Microsoft, Xbox One, and Why Microsoft’s Reversal is Bad News

On Wednesday, June 19th, Microsoft made the decision to reverse several policies relating to the Xbox One. But will this have a negative impact on the future of the console gaming industry?

[rawshack]

Its good news to me

[AngelicIceDiamond]

So now they see the benefits when MS cuts the cord on the policies.

Of course they do.

[sentury111]

I know! First it's the end of console gaming, but now it could have been good to keep it.

MS can't win.

[JokesOnYou]

Go to xbox forum where you login with your gamertag,....ask if its possible to have 2 different terms of service agreement where you can "opt in" to drm restrictions and thus be able to take advantage of the "family share plan" which of course allows you to acces your games anywhere on any console, never need the disc again and share with friends. This should not be a problem since this whole strategy works by identifying your console ID and gamertag...so lock my f-king console and give game sharing micro, f-ing dont understand them sometimes.

[Outside_ofthe_Box]

Anyone trying to turn MS removing it's anti-consumer polices as bad news were either defending it to death so they are standing by their words in order to not look foolish or they're straight up insane.

[Bigpappy]

How is allowing customers to sell and share DIGITAL Games "anti-consumer"? They really need an offline and an online version of the X1. I want to share my Digital games. I don't want to screw around with disk anymore. I want next gen not same gen with a better card and more RAM.

[Gazondaily]

@Bigpappy

I'm with you on this. Whilst DRM definitely had its issues, having a digital library and that game sharing feature sounded really interesting. Oh well....

[humbleopinion]

MS "anti-consumer" policies were just as bad as Valve's Steam, only with the added benefit of sharing games with friends and family, plus the ability to still re-sell physical copies at a store (something Valve doesn't let you do).

People love steam, so what's not to love with a friendlier approach?

[Starbucks_Fan]

"Xbox One is like that GF that cheated on you and wants to come back to you. lol. You'll be dumb enough to get back with xbox one."

[Software_Lover]

Beating.........A............. .Dead...........Horse.

It's ps3 reveal and Six Axis all over again.

[Intentions]

It was good news, but I would of liked to see/have most of the features that were cancelled.

Eg: Family sharing, disc-less play.

[sentury111]

I would have too. I already had three friends to share games with. Oh well, at least now all PS fans have to gripe about is Kinect and you can disable that.

[FITgamer]

You can only disable the video feed of the connect when the system is in standby, when the system is running Kinect is mandatory for it to operate. People keep saying "you can still use the controller, you don't have to use the Kinect." That's not the issue people have, they want to have the option to have it completely detached from the system. If we want to keep it in the box, use it as a door stop, or target practice it should be an option.

[Biggest]

There really is no reason that those things can not exist. Microsoft is punishing people for saying no. Ahh well. They still have fans out there.

[Eldyraen]

In theory most are still possible--but now the wait will be substantially longer if we ever even see them.

[rageus]

Playing without the disc cannot be done without DRM. Otherwise people would just install the game, and sell the disc.

[Mainsqueeze]

I think you can still have disc-less play. all the games will still be downloadable on xbl day one

[Utalkin2me]

If Ms doesn't have a clue of witch way it is going. That will for sure confuse consumers.

[sentury111]

It's not even out yet. I doubt most general consumers have a clue. We who follow it all should know soon enough.

[Utalkin2me]

Funny you say that, cause as people who do not game. Mouth of word is the biggest actions then not. You probably would be surprised at how many people that really know about this.

I'm not trying to knock the $$$ Ms is trying to do. But gaming circles talk and then it just trickles down.

For instance my step sister was going to buy my nephew a xbox1 cause he has 360. But after we talked, she is buying him a PS4 and will not look otherwise. Cause she is a non gamer and her son is casual gamer, but word of mouth changed her outlook on what i told her.

[Flipflopp]

Microsoft had their conference broadcasted on Spike Tv. They had their time to get their vision across to people. The damage is done.

[InTheLab]

It's like these sites want MS to fail. What they did today was good business, and even better for gamers.

Not saying we should forget what they tried to do, or about kinect, or how overpriced the console is...

But the Xbox One is at least a potential purchase, which is an upgrade from f*** no, never.

[Dancinsolo]

Overpriced? Give me a break. The tech that's involved is well worth it.

[Biggest]

Hmmm. . . Doesn't another console have better tech and cost $100 less? Overpriced seems spot on.

[Yodagamer]

All Sony has to do is release an app for the million androids and ios phones out there and it would do exactly what the kinect 2.0 does from a software control standpoint. Idk why they didn't just use smartglass for the stuff it wants to do with the kinect.

[R_aVe_N]

Yep still overpriced they are charging 100 dollar for a camera that many many many many people don't want at all.

[No_Limit]

I am glad they are sticking with Kinect as a bundle. The $100 extra is a bargain for a tech this advance. Remember, the original one was $150 when it was first released and 2.0 on the One definitely has tons of improvement and will be the thing that will separate third party ports from the PS4 ports. If a cell phone can cost $600 unsubsidized and a yearly update iPad is $499 and up, a system with this much features and can last you 6-8 years is well worth the price in my opinion.

[sentury111]

I gave you an agree because it does seem like they want MS to fail.

But it's not overpriced. PS is going to be sold for a bigger loss than Xbone.

[Dancinsolo]

Yeah people aren't getting that Kinect 2.0 is on a whole different level than the first one. The thing is so damn advance, there is nothing else like it. It's a big game changer and glad it'll be with every system.

[DjKiba]

I don't think you realize that the reason MS failed is because we are losing 2 great/awesome ideas. Family Share and Disc-less play...

[Veneno]

We are losing one feature: family share. Discless play is called Digital Download.

[MasterCornholio]

I have a yearly subscription to PlayStation Plus so i can confirm to you that disc-less play exists.

[Dancinsolo]

Very well written.

[cyguration]

If you're a MS shill...yes I agree.

[Dancinsolo]

?

[manny1up]

is good news to GAMERS , but a Lil too late , as a 360 owner i've pre-order PS4 .

[ElementX]

It's not too late. When the eventual price drop hits in a year or so, people will pick up an Xbox One to sit next to their PS4. I already preordered both. In the end it doesn't matter if you buy the console at launch or a year or two into it's life. Enough people will buy it at launch to keep developers interested

[manny1up]

it hasn't swayed my mind. There's no assurance they won't just build up a big costumer base before they reintroduce the anti-consumer policies..Microsoft LOST consumers confidence

PS..DROP the gimmicky KINECT no one ask for this horrendous atrocity !

[ElementX]

You can turn off the Kinect, just have to keep it plugged in for now. People complained about Move and said it should be included with every PS3 because developers weren't willing to develop software for an optional device.

Personally I like the idea of Kinect even though I may never use it, it's there for any instance when I want to. I bought a Move and it was pretty much worthless except for a couple of games. I was ripped off for a device with little support.

[00]

if the xbox one released as the drm machine it was it would have failed so damn hard,

[Veneno]

No one else will admit that eventhough Microsoft clearly admits it, hence the changes. The changes will work in Microsoft's favor. I will now consider a future purchase of Xbox One where beforemthere was no chance of that.

[rela82me]

"Microsoft xbox one and why Microsofts reversal is bad news... to sony." I think you left out some of your title.

Regardless of your broken title, people will always find something to complain about when it comes to their anti-brand. If you are buying the PS4, GREAT! That is totally fine with me, go ahead. I personally cannot wait to open my Day One Edition. I am aware that this will get disagrees, but anyone who disagrees with "this is what all you sony fans cried for" is lying. Me personally, I wanted it to stay the way it was; The sharing features was totally appealing to me.

I sincerely hope they can find a way to turn the DRM stuff on. If you turn your X1 to "online" mode all your games can be shared through the cloud and with your family and friends and still access your games from ever console. I don't know if that would be theoretically possible and still accomplish the same things that they wanted to do before. At the same time if it were in offline mode I would suspect that only YOUR downloaded games and physical copies would work. If this were the case and while in "online mode" maybe turn the check in time to 1 hr, to avoid the bait and switch...

I just feel like the system owners shouldn't be penalized because people don't have internet and cannot accept change. If they could just find a way to make both crowds happy by implementing an offline feature and the ability to trade physical discs a bit better. Something tells me they won't throw out the idea, but they will try to refurbish it so that it still can act as the 360 version of DRM and the nextgen version.

Please disagree with this article and show how many fanboys their are out there ;P

[Im0ver1t]

I was looking forward to the changes too. If any of the fanboy hive did even the smallest amount of research, they would realized you actually have more flexibility and freedom with your purchases than now. Microsoft essentially did a 180 for people that never had any intention of buying and XB1 in the first place. NOw that they have, these same morons are trashing them for giving them what they want. We gamers can be the least informed, whiniest people on the planet.

[00]

"they would realized you actually have more flexibility and freedom with your purchases than now."

yes paying 60$ to rent games that pubs/dev have complete control over is freedom.

"for people that never had any intention of buying and XB1 in the first place"

your just full of garbage now before the one reveal I'm sure many people were excited(like me) but after finding out the DRM garbage were not impressed.

you would have to be stupid to have your consumer right in the hands of a faceless multi-billion dollar corporation especially with something like entertainment.

[Im0ver1t]

00, were talking about video games here, not the rights of your firstborn.

Under the original XB1 policy, once you bought a game you could:
1. Access it from any Xbox using your account.
2. Share the game with up to 10 friends/family
3. If you wished, give the game away at a certain point.

Can you do any of those things now? Like I said, more freedom, more flexibility,

This model doesn't make more money for MS, do some reserach. It takes money being made by companies like GameStop, who make hundreds of millions off of the gaming industry, yet contribute absolutely nothing to it. IMO, you'd have to be a complete moron to want to trade your $60 game in to GS for $12 so they can turn around and sell it for $40. This money should be going back to the devs, so we can get better quality games. It also curbs piracy, another leech on the gaming industry.

The industry is going completely digital one way or another. Due to the poorly told story of XB1 and the uninformed loudmouths of the web, those of us who are ready will have to wait a little longer.

[00]

were talking about buying and selling a PRODUCT
replace the games with another product in your house and you'll see how stupid it is that a corporation the only ones with complete control over what they sold you.

"Access it from any Xbox using your account"

for one hour

"Share the game with up to 10 friends/family"

only two people can do that out of those ten and not at the same time.

"If you wished, give the game away at a certain point"

only once and hey what do you know I can do that with my 360 games RIGHT NOW with out asking permission from the pub/dev.

"IMO, you'd have to be a complete moron to want to trade your $60 game in to GS for $12 so they can turn around and sell it for $40"

oh good thing gamestops not the option, wait I bet they were going to be one of the "participating retailers" where you could trade your game if the pu/dev allowed you.

"This money should be going back to the devs, so we can have a better quality games"

[angryraptor]

Amen brother. I can't help but feel we are getting cheated out of what was likely going to be a magnificent vision of the future based on the initial policies they had in place. I too never trade in my games and was excited by the very forward thinking concept of a shared library of gaming licenses across the cloud with no need for physical media -and all because people who weren't content pissed and moaned. It wasn't enough that they just buy the PS4 that was better suited to their needs -instead they had to ruin it for all those who do not fear change and were excited for the vision of a digital future and now we get a gimped system and feature set. The least Microsoft could do is give people a one time option to share their dream or opt out and be bound to the chains of a physical media future. I would also gladly give the right to sell games to opt in for the exciting vision that they shared with us and for which the xbox was initially designed!

[Dancinsolo]

You are right on target. Never seen such bias and hate towards a gaming console since I started gaming 30 years ago...you don't like it don't buy it. Stop with the smear campaign and grow up.

[LogicStomper]

Accidental post.

Click agree if you prefer red or alternatively, click disagree if you prefer blue.

[SilentGuard]

The console market, in general, isn't ready yet for MS's vision. Despite the benefits of all digital, consumers can't be forced into accepting something they aren't prepared to take. MS definately could have explained things better and got its message out sooner but they still tried to force too big a change. Their mistake was trying to make physical disks function like digital downloads. There was no point to even keeping physical disks, especially when you can play a game as its downloading. It just added confusion. From the beginning MS should have applied their vision and all the benefits of digital to digital downloads only, and left disks to function as they always have. Lower the prices for digital, allow for online rentals and a trading hub, let digital customers use the cloud for storage so they can play their library off any console, allow game sharing but only for downloads between friends while online. If they made digital distribution more attractive and let the consumer see the benefits more people will opt for it, but the disks will still be their to ease peoples minds and give holdouts a choice. MS can still apply the benefits, they just have to be smarter about it. Then maybe by next-gen we will be ready for all digital.

[Im0ver1t]

Well said. I keep thinking Mattrick was the wrong messenger and the story could have been told so much better.

[Droidbro]

I preordered this fucking thing because I'm an admitted Halo fanboy. If PS had Halo I would be on it. I was excited for these new features and didn't give a shit about the online requirement because I have great internet. I didn't give a shit about the used game/trading clusterfuck because I do not typically lend games and Gamestop trades are a fucking ripoff and should be criminal. I didn't give a shit about always on Kinect because I honestly just don't give a shit if it is spying on me. The government already does that anyways so fuck it. And I honestly didn't give shit that it cost $500 because I can fucking afford it. I have been following the features and restrictions of this console from the beginning trying understand it and get excited for it. And now, because of a few crybaby, little bitch bloggers who live in their parents basement and are pissed off at the world because they have never gotten their dicks wet want to bitch and moan, moan and bitch about always online DRM bullshit as if fucking even affects them somehow even though they obviously have no fucking problem getting online, MS is being a bunch of capitulating little pussies and fucking up their console. After almost a month since the reveal, can anyone honestly tell me what the fuck this machine is supposed to do now? Because I'm confused as fuck. Fuck you bloggers and fuck you MS!

[BLKxSEPTEMBER]

Well said...

[LogicStomper]

I would have bubbled you up if you did that on video instead.

But for being honest, you can have an extra agree.

[Mr Tretton]

Droid, the reality is, it's Gamestop that forced this. They stopped taking XBO preorders. Trust me, MS was counting on Xbox/Halo die hards like yourself to sell their soul, and the XBO was preordering fine at amazon. It's the Gamestop issue. Not stupid blogs or internet posts. MS is using that as a front to come off as 'good guys' for 'listening to the fans.' Pfff, they listened to Gamestop.

[NihonjinChick]

What does getting your penis wet have to do with not wanting DRM?

[MysticStrummer]

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[BLKxSEPTEMBER]

I hope they will have a tier xbl system with the family share plan. I'd gladly pay extra for that feature. Hopefully I don't see how the instant switching will work now. None of the DMR effected me but like someone above said the world doesn't revolve around me. Well at least now Sony fans can get back to saying how grateful they are to pay for online MP even tho it was free before...

[Yodagamer]

It won't help them, i wouldn't pay a $100 more for a weaker console. Unless microsoft actually stick to making exclusives. They started this gen strong with exclusives and it died down almost instantly.

[Goldenarmz]

People are stupid... before every article was just how bad it was... now they do away with it.. now every article is how good it was. Make up your mind, everybody is saying MS did a 180, sounds more like the fanboys did the 180.

[cyguration]

Just lousy gaming media.

You can always count on gaming media to be a worthless piece of trash.

[nohopeinc]

Yeah but I can already easily share my console and games with my family, not that any of them play. Plus I kind of have this feeling that if they did the family thing people would abuse it, I know I would. 9 other friends buying games we all share them with each other, seems like it would cause a loss of sales.

[strigoi814]

Microsoft always do timed exclusives..

just watch and be aware of yourselves when you purchase the XB1

[SmielmaN]

I can't agree with the idea that xb ones original vision of control would be good for consumers. If allowed to sell a consumer a limited license to a product, without the consumer being able to sell/exchange the product as it has been, we would see it spread to every piece of media.

What MS appears to want is a move towards Apple/android style. Where you purchase a product (movie/game/music), download it to your device, and can never resell it so anyone else who wants that product must go through the provider. That would be terrible for gaming and movies because there's a large difference for regular consumers between $0.99 song and a $30-$60 movie/game. I make a healthy amount of money, but I trade my games all the time to buy the new stuff because I buy a lot of games. I keep some for collecting/sharing purposes, and I trade everything else. This allows me to gain some cash towards my games and not pay full price. This is very important to me as a gamer ( a 24+ yrs of experience gamer). I don't really want to buy a product that is incomplete unless I connect to the MS HQ. I paid a lot of money to own devices and copies of games. I don't really want to purchase a product that requires constant checks on me and having a cam/mic monitoring my gaming space. Just how I feel

With regard to MS, I'm also concerned about the recent information linking them to the NSA and providing people's personal data/personal info without any notice. This is especially concerning when you consider that they have pushed a mandatory camera and mic into your gaming space. It's just a bit too much for me to stomach, at this point.

I haven't preordered anything yet as there's more game shows coming up that I'm interested in (and a good friend of mine manages a EB games lol). But, I'm very surprised about this flip MS has done considering for the last week we have heard them say they aren't changing a single thing regarding their product. Seems like they have panicked and I would be very interested in the actual preorder numbers of both PS4 and XB1 (I know we will never know for sure). I would have to think that the MS numbers were nowhere close to their projections and that's what really sparked the change: Money.

[defyenz]

Wow:) so now I can buy a brand new xbx1 which is like the old gen xbx36o with a little bit of new paint job and casing for $500.? Why dont I just stick to my 360 then and save money. Because of these fucking whiners that is so afraid to adapt to new changes that just screws up everything. Fucking hate this.I want something new not something old that is new.

[SonyAddict]

Does MS do cheap!?.

[SonyAddict]

Wow!,you bitch about restrictions and when they're gone you bitch even more!..wow just wow..

[Jacobster]

The bigger picture is choice for the consumer! PC games have always historically been cheaper whether physical or digital. There is no evidence on consoles to suggest moving to digital would save us money as if choice is removed any price can be set. If MS really wanted this vision they would stick to their strategy at a cost of choice :)

[MasterCornholio]

I dont know why people are sad that they changed their DRM policy because by doing so they gave the XBOX One a fighting chance in the market against the PS4. This means that if the XBOX One sells well Developers will support it and XBOX One owners will be able to enjoy their games.

Unless you want the XBOX One to become a Wii U you will praise Microsofts decision to save their console by eliminating their DRM policies.

[madjedi]

I don't think ms really deserves any praise for reversing their drm policies, they deserved to be torn to shreds for even having the arrogance of trying to force it on people to begin with.

Ms should be thankful xbox gamers haven't wrote off the xb 1 or the xbox brand entirely.

So now we go back to 3 separate teams fighting each other. Well on the bright side i'll be able to play all the xbones exclusives in 5+ yrs when i pick one up for $200.

I think despite ms removing all these restrictions the xbox brand is still going to suffer alot of ill will from burned ms fans.

" you will praise Microsofts decision to save their console by eliminating their DRM policies." Ms acted in their own best financial interests, they would have happily fucked xbox one owners over, if not for the enormous backlash spreading all across the web.

Maybe you mean be happy, but it doesn't deserve praise.

[GHOSTxx420]

I'm starting to think N4g is a scam website,cause first it was Ms and the drm being bad news. Now its saying this is gonna be bad news? I was only gonna get a ps4 but after hearing this I preordered the Xb1... Can't wait for next gen!!!

[Muigi]

Though this is good news for gamers, I'm still going with the console that's a $100 cheaper.