Xbox One

[Osorio]

I have to say I'm disappointed that they didn't follow through with the original, awful, plan. I would have sincerely liked to know how much it would ACTUALLY impact sales and everything else. I'm surprised as a whole that they backed down at all. Microsoft seems the kind of company that would go down in flames saying they were right and everybody else was just backwards (because that's basically what they actually did).

On the other hand, I'm immensely happy that the costumer has, for once, prevailed; and we managed to avoid this disaster from happening. Good on us all.

 

[Randyrhoads123]

Seriously, if anyone believes that either Sony or MS care about anything other than $$$, they're deluded. They didn't get to be the multi-billion dollar companies they are by swaying to every customer complaint. They got there because they're smart, and they know what people will buy. MS would've probably sold around the same amount of Xbox Ones even without the reversal of their DRM, but they knew all the enraged gamers of reddit and neogaf might be a possible threat to their image and advertising, which they were when stories leaked into the mainstream news, so they appeased the internet rage machine by changing something that really wasn't that big of a deal in the first place.

Neither company is a savior of gaming, they're just doing what they think is best for business. They're the same, Sony has gamers in the palm of their hand now, so I'm sure they'll be happy with sales. MS still has some catching up to do with their damn advertising dept. What a mess this has been for them.

edit: The one thing that sucks now, is that it does not appear that family sharing will be available anymore. Sharing digital games to 10 of your friends seemed pretty sweet and now that feature is out. Hope other convenient things aren't thrown out the window because of this.

 

[Mordacain]

I have to say I'm disappointed that they didn't follow through with the original, awful, plan. I would have sincerely liked to know how much it would ACTUALLY impact sales and everything else. I'm surprised as a whole that they backed down at all. Microsoft seems the kind of company that would go down in flames saying they were right and everybody else was just backwards (because that's basically what they actually did).

On the other hand, I'm immensely happy that the costumer has, for once, prevailed; and we managed to avoid this disaster from happening. Good on us all.

I'm glad they didn't. I like having competition in the game arena. I don't really prefer either company, but close competition necessitates a better environment for the consumer. This means better 1st party titles, competitive pricing and actively courting 3rd party support.

If MS had continued with their original scheme, Sony would likely have dominated and depending on their losses, MS might well have pulled out of the hardware market altogether. That would leave Sony unopposed and with a monopoly. Then they could charge whatever they want and come up with whatever restrictions against the consumer they wanted.

And no, I don't consider Nintendo to be real competition for Sony / Microsoft, they cater to a completely different market by and large and just don't care about 3rd party publishers one way or the other.

 

[flint757]

edit: The one thing that sucks now, is that it does not appear that family sharing will be available anymore. Sharing digital games to 10 of your friends seemed pretty sweet and now that feature is out. Hope other convenient things aren't thrown out the window because of this.

That does indeed suck, BUT wasn't it setup so only one person could play at a time anyhow? It's less convenient, but it is hardly a huge deal. Then again I don't game with or have family states away or anything like that either. It could have been really annoying though.

They pretty much said a lot of fairly cool features are out the window.

They didn't need to kill it completely. They could have just added an offline mode, but the pressure was on so they had to make a grand gesture.

 

[Bekanor]

I'm of a mind that they planned to do this from day one. Get everyone nice and angry with the announcement of horrible DRM, then recant on said restrictions and watch the collective wave of relief turns into sales.

There's no way they didn't know that people would react so unfavourably to their proposed architecture. The way this stuff was delivered and the awful way in which consumer concerns were handled (especially the thing with basically telling servicemen and everyone else without an internet connection to go screw themselves) is way too hard lined an approach to take, even for Microsoft.

Nothing charms people more than a redemption story. A greedy corporate giant held to bear by end users, sees the error of its ways and makes things right. People eat that shit up.

 

[Captain Butterscotch]

I'm of a mind that they planned to do this from day one. Get everyone nice and angry with the announcement of horrible DRM, then recant on said restrictions and watch the collective wave of relief turns into sales.

There's no way they didn't know that people would react so unfavourably to their proposed architecture. The way this stuff was delivered and the awful way in which consumer concerns were handled (especially the thing with basically telling servicemen and everyone else without an internet connection to go screw themselves) is way too hard lined an approach to take, even for Microsoft.

Nothing charms people more than a redemption story. A greedy corporate giant held to bear by end users, sees the error of its ways and makes things right. People eat that shit up.

I don't agree purely because of the beating their rep and name has taken.

 

[Mordacain]

I'm of a mind that they planned to do this from day one. Get everyone nice and angry with the announcement of horrible DRM, then recant on said restrictions and watch the collective wave of relief turns into sales.

There's no way they didn't know that people would react so unfavourably to their proposed architecture. The way this stuff was delivered and the awful way in which consumer concerns were handled (especially the thing with basically telling servicemen and everyone else without an internet connection to go screw themselves) is way too hard lined an approach to take, even for Microsoft.

Nothing charms people more than a redemption story. A greedy corporate giant held to bear by end users, sees the error of its ways and makes things right. People eat that shit up.

I don't think gamers eat that shit up. Do your average crowd of asshole teen/tweens screaming homophobic / sexist slurs into the mic on X-Box Live strike you as the forgiving types?

I don't agree purely because of the beating their rep and name has taken.

Yea, I have to agree with this. I can't think it was an intentional move. They took a calculated risk and I honestly don't think they thought the backlash would be so vehement.

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

I'm of a mind that they planned to do this from day one. Get everyone nice and angry with the announcement of horrible DRM, then recant on said restrictions and watch the collective wave of relief turns into sales.

Or... They could have not done this shit in the first place, make the Kinect optional, and actually HAVE a bigger chance.

This is the case of a company trying to change the way console game sales work and hoping that other companies follow suit, only to have it backfire in their face. If anything, this makes them look desperate, with all the flouting they did with their DRM in the passed week.

They're in a better situation now, but their image is bruised a good bit. Would be interesting to see if they can fix it up until the release date. I'm pretty sure this won't delay the launch, since it's only a patch.

 

[Mordacain]

Or... They could have not done this shit in the first place, make the Kinect optional, and actually HAVE a bigger chance.

This is the case of a company trying to change the way console game sales work and hoping that other companies follow suit, only to have it backfire in their face. If anything, this makes them look desperate, with all the flouting they did with their DRM in the passed week.

They're in a better situation now, but their image is bruised a good bit. Would be interesting to see if they can fix it up until the release date. I'm pretty sure this won't delay the launch, since it's only a patch.

I'm interested to see what they do to try and repair their image. I know Microsoft is used to being everyone's punching bag to an extent with Windows but I think they fell under the 3rd console curse and started thinking everyone loved them and they could do no wrong (like Sega, Nintendo & Sony before them).

/Edit - I think if they work on making Xbox-Live comparable with PS+ in terms of the Instant Game Collection and offering a different system tier without a bundled Kinect, then they'll be in good shape.

They still can't do anything to halt the early momentum Sony has gained though. The train is rolling hot.

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

First half is him trying to be funny and vulgar. About five minutes in, he makes some good points. I'm REALLY hoping Microsoft isn't greedy enough to do this.

 

[Bekanor]

I don't think gamers eat that shit up. Do your average crowd of asshole teen/tweens screaming homophobic / sexist slurs into the mic on X-Box Live strike you as the forgiving types?

Forgiving? No.

Narcissistic enough to be completely swayed by the notion that their outcry brought a world leading corporation into line? Yes.

I'm probably projecting all over this but it just feels like there's something sneaky going on. All the contradicting info about the DRM coming out of various Microsoft people after the initial announcements, the incredibly quick 180 on this after touting how much of the system is based around things being this way. It just doesn't add up to something as simple as "Microsoft are dumb" for me, they've been in the business for too long to not be able to expect how people respond to this sort of thing, nor do I believe for a second that they're that out of touch with the market. No I still think it's a bit fishy.

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

It just doesn't add up to something as simple as "Microsoft are dumb"

I don't think this is the case, but that there was just a lot of confusion because of poor PR. No one could give a clear answer about what was going on, while Sony was pretty clear about it.

This, or they plan to remove it at launch and eventually re-patch it in. Who knows?

 

[flint757]

They were banking on the industry seeing the green and following suit. It was a 50/50 shot that Sony might follow suit. Instead they didn't and they couldn't immediately undo it. That being said, they did it much sooner than I expected. Not necessarily dumb, just a gamble.

 

[Captain Butterscotch]

This, or they plan to remove it at launch and eventually re-patch it in. Who knows?

The more I think about it, the more likely this scenario is.

In a few months/years, they reintroduce the same concepts but with different language and in a much better light. Gamers slowly come into the circle.

I honestly think that this sort of complete architectural revamp is something that should have been done slowly over the course of this generation's cycle. Instead of saying, "Over the next few years, we plan to implement these really cool features..." they said "This is how it is now. If you don't like it then you can just sit in the corner and play with your old toy."

 

[Mordacain]

I don't think this is the case, but that there was just a lot of confusion because of poor PR. No one could give a clear answer about what was going on, while Sony was pretty clear about it.

This, or they plan to remove it at launch and eventually re-patch it in. Who knows?

Well, any system has the capability for it. However, the publishers would have to manufacture their discs with specific codes already on each individual disc, keep track of the codes and then report them to MS so they could later add DRM after the fact. If you're talking about existing titles that is.

Any company, Sony or Nintendo included, could always patch their system firmware to work with whatever DRM system is devised on media going forward. So that's a worry with any company.

I honestly think Sony was on the fence about whether to include DRM or not, especially given their lack of comment on that aspect. E3 was the first time they revealed their intent and they could have made that decision at any point up to the announcement. They just let MS lead, gave them enough rope to hang themselves and then turn around and come out the hero.

 

[Bekanor]

I don't think this is the case, but that there was just a lot of confusion because of poor PR. No one could give a clear answer about what was going on, while Sony was pretty clear about it.

This, or they plan to remove it at launch and eventually re-patch it in. Who knows?

Well it seems to be the biggest companies that are the worst at PR. Still there's a few things swimming around in my head that are feeding this conspiracy theory of mine. If you don't mind the stream of consciousness, here are just a few.

PS4 and XBone running on incredibly similar hardware architecture, no striking differentiation in feature set. Controversy seems easier mechanism to spotlight product than pushing comparisons.

Culture shift in younger generation sees "social media iconoclast" becoming a regular past time for a wide section of the target market. Risk/reward strategy in goading this segment and then placating it.

Public image VS consumer apathy. If MS had simply not implemented the proposed DRM from the outset, it would have simply been ignored, being status quo. However going this way they provoke active discussion of the topic, removing DRM shows consideration of consumer concerns, the very thing everyone was accusing MS of being bereft of only a week ago.


I'm sure the various MS stakeholders wouldn't allow this sort of overly complex, hyper risky strategy to be put in place but it's fun to think about.

 

[Captain Butterscotch]

I honestly think Sony was on the fence about whether to include DRM or not, especially given their lack of comment on that aspect. E3 was the first time they revealed their intent and they could have made that decision at any point up to the announcement. They just let MS lead, gave them enough rope to hang themselves and then turn around and come out the hero.

I think that a big reason that Sony was keeping their information so close to the chest was because they saw the storm that was brewing over the Xbone DRM leaks and wanted to see how it played out. I truly believe that they were going to implement equally draconian DRM as the Xbone but seized the opportunity before them. Brilliantly, I might add. Their presentation, as far as the sharing of disks and whatnot, was fantastically done.

As against the DRM and 24 probation/check in as I am, I am sad to see that we can't just install the friggin game and be done with it so I can switch screens instantly. If I can do it on PC then why can't I just do it with the Xbox? That's silly.

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

Xbox One DRM policy changes waited on gamers knowing “complete story” | VG247

Finally, Whitten could not give any reassurance that Microsoft will not change its policies in the future.

 

[flint757]

I honestly think that this sort of complete architectural revamp is something that should have been done slowly over the course of this generation's cycle. Instead of saying, "Over the next few years, we plan to implement these really cool features..." they said "This is how it is now. If you don't like it then you can just sit in the corner and play with your old toy."

While I agree about a slower process being better, if I were against the idea all together I'd be pissed if I had spent $500 for system that was going to screw me down the road (from the perspective of someone who didn't want it all at least).

 

[Joose]

I don't think MS planned to do this, at all. They've taken a beating over the original plan.

I think that they thought they could come to E3, beat their chests and everyone would just give in because "fcuk Playstation".

Nope!

I was going to buy one anyway, but not because of true system preference; not this go around, both of these machines sound incredible. But, because of Forza Motorsport 5 and Halo 5. Mostly Forza. Yeah, MS, I was buying it because Forza is an Xbox exclusive. NOT because of loyalty.

Still somewhat irritated with them, but I'll get over it. Don't like Kinect; but Forza may allow for calling out your pit stops. I want that, in my life.