The Internet Killed the Gaming Star

Austin writes, "Microsoft has just announced it was making a massive 180 concerning it’s Xbox One DRM policies, obviously due to the loud minority of internet users complaining along with hard pressure from Sony."

[MariaHelFutura]

You got it twisted. The internet and Sony just saved gaming.

[Relientk77]

I'm surprised they changed the polices so quick, I thought they'd stick to their guns, atleast until 2014

edit @ below: I think that's one of the reasons, the other being all the bad PR by not just consumers and gamers, but everyone.

[GamersRulz]

I believe their pre-order numbers were way below expectation, they wouldn't change a thing if X1 pre-orders were high enough.

[Blastoise]

I imagine they assumed Sony would follow in their footsteps.

[Bathyj]

I'm not surprised at all. I called this backflip weeks ago.

MS squeezed and squeezed or nipples just to see how much we would put up with and then they backpedal and all their sheep will flock to it now.

I'm still not getting an Xbox180, not cos of the hardware or even the services, but because of how MS treats us like idiots and we fall for it.

[Mainsqueeze]

Bathyj, but nobody was falling for it...thats why they retracted.

[PirateThom]

@mainsqeeze

You see where he's coming from though, right?

Microsoft, even after changing the policies, are still the same company who thought it was acceptable to impliment them in the first place. It's still their end game.

[pompombrum]

"I think that's one of the reasons, the other being all the bad PR by not just consumers and gamers, but everyone."

Ding ding ding.. we have a winner. Hardcore gamers getting mad didn't bother them but gaining so much hate they're getting poked fun of by mainstream television raised alarm bells seeing how it's the coach potatos that they are targeting. I believe one Microsoft employee even went as far as saying that they expected this reaction from the internet based gamers and that their opinion will differ from the less informed.

Either way, the hate got so bad that it would be impossible to spin a successful marketing campaign around. Every single time they done an interview they'd either demand the interviewer doesn't ask specific questions regarding the controversy or end up looking foolish and be quoted all over the internet constantly. Either way, they backed themselves into a corner no company wants to be in.

[Mainsqueeze]

Yeah i do but idk if its for me to say whether or not microsoft was some evil corporation that wanted to control everything or if they truly believed always online and always connected was the way of a better future.

[Mainsqueeze]

Yeah i do but idk if its for me to say whether or not microsoft was some evil corporation that wanted to control everything or if they truly believed always online and always connected is the way of a better future.

[CynthiaRose]

So guess Steam is killing gaming then? Seems legit.

[Whitefox789]

I can play installed Steam games offline :D

[Garbanjo001]

I'm so happy about this. Not that I was getting an xbox anyway, it's just that people are more powerful than we think. Fantastic day for gamers. Sony had nothing to do with it, the consumer spoke out and got what they wanted.

[JoGam]

Exactly..... Consumers killed the so called gaming giant not the internet. They knew what they wanted and this so called gaming giant didn't deliver.

[Bigpappy]

This is not good for me. It is worst for M$. People are going to be more confused, as there were many who were looking forward to sharing and trading digital content.

The majority of those screaming about this are not going to buy an Xbox any way. All they succeeded at doing, is to quite the media. If that was they goal, then this helps. But I think they will end up turning more people off.

[Virtual_Reality]

Don't you think a system called a Gaming star should be favored and praised by most of the consumers?

[NihonjinChick]

"obviously due to the loud minority of internet"

Yes, the majority of consumers actually wanted this and Microsoft ignored them to cater to the 1 or 2 people that didn't want this./ s

[Tyre]

@gamerchick sorry

[Brucis]

/s stands for sarcasm.

[rainslacker]

If MS had concrete focus testing showing they could sell the system to the mainstream consumer with minimal backlash, the "vocal minority" of the internet gamers cries would have continued to fall on deaf ears.

When MS realized their message wasn't resonating with gamers, who they obviously know are going to be the first to buy this system, and then that "vocal minority's" cries started hitting the mainstream media with the same effect, MS saw it's efforts to sell their product being threatened.

So it may have been the "vocal minority" that were speaking out, but it became apparent that much of the silent majority felt the same way, possibly without even understanding why. People don't like change for the sake of change. Change has to benefit them in a positive way. There was not much positive about the changes MS was bringing.

[coolasj]

It's sad to see the only cool thing that could come out of this go away, the Family Sharing thing. But, that wouldn't have worked anyway. Why? Because it's already been done. The PS3 had a 5 system activation limit a long time ago. This led to "Game Sharing" and what happened was people would join multiple groups of people and take turns paying for games, giving all 4 other people the opportunity to play them without paying a dime. I did this, and it led to me playing almost literally every single game that came out on PSN for only about $50, this was before extremely expensive disc games were downloadable. Sony then picked up on this habit and cut the limit down to a measly 2. Enough for you and that extra PS3 you had in the house. The game sharing system did nothing but cut into game sales.

[CynthiaRose]

True, but I assume that MS would have been taking notes during that if they were going to do it themselves.

[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..Little too late MS , as a 360 owner ive already pre order PS4 .

[Tyre]

@manny1up Yep me too. Well Said. We know what they wanted. They can change it back in a flip of a switch after they have an install base.They still loose the games buying customers (the biggest part of the install base)...yes the socalled 'minority' buy most of the games. Microsoft knows this.

[manny1up]

@Tyre...completely agree bro .

[AceBlazer13]

loud minority? yh cause u know microsoft is going to change all their policies because a "minority" didn't like it they're that fucing noble right? they care about their fanbase that much oh right they don't they saw no one liked the crap they were pushing and after realizing it a bit late they finally laced the fuck up.now hopefully they can get a bit of momentum here and give sony some good competition i wouldn't want them getting to lax and fucing up my ps4 like ms did the x1

[andrewer]

You guys got the reference at least?
http://www.youtube.com/watc...
good song, bad article

[asiatico]

Are people really going to say that those DRM policies were actually good? Always something to complain about.

[Goodfella78]

Well who would of guessed it m$ scoffing some humble pie so soon on,you see m$ life s hard enough for us gamers without greedy multi billionaire companys like you raping the average gamer,well to little to late m$ screw you and your attempted rape, you pieces of $hit should be ashamed of yourselves,power to the people and fu(k greedy companys like yourselves,if you give the xbone away for free i would still happily pay my £349 pound for the ps4 go away m$ we dont want or like you anymore......

[rainslacker]

So, if we take what the author has to say at face value, and then applying internet logic and extrapolate from the comments already being made:

Not only has MS lost all the customers that were turned off by the DRM and likely won't get them back, they have also now lost all the customers who were looking forward to it because of the few nice features you got because of the DRM.

Basically saying...MS isn't going to sell one single console.

[AustinG909]

They haven't lost me.

[rainslacker]

I'm sure there are many more like you as well. It's more the tone of the article. Saying how MS is now pissing off the people that liked the new features that a connected console brought. I just exaggerated the context.