Microsoft Chief Don Mattrick Doesn’t Care About Our Soldiers

FleshEatingZipper writes: "We all know that the Xbox One’s requirement to always be connected to the internet has caused quite a stir, as has Redmond, WA. based Microsoft’s inability to clearly define what rights owners of the upcoming “next gen” console will have with the software they’ve paid for.

This has, of course, gotten many people up in arms and one of the people who commented was a soldier stationed aboard a nuclear submarine who mentioned that they don’t have internet access."

[JokesOnYou]

See if you read the entire article its yet again poor journalism...

I know plenty in the military, almost every rear base in combat zones have setup wifi through the morale services of each camp, ships also have internet wifi available underway, only the forward bases (conducting frequent engagement missions) are without access to internet/wifi, lol the last thing they are thinking about is gaming, I dont know anyone on a sub but I do know they are very small and limited to what you bring on board also subs do have internet but its restricted to official use(secure comm is a big deal on submarines) still this represents a very tiny percent of the military who quite frankly are very busy while underway working long shifts and sleeping off duty. Over the past 10+ yrs morale services have become a prority in the military due to constant deployments. The military today is very well connected overseas, these guys even get issued personal logins for which they create there own passwords so they can email home freely the only thing that affects this is operational tempo, in those cases my buddies dont have time for games anyway.

[Intentions]

If anything, I wouldn't want the people who are in the armed forces to play games anyway, afterall they're there for a reason.

EDIT: Yeah, guess I was a bit bitter, probably should of mentioned that they could play when on break/downtime

[JokesOnYou]

Well no I wouldn't say that; I got alot of close friends in the military, real cool guys and they love to game on their down time combat is not like you think for the most part its very boring for hrs, days or even months, you just got to be ready for the bad stuff and of course train over and over again, you get time off to relax so games are good for that but of course everything depends on current operations and they do have wifi in fact they get alot of stuff these days that people think you wouldnt have in a combat situation, guys even sent me pics of about 15 32"HD TVs in a room built specifically for gaming and it was all from care packages and donations.

[RedHawkX]

they need to relax and also games can help with keeping there combat skills good

[trickman888]

I agree. You were bitter.

[NatureOfLogic]

@ RedHawkX

That was a good excuse for us to play video games lol(I've been to kuwait). + bubble

Edit: I enjoy fighting for people like you. :)

@ I was going to say the same thing. They charge by the hour and even then there's a waiting list for a slow connection. You can buy your own, but It'll cost way too much for a connection that's slower than 1mb. Everyone trying to connect at the same time is a headache. Xbox one can only add to that.

[FarEastOrient]

Have you ever tried the internet we use overseas? It is F'n slow and very over priced, SniperHill is a joke, wi-fi in the MWR is bad from too many people connecting at the same time. Most of the time you can't get past 1 Mbps, Xbox One wants a minimum of 1.5 Mbps.

Also gaming is a big thing on the bases because you don't want to spend all 24 hours of the day on the edge.

[hay]

I'm sure they will find plenty of escape and mind activities with other devices. There is no need to get XBO. No need to justify their attempt to implement less than pleasant solutions.

PC, PS4 and WiiU entertaniment will be plenty.

What MS does is a tactic called "change the market". Having strong position, they can incorporate small, painful changes, but after few iterations, all pieces will fall in places, leading to even more bollocks.
By seeing Sony doing last gen MS with plus, we can easily expect Sony doing the same with PS5.
Only choice is to bomb XBO by not buying it, to prevent this market change.

Will sound cheesy, but it's pretty much about certain freedoms.

[JokesOnYou]

Here is just 1 example of what I mean, dont remember the name of what particular service my friends who are Marines used:

"Wafa takes care of all the internet needs for the military troops during deployment. We are committed to provide internet Services to cater the needs of communicating them back home with their respective families and friends. Internet access is a morale booster for deployed soldiers !"
http://www.wafa.ae/en/vsat/...

"This type of Internet connection you can share with other soldiers from Camp Leatherneck in Afghanistan. Most soldiers deploy with a laptop in hand and a hookup to the Internet in their barracks. This is especially important for the many who are married, and have young children. The Internet access has resulted in major morale improvements. Troops no longer feel cut off from home. Not all the Internet connectivity is just for staying in touch with the folks back home. The troops from Camp Leatherneck in Afghanistan use the Internet a lot for professional tasks, and not all of them are official business. Some troops blog, and many other stay in touch with military friends and associates in other parts of the world. The Internet has made possible many online communities composed of military professionals."
http://www.ts2.pl/en/US-Arm...

-hmmmm "Up to 10 Mbps!" 19.66 per month

I guess you need to actually deploy, I'll send you some pics, get out the office POG!...lol just kidding but you ask for it. nah but Again plenty of service availabe for a brief once every 24hrs verification, btw you dont know me, I have done more than my fair share of service to this great country, stop making assumptions, like my friends I dont need to bragg and tell everyone about it, this is about gaming nothing more. Hooah! Soldier.....the Devil Dogs got your back!

[FITgamer]

It's not just soldiers overseas. I was in the Marine Corps for 3 years never left the country, but only had internet access for maybe a total of 6 months during that time. Depending on your MO you could be required to go TDY or be moved around the country frequently. So signing a 2 year contract from an ISP was not ideal me. I owned a 360 for 2 years during that time had XBL for 3 months. The rest of my game was done all offline. I would say 90% of my military friends that played games owned 360's, im sure next-gen it won't be the same. It's not just the DRM issue either, that $500 price tag along with all the other fees is gonna be a deal breaker too. Unless you get a great sign on bonus or join as an Officer for pretty much the first year or two in military most soldiers are broke. Luckily if you live in the barracks or military housing you don't have to pay rent or utilities and if you don't have alot money for food you can hit the mess hall. All in all X1 won't do as well with soldiers as the 360 did. Also Don Mattrick can E.A.D.

[marinelife9]

Wow, just wow. He probably should of answered that question with a little more tact.

[Insomnia_84]

He doesn't care about gamers in general.

[horndog]

But sony cares about them, right? It's business buddy, sony doesnt hive a damn if you in the army have cancer or walk with one leg or in a wheel chair.

[nirwanda]

What if they use kinect at a military base to log into your profile with face recognition, how many versions of a game do you think they would need and would they have to sign them sovthey know who registered to which copy.

[husomc]

and when the platoon decide to watch a movie on the xbone, the military gets a bill charging each person watching the movie using that advanced kinect capability.

[HiddenMission]

Looks like Nukacola called you out as liar...are you one of the marketing people MS got busted for for hiring people to put positive spins on negative X1 posts???

Im thinking you are...

[4Sh0w]

Well he provided links and substantiate his claims, you guys just yell "liar!", did you read it? It says exactly what he claimed.

[Nik_P757]

While yes in Africa, Iraq, Bahrain we did have wifi you weren't able to connect online with a console. Even now at the majority of the barracks in the states you can't connect your 360 or ps3. So a 24 hour check-in is taking away from a huge customer base. Why buy it if you can't play it? And also, even the MWR centers don't connect consoles online.

[malol]

it seems like anything anti xbox is "poor journalism" to Jokes On you

i mean what ever you spin, it wont help the fact the MS fucked up and they still do.

[4Sh0w]

No proper rebuttal?

[bohemian 23]

C'mon, the title is a bit sensational. You have to admit that.

[TripC50]

I'm sure he cares about soldiers. He just doesn't care about them being able to game. As a matter of fact... I don't care about that either.

[LOGICWINS]

Who cares? Soldiers have other options (and other consoles) to entertain themselves with.

[RedHawkX]

i will destroy the xbox one this gen no matter what it takes. this dude gonna care about soldiers when im done with him. he gonna wish he was one when his xbox one is discontinued.

[stage88]

He does care.

He's letting Sony and the PS4 become the soldiers gaming console.
Thanks Don! :)

[SpinalRemains]

Don Mattrick, pushing old hardware to nuclear submariners since 2013.

[ger2396]

They should care. they're pretty much saying too bad, buy a ps4.

[ElementX]

Isn't this the 100th article mentioning the military? It's getting repetitive. Write something original!

[Vip3r]

Apply that statement to your COD:Ghosts DLC.

[ElementX]

I haven't played COD since MW3 and that was only because the last time I had played it was MW

[Bathyj]

They'll all have to move here

https://dl-web.dropbox.com/...

[Waller]

Even if it became a problem, it'd be a simple matter of making military-specific consoles that don't require the online check-in. Hell, paint them camo, if you want.

There, problem solved.

[WeAreLegion]

If Sony's marketing team is as good as I think they are, they should be sending PS4's to those in the armed services. That goes for military in every country. It's a MASSIVE demographic.

[Kal-El-001]

wouldn't it be funny if he had family in the military.

[husomc]

look at him i don't thing there are any military genes anywhere in his family's bloodline. what I see is a person bred out of a line of pure gatherers.

[iamgoatman]

You tell him tough guy army man!

[Grindlefly]

This guy has a more punchable face than Phil Spencer! For some reason He makes me feel really annoyed just looking at him

[KingOfArcadia]

Well, you know, since the author of the article apparently cares more for the submariner than Don Mattrick, why doesn't he raise some cash for the poor guy and buy him a launch PS4? Unless of course he really doesn't care at all, and only wrote the article to jump on the 'bash Microsoft' bandwagon like everyone else. Nah, that couldn't possibly be it.

[Loki86]

10th time this stupid article got approved.

[Eamon]

"Our Soldiers."

I wish people would remember not everyone on the internet is American.

[bohemian 23]

That is not true.

[horndog]

Whats with these dumb fanboys trying to turn everyone and everything against MS. Do you really think that in the mids of war when bullets are flying past their heads and soldiers are dying and getting blown up by mortars and soldiers coming home in coffins that MS' s policies is really a big concern to them or even care that sonys console has the better hardware?? How old are you??

[4logpc]

Stupid piece. He didnt say he doesnt care about our troops. Microsoft has already said that they are looking into a way to give consoles that will work offline for troops.

[horndog]

Well if its true then good for MS for considering those who put their lives in the line for their country

[gamingden]

Sensationalist journalism at its finest!

[MasterD919]

Either way, MS has a bunch of problems coming down the pipeline.

I predict some new careers for some of these folks as well. Corporations tend to not forgive.