Microsoft Abandons DRM and Used Games Policy

Memento Mori said:
Well there are exceptions to everything. I personally would also have preferred a super fast gaming PC to a PS2 when I was younger. But I think you would agree that people like that are the minority.

Back when I studied in a France, in a class of 35, only like 3 were interested in things like moding games, making their own websites, or even PC gaming. The others, while they did have good PCs, only used them for things like facebook, youtube videos or downloading stuff. And unless I'm wrong, its probably the case everywhere. Even here in Mauritius, I have to go to the science side class to talk about PC gaming and stuff, cause no one in my class (economics side) was interested in these things.

I wonder if many of my friends being Asian, or interested in Asian culture like anime could be one of the reasons PCs, and PC gaming was such a big part of chats. I remember a lot of them talking about Starcraft, Diablo, Warcraft, and many other PC games. Even online, a lot of young people I met on an online Asian Radio station chat room talked about Maplestory, Gunbound, and other free to play asian MMORPG from South Korea.

I read that PC gaming is huge in places like China, and South Korea where many people enjoy playing MMORPG like World of Warcraft and Real Time Strategy games like Starcraft which are not very good on consoles because a lot of RTS, and MMORPG games are about pushing a lot of keyboard and mouse buttons, and moving a mouse very quickly to move characters, cast spells, and perform fast actions by quickly hiting a lot of keyboard buttons at once instead of just 2-4 at a time like console controllers where you can just hit up to 4 buttons quickly at once.

Anyways, I feel kids these days also want to be content creators since you say they do things like Facebook, YouTube, and downloading stuff.

A lot of kids also want to make videos, and Internet meme images to post on Facebook, and YouTube, and having a Fast PC certainly helps even with making simpler videos like Music Videos, Video Blogs, and 2D animation to post on YouTube, and Facebook.

Screen recording console, and PC games are also one of the most popular video categories on YouTube since a lot of gamers like making video walkthroughs for games, or share their game achievements like beating a game boss on YouTube.

A Fast PC also helps with recording PC Games on High settings with software like Fraps.
 
While it is a step in the right direction, I am not convinced that this will be the end of the story.. for all we know, this change is due to the fact that they don't want to lose out to Sony or other competitors, but there isn't anything saying that they won't quietly reintroduce this later on, once they've made their money and have their users over a barrel so to speak. I think that right now, they are only playing nice with their fingers crossed behind their back and are just waiting for the right moment.

Still though, the Kinect requirement is still a deal breaker for me. Especially since MS was the first to join PRISM.
 
A lot of gamers are annoyed with the restrictions of traditional game consoles which try to force unreasonable rules on owners like the Xbox One Need for Kinect, and PS3 which removed the Other OS feature which let people install Linux onto their PS3 hard drive. Nintendo also makes Virtual Console games tied to Wii U console, so if your Nintendo console broke, or you sold it, you lose all your virtual console games on the console's drive. The PS4 move light being built-into the PS4 controller also seem kind of annoying since not everyone will be buying a PS4 move Camera, but will have to pay more money for a PS4 controller with the Blue PS4 Move lightbulb which they may never use since they didn't buy the PS4 Move Camera which is needed to use PS4 move on the controller.

There are people are now buying the Ouya which sold out at Amazon, and Gamestop hours after the Ouya launch to retailers today according to http://news.cnet.com/8301-10797_3-57590867-235/ouya-launches-for-$99-already-sold-out-on-amazon-gamestop/

At least with Ouya it is a more Open game console which let you try out a demo of the game for free before you decide to buy the entire game, and let you install third-party Android apps, hack the console, and do whatever you want with it after you paid for it.
 
Who cares if people are miffed with MS and they lost some respect.

People have to think whether it was the DRM and other policies MS tried to enforce that they didn't like or if it is just MS that they didn't like because of what they tried to do. For me I don't dislike MS because of what they tried to do, if they want to screw themselves over (yes they would be screwing themselves over not their customers) then so be it let them get on with it, what I didn't like was the used games policy. Now that this has been reversed i'm happy with it. I'm not saying i'm happy with MS, I don't care about that, but the main thing that was preventing me from even considering getting a ONE was the used games policy.

If people that were not buying the console solely because of the online connection and used games policy decide to still not buy it now even though it's been reversed purely because they don't like what MS "tried" to do then that's their problem and they are pretty pathetic, because it shows it was just an excuse not to buy the console.
 
GamerPerfection said:
Who cares if people are miffed with MS and they lost some respect.

People have to think whether it was the DRM and other policies MS tried to enforce that they didn't like or if it is just MS that they didn't like because of what they tried to do. For me I don't dislike MS because of what they tried to do, if they want to screw themselves over (yes they would be screwing themselves over not their customers) then so be it let them get on with it, what I didn't like was the used games policy. Now that this has been reversed i'm happy with it. I'm not saying i'm happy with MS, I don't care about that, but the main thing that was preventing me from even considering getting a ONE was the used games policy.

If people that were not buying the console solely because of the online connection and used games policy decide to still not buy it now even though it's been reversed purely because they don't like what MS "tried" to do then that's their problem and they are pretty pathetic, because it shows it was just an excuse not to buy the console.
pathetic is the wrong word, I would label them as wise cautious people. I'm sure in time they will buy into it, but MS is going to have to endure a bumpy year or two with the Xbox one before they win people back. They say history repeats and now it's MS's turn to trudge through being in debt with a new pricy system like Sony did with PS3.
 
Its not all about being pathetic or not liking what MS tried to do. A lot of people are just wary because MS could try pulling something like this in the future. Unless I'm mistaken, console makers reserve the right to change how their device operates at any time they see it. While MS will definitely abandon this DRM and used games policy,  it doesn't mean that in the future they won't introduce another policy that can be just as restricting. I know that this is also true for all consoles, but MS already showed that they were willing to do it.

So its probably more about not trusting them than not liking them.

As for those that don't like MS for trying to do this, excluding the butt-hurt Xbox fanboys, I see no reason to call them pathetic. What was pathetic was MS's late reversal. They had months of negative comments to reverse this decision, yet at the E3, which would have been the best moment to reverse it with minimal effects on their reputation, they didn't budge. 

All it did was show that they didn't really have an idea of what gamers want, and if thinking that they did was my reason to want a One, I would have changed my mind as well.
 
"Be a Man; Take a Stand."

They should have never done this; however, they shouldn't have backed off, especially after the E3.

Also, I lol'd when Microsoft went and tried to advertise the XB1 at the Wii U area.
 
Demon_Skeith said:
pathetic is the wrong word, I would label them as wise cautious people. I'm sure in time they will buy into it, but MS is going to have to endure a bumpy year or two with the Xbox one before they win people back. They say history repeats and now it's MS's turn to trudge through being in debt with a new pricy system like Sony did with PS3.
I agree with you completely. To assume that this is the end of the story just because MS has 'backed off' is tragically naive. The only reason they have 'backed off' is because they want to make nice with potential buyers. Once their money has been made, it will be open season on gamers, especially  since, they will have nothing to lose by moving forward as originally planned. 

With both the NSA and the government falling like a stack of dominoes over the NSA leak, and MS having been the first in line to volunteer user data under PRISM, and now, that it was revealed that they spied on U.S. allies too, you had better believe that anyone with common sense isn't going to touch this console, especially since, the Kinect requirement is still a green-lit feature.

The very fact that MS didn't drop this one like they 'backed off' the other features, is pretty telling.
 
Back
Top