100°

Microsoft Wins 'Most Ethical' Award--Google, Facebook, Apple Don't Make The List

Ethisphere has rated Microsoft among the most ethical companies in the world, a distinction not granted to tech giants Apple, Facebook or even "don't be evil" Google.

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huffingtonpost.com
Agent-864781d ago (Edited 4781d ago )

Wow, thanks for the laugh. Oh, the irony of it all. MS is among the "Most Ethical" while Google and Apple are not. One of the primary reasons I won't ever buy a 360 is because of MS's reputation of unethical behavior and anti-competitive business practices. Guess they just decided to buy themselves a new reputation: MS "has since donated millions to non-profits, invested in programs for economic development, and tightened up its internal reporting processes. All of this was apparently enough to get the company on the list this year," writes Business Insider. Presto, chango. All of those previous years no longer matter....we're a respectable company now. LOL.

StanLee4780d ago

You mistake better business practices with ethics. Name some of the unethical thinks Microsoft has done?

Agent-864780d ago

Anti-trust violations to start. Or is that ethical to leverage your monopoly to screw customers.

zootang4780d ago (Edited 4780d ago )

@stanlee

Trying to advertise themselves, using the tsunami in Japan.

radphil4780d ago (Edited 4780d ago )

@StanLee
The abuse of advertising their search engine in times of the Earthquake/Tsunami incident.

And i know this doesn't follow under ethics entirely, but:

Willingly sold products with known knowledge of faulty parts within it.

zootang4780d ago

See the 360 fan disagree defence. Just goes to show they are not in touch with their own company or like to lie.

KingME4780d ago (Edited 4780d ago )

Haha, looks like somebody's pissed that Mother Sony didn't make the list. I guess it's hard to put someone on the list that's in court 10 months out of the year on every continent...lol

Perhaps they looked at things like knowingly selling batteries that's more powerful than dynamite, claiming technology is outdated or "lastgen" because they were in court fighting the people they were trying to steal tech from. Or maybe calling the wiimote a toy to try and weaken wii sells, only to duplicated it at a later day and try to call their wiimote more innovative.

I don't think I need to go on, the fangirls will have my ass for that I have said to this point already...lol

radphil4780d ago

@KingME

How is anything what you said falls under ethics?

ArmrdChaos4780d ago (Edited 4780d ago )

Would ROOTKITS fall under ethics? Or how about stealing GNU code and using it as your own.

gamingdroid4780d ago (Edited 4780d ago )

The biggest insult I have ever received from any company came from one company twice!

a) The installation of rootkit on my computer from buying a music cd. The company never provided a proper un-install, just a work around. Furthermore, they used open source software without properly following the license.

b) Essentially being forced to choose the removal of OtherOS or lose the ability to play new games. It might not be illegal, but it SHOULD!

c) This is still in progress, but who knows I might find myself unable to install whatever software I want on my hardware in the near future.

There are plenty of things MS has done wrong, for starters I don't get why their MS Office suite is so expensive and their OS is overpriced (although I like them).

However, in all cases there was a choice in the matter and things were up front. When it went wrong, MS gave me 3-year warranty on my console.

The anti-trust is ridiculous considering I can download any piece of software I want. Why is including a browser for free an issue? I take issue with being forced to pay (remember Netscape/Opera used to charge for their browser), so I see no issue at all. Firefox and Chrome seem to have no problem competing with IE despite being installed on every Windows computer.

With that said, I wouldn't want to be the small guy vs MS. There is essentially no way you can win competing.

radphil4780d ago

@ArmrdChaos

Rookits? no. Stealing code? Possibly.

Kakkoii4780d ago

Apple has had plenty more anti-trust lawsuits against it than Microsoft has. And Bill Gates, who founded Microsoft and ran it up until recently, started and run the world biggest charity, The Bill & Melinda Gates foundation. Bill has become a very big philanthropist.

And of course past actions don't matter, this list is for how companies acted in the past few years, not in all their years.

+ Show (7) more repliesLast reply 4780d ago
STK0264780d ago

Please tell me why Apple should win an ethic related award when you consider all the negative news and rumors regarding Foxconn.

lastdual4780d ago

They're certainly more ethical than Google - scraping content from other providers and monetizing it for their verticals with no reimbursement to the content creators, while tanking them in the search results if they object, etc.

Google left behind "don't be evil" years ago. They're by far the biggest offender in the tech space. They know it, and they don't care, because any lawsuit will be tied up in court for so long that they will already have made billions and moved on to the next thing. Litigation is always slower than technology.

gamingdroid4780d ago

Google is a wolf in sheep skin!

I love their stuff, but man the privacy issue surrounding Google is scary.

I don't trust any company, except for maybe Costco. They have a rule stating they can only have percent amount of profit margin on a product. That is why some stuff you find exceedingly cheap at Costco compared to other places. Best return policy on the planet helps too!

FailOverHero4781d ago

"Microsoft started to make a big 'corporate citizenship' push in the early 2000s following the negative fallout from its antitrust trials, and has since donated millions to non- profits, invested in programs for economic development, and tightened up its internal reporting processes. All of this was apparently enough to get the company on the list this year," writes Business Insider. Oh no, microsoft have changed their ways and done a complete 180 and for some CRAZY reason they've been awarded an ethical company award. What has the world come to when a company can change its spots and years later is no longer penalised for 10 year old mistakes?? Yep, thats how retarded you sound. You really hate microsoft so much that you want them to pay forever??

Agent-864780d ago (Edited 4780d ago )

I don't like MS enough to support the company and, as a consumer, it is my right to support the companies I see fit. I don't reward companies that I don't respect. This is not an insult to the 360 or 360 users. I just don't like MS as a company and choose not to support them whenever possible.

4780d ago
ArmrdChaos4780d ago (Edited 4780d ago )

How about those ROOTKITS that BMG/SONY snuck into their music CD's without the buyer's knowledge? It compromised many PC's and they never provided removal...only a work around. On top of that the code that they used was GNU domain and never properly licensed. So basically the Sony montra was it is ok to steal from others just don't steal from me. To me it seems pretty hypocritical to support other companies that have done equally terrible things. They are ALL guilty from time to time.

Kakkoii4780d ago

Right.. Cause Apple's never been in any anti-trust lawsuits...

lol.

theonlylolking4780d ago

I am in shock. They probably won most ethical because they gave them money.

aviator1894780d ago

I'm sorry to say this, but you're completely delusional.

theonlylolking4780d ago

" They probably won most ethical because they gave them money."

I did not mean that part but I am in shock.

ChronoJoe4780d ago (Edited 4780d ago )

How do you make the most ethical list when you don't even let people remove there credit card from their accounts without having to go through all the trouble of phoning up to cancel it.

That's regarding XBLA... ridiculous scam they have going on there. Just because they invest in 'programs for economical development' for instance, doesn't mean it's okay to intentionally screw over consumers elsewhere.

PS360PCROCKS4780d ago

Haha yeah I know, that's why I have an old account with TCF Bank and I never use it, don't even put a cent in there. I pay for XBL with my card, than change to my old unused card and they can't charge it, it get's denied, lol. still crap though

Agent-864780d ago

XBL is a complete scam. MS made $1.2 billion off of XBL last year and it was split about 50/50 between subscriptions and XBLA games, DLC, etc. The profit margin on XBL gold subscriptions was 85%. That means $42 of every $50 360 users send every year goes straight to MS's pockets. And what does this "ethical" company do? They raise the price by $10, so they can suck up even more of their money.

MS knows they have their customers right where they want them....captive. It costs too much money and is too much of a hassle to switch consoles, so they know they can milk their customers for all they're worth. Fine example of an "ethical" company.

kaveti66164780d ago

So true.

I had to wait on the phone for a long time before I was connected to a woman, who instead of removing my credit card from the system like I wanted tried to convince me to buy another subscription.

I know she's just doing her job and following protocol, but some douchebag must have come up with that protocol, and they're the ones making MS an unethical type company.

They make plenty of money.

And yes, ethics is a subjective branch like most other philosophies, but how many people shrug their shoulders and say, "Business is business."

I remember taking a Business Ethics class last semester and almost all of the people in the lecture auditorium were business majors (they raised their hands when the professor asked, that's how I know).

And none of them took the class seriously. They thought ethics was a joke.

And they might the be the next generation of business owners in America, so that pretty much indicates the worst.

gamingdroid4780d ago (Edited 4780d ago )

Most likely because:

a) it is a joke!

b) ethics is something you learn at home and is a set of beliefs. Not something a class can teach you to adhere to.

c) etchis also varies by culture and what is acceptable in each specific society.

Personally, I never took the ethics (or religion) class seriously. That didn't make a me unethical.

Ironically and co-incidentally, Fedex tried to deliver a laptop I didn't order at my home this morning. I promptly denied it!

I didn't order it, and it didn't have my name on it.

kaveti66164780d ago

1) I didn't describe in detail what the nature of this business ethics class was, and every assumption of yours that followed was wrong.

2) Most businesses try to maintain a universal set of ethical values that transcend culture.

And some don't. For example, in Saudia Arabia, women are treated quite poorly and there exists gender apartheid under Sharia law. This means that women cannot enter an establishment without being escorted by their husbands and cannot leave their homes without their husbands because they will be punished.

McDonald's in Saudi Arabia follows Sharia law by having separate tables set up for men and women. Women are not allowed to enter McDonald's without their husbands.

This is a point of debate among business ethics philosophers.

You don't know shit about ethics, gamingdroid if you think it's a joke. All around you, society is governed by a set of laws, ideas, beliefs, tenets, etc.

Ethics is not something you just learn at home. Ethics is a set of values that a person can acquire from experience and education and it can shape their behavior.

Unethical people are able to live in this society because they operate on a level of selfishness.

I believe that the reason you denied ordering that laptop is because you believed if you lied then you would eventually be caught and prosecuted, especially because if FedEx made a note of where the package was delivered, the follow-up investigation would lead back to you and no laptop is worth the legal fees that would be leveed against you.

You promptly denied ordering that laptop because your ethics are very simple: if you can get away with it, do it, and if you cannot get away with it, then don't do it.

That's a pretty bare-boned, pathetic excuse for ethics.

ChronoJoe4780d ago

"You promptly denied ordering that laptop because your ethics are very simple: if you can get away with it, do it, and if you cannot get away with it, then don't do it. "

He could have gotten away with it. Put some random signature on it, no relation back to who signed for the package. You won't see any legal action over a miss-delivery, it's not worth while for the delivery service to do so.

Me? i'd have probably taken the laptop. The owner would have gotten a replacement when it didn't arrive, fedex should try delivered to the right person next time.

Unless of course the package was addressed to someone else rather than me. I mean I'd only take it if it was mistakingly addressed to me. I always forward parcels that are sent to wrong person to them if I have there address to do so, but I wouldn't return it back to fedex. Somehow these miss-mails happen more often than you'd think too.

Just to note, rest of your looong posts, I didn't read ^^; just caught that part.

gamingdroid4780d ago (Edited 4780d ago )

You can make all the assumption you want about the laptop, but rest assured if I wanted it, i would likely be able to keep it. The legal cost the seller would incur far exceeds the laptop value, but I'm sure you knew that...

"Ethics is not something you just learn at home. Ethics is a set of values that a person can acquire from experience and education and it can shape their behavior."

Exactly! Which means you can't just teach somebody to act ethically in school. They either do it, or they don't and it is part of their upbringing of what they consider right or wrong. Their "education" starts at home. Society can try to impose them with laws, but human nature or should I say selfishness always prevail.

Ethics really is no different than culture.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 4780d ago
dinkeldinkse4780d ago

But if Microsoft does then good for the company.

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280°

Xbox's Preservation Step Sets A Much-Needed Example, Especially For Nintendo

Hanzla from eXputer inquires: "If Xbox can care about preserving its games and legacy, what exactly is wrong with Nintendo, trying to kill game preservation single-handedly?"

purple1015d ago

Ahh yes the good old game preservation of saving all your games to a removable hhd on the Xbox 360, taking it round your mates house, setting up multiple tvs to
Be met with “save data corrupted, please re download”

Or how about removing 360 games
From the store
, download them now or else, and, better hope to god that save data doesn’t corrupt, or it’s lost for ever

Nice one ☝️

Zeref4d ago

It's better than what Nintendo and Playstation is doing. It might not be perfect but at least they are TRYING. Unlike the others.

DarXyde4d ago

Trying? Take off the blinders for a moment, mate.

1. A failure to preserve games is just that: a failure to preserve games. Don't try to sugarcoat it: NO ONE is doing it properly. Better than awful is nothing to write home about.

2. At the time of this comment, isn't it the case that you need an internet connection to play Xbox games even if you buy physical discs that are hardly in circulation anymore? I don't have a Series X and I can't verify, but I think that is correct. I'm fairly certain you can at least play PS5 games at version 1.0 (not much of a win really when many games require day one patches). I think Microsoft's all digital, licensing approach is by far more aggressive than anyone else's. They really try to push you to game pass where you lose your entire library by umm.... Skipping a month of payments.

I don't think anyone is doing it right whatsoever. Don't get me started on Nintendo, who goes after anyone looking to preserve their games better than they ever would with extreme litigation.

Don't be a simp for any of these companies. Get it together.

PhillyDonJawn4d ago (Edited 4d ago )

@DarX never speak on Xbox again. You lost all credibility with your internet connection comment. Smh you have 0 clue and misinformed yet speaking on something you don't no squat about.

Einhander19724d ago

What has Sony done exactly? You guys keep deflecting to Sony but I am not actually seeing any results, and ai am certain nothing that you can come up with even comes close to what Microsoft has done and what they have tried and failed to do, like tie all your disks to your account on xbone.

Microsoft removed their whole indie section when they moved to the xbone because they were going to only allow games on the service that came from a publisher, id@xbox started after xbone launched and it only exists because Sony embraced indie and Microsoft was forced to cancel their plans and reverse course.

And every single game that was part of games for windows live including disk games (I have gta 4 on disk that won't work) so hundreds of games that use that DRM no longer work unless the company themselves patched it out which of course very few did.

MrBaskerville4d ago

Not trying. Tried. they killed of the backcomp program years ago. They set something up again, but sounds like it's more of an attempt to save the current library on whatever they are planning next. With luck they save everything and more, but let's see. I could see them killing off parts of the OG xbox and 360 libraries. Can't imagine that they would allow us to play Forza 5-7 in the future.

With that said, I do like what they've done and really wish they could have done more.

shinoff21834d ago

Zeref

So killing off physical media is trying what exactly. Ms don't really give a fk if you think they do your kidding yourself.

Profchaos4d ago

They are not trying this team is established for forward compatability the team is. It interested in preserving Xbox or 360 games.

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 4d ago
isarai5d ago

Is that why Hellblade 2 is digital only?

Zeref4d ago

Just because it's digital only doesn't mean you can't preserve it. Just put it on an external and you have the exact same functionality of what a disc does.

MrNinosan4d ago

Guess you're trolling, but if you actually think that's how it works, I'd recommend buying some braincells.

mkis0073d ago (Edited 3d ago )

Volitile vs nonvolitile data. A disc will not corrupt either. A drive can be corrupted.

Einhander19725d ago

This is just a scammy PR move to distract from the fact they are going digital only and trying to push streaming and subscriptions only.

No gaming company has pushed harder to remove ownership than Microsoft.

Without discs there is no preservation, preservation can't be done by the rights holders it can only be done by the consumers, anything else is a lie.

5d ago Replies(3)
Einhander19725d ago

Anyone remember xblig which Microsoft removed their whole 360 indie section removing hundreds of games from people?

5d ago
5d ago
Zeref4d ago

Do you know you can put your games on an external and preserve them that way? There are no benefits to discs. ZERO. Idk why some of you are still obsessed with them.

DarXyde4d ago

Because games like Persona 5 exist. It's STILL V1.00. On Playstation, that's a win because 1.00 is installed on the disc—no need to download anything.

If a game does not require any updates, it's all on the disc.

Extremely low bar in the modern era, of course. It's not much of a win by any stretch.

But for now, physical media does have a purpose, at least on Playstation.

Einhander19724d ago

That is factually not how game licensing works, try plugging your hard drive into someone else xbox, It's not going to work, and it won't work if the licensing servers ever go down.

Einhander19724d ago

Anyone remember games for windows live.

I have around a dozen games, some on Steam itself that will not work because Microsoft shut off the licensing servers.

BehindTheRows4d ago (Edited 4d ago )

I do. I STILL have games (Gears of War being the big one) I cannot access because Games for Windows LIVE is total garbage and no one has held Microsoft accountable.

Zeref4d ago (Edited 4d ago )

You don't have an Xbox apparently. Because you can 100 percent plug in your external and play games from it on any Xbox console lol. You just have to be logged in to prove ownership.

Chevalier4d ago

"You don't have an Xbox apparently. Because you can 100 percent plug in your external and play games from it on any Xbox console lol. You just have to be logged in to prove ownership."

Damn how many times do people got to explain your idiocy to you? You can take a copy of Persona 5 like someone used as an example and play that game on ANY console WITHOUT logging in which means I can lend the game to a friend without internet and they can play my game. Can you lend your hard drive to anyone without logging in for them to play? NOPE. That is a huge difference and if you think otherwise then sorry you're an idiot.

Tacoboto4d ago

"No gaming company has pushed harder to remove ownership than Microsoft."

Ubisoft is literally erasing games people bought from their libraries... My PS1-3 discs are useless on modern hardware. Nintendo's re-published and resold almost their entire Wii U library, and the eShop is completely dead with no BC mechanism in the Switch software. Microsoft publishes everything they make today day one on Steam and Xbox/Windows. Sony only brings to PC the titles they think you might want some years later and Nintendo won't even design a functional long-lasting joystick.

You're absolutely trolling and not serious if you think Microsoft today is the worst offender.

shinoff21834d ago

Yay steam

Not everyone fks with computers though. The disc is still the best way as a console player. Period.

Tacoboto4d ago

How do Sony and Nintendo feel about these discs from 2001-2013?

Don't be stupid, you know Xbox is the best at this today.

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 4d ago
Hofstaderman4d ago

Nobody wants this. Sales or the lack of it in the case of XBOX is very telling. I wonder how the adorably all digital series X will fare. Adorably dismal perhaps?

crazyCoconuts4d ago

Only time will tell, but for from someone like me suspecting that Xbox is trying to gracefully exit the console market, that "forward compatibility" team is trying to get Xbox games playing on Windows PCs. I mean, it's nice that they're not planning on exiting with a "enjoy your games while the hardware still works" message, so that's nice. They still have a brand to protect via Microsoft so probably feel obligated to have a better exit strategy.

Xeofate4d ago (Edited 4d ago )

That is not their plan, their plan is to transfer users accounts to the cloud.

Phil Spencer himself said as much a few months back, plans could have changed but I think people are reading way too much into one statement where Phil said he would allow Epic on xbox because he wants to be able to sell xbox games directly on other platforms. Aka, instead of selling Sea of Thives through PSN he wants to have an xbox store to sell his games on PlayStation without giving PlayStation any money.

Again, it's extremely unlikely that Phil plans to put PC on xbox and licensing would prevent them from just giving out other publishers games purchased on xbox copies of thier games on PC, Microsoft does not own their games.

crazyCoconuts3d ago

The thing that doesn't align with the cloud strategy is the giving up on exclusives. You'd still need strong exclusives for cloud streaming - it's still a "platform" , just with a lower upfront hardware investment. I feel like they've learned what PS learned with PSNow long ago. We're not ready to stream games and it's only gonna lose them money to try at this point

FinalFantasyFanatic4d ago

I would love that, I'd buy up some of the Xbox games if they could run on PC, like the Rare Replay, Lost Odyssey and Dead or Alive Ultimate, probably a pipe dream though.

Show all comments (43)
150°

Apple officially allows retro game emulators on the App Store

Retro gaming console emulator apps are now welcome on the Apple App Store and can even offer downloadable games.

Read Full Story >>
engadget.com
-Foxtrot12d ago

Nintendo is probably preparing their battle stations as we speak.

purple10112d ago (Edited 12d ago )

Yep most probably
Definitely infact

It’s just since apple got official dualsense support a while ago, (ios 14.5, it was 2 years ago now) I thought it useful to post here

fsfsxii11d ago

Lmao imagine thinking nintendo has a chance against Apple

Profchaos11d ago

The beaten quite a few prolific companies the past like universal so it's not unwinable

H912d ago

Nintendo be like: we were supposed to bully them together

120°

10 Weirdest Game Consoles of All Time

From systems that could keep your beer cool, to oddities trying to get in on the popularity of VHS and laserdisc, you’ve got some very, very weird video game consoles out there.

Read Full Story >>
culturedvultures.com
darthv7214d ago

I had the LaserActive... it was a nice collectors piece but not very practical. Especially when it came to needing recapping. I think i paid all of about $50 for the floor model from an incredible Universe back in the day. I ended up selling it many years later for $300 at the time due to it needing a new laser and the aforementioned recapping.

An honorable mention not on the list would be the VM Labs Nuon. It basically looked like any regular DVD player but it had ports on it for controllers to play specific games. one of which is still exclusive to it with Tempest 3000. It also offered nuon enhanced DVD movies with extra content not accessible by regular players.

_Decadent_Descent14d ago

Wasn't there some KFC console, or am I mistaken?

CoNn3rB13d ago

It was announced but it never actually came out as far as I know