xbox, a console that, a couple months after its launch, saw its price slashed and piles of games offered on top to sweeten the deal.
What I wonder at this point is if the change really came from listening to consumers "candid" feedbacks ('u suk'). I suspect it's more what happened at retail (things like the amazon best seller list or gamestop pushing for the PS4), pressures from first party studios ('guys you are killing us here!') or feedback from publishers ('You are on the right path to get the Wii U treatment').