Jimquisition: Xbox One No DRM Emergency Special!

Yuuki

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thenumberthirteen said:
I HIGHLY doubt it was the former. Granted Microsoft marketers aren't infallible, but I refuse to believe they'd think the "New Coke" gambit would ever work. It never works. It's just an absurd plan making them look, at first, bad, and after the change, like indecisive idiots. They'll have seen the awful negative reactions from the gaming public, press, and probably investors, and then realised they had made a terrible error.
I read a very convincing argument from a friend on Facebook on why he thinks this was all part of the plan:

Markus Palm said:
This was planned, no doubt about it. No, that's not me being all "conspiracy theorist" - it's basic logic.

Take a company like Microsoft, a multi-billion dollar corporation. It's in their utmost interest to be at the top when it comes to the console race to acquire revenue. They spent years researching the market and their consumer base. These corporations don't make "mistakes", especially not in this magnitude (and if they do, they will do everything to silence the media). If they for whatever reason wanted to implement DRM, they wouldn't have announced that like a front-page thing - they would have been way more subtle about it explaining the pros before actually announcing their DRM plans.

I'm not saying I wasn't 'fooled', but in hindsight it's all very obvious. All this negativity will now create a contrast and make Microsoft and the Xbox One seem like a great choice. I wouldn't be surprised if we see a huge game-bundle for $599 or even a price-drop before launch to lure even more costumers to 'switch' or 'stay'.

I believe this strategy is for the mid-section, meaning gamers that will only really buy one console and never switch. The 'average' consumer. Any hardcore gamer will either go PC (realizing its benefits) or eventually acquire all 2 or 3 consoles.

In 1-2 months when the release is more imminent all that will be remembered is how Microsoft turned around and delivered exactly what gamers want - even though Sony did it first. (Not to mention, Microsoft has earned a lot of publicity from this. I know a few not-so-involved people who only really had a hunch that a PS4 was coming, although they could ramble the ins and outs of the Xbox One's policies.) I mean, just imagine all the viral videos, memes and posts that have flourished this past week - most of them have been entirely about the Xbox One.
What he's saying that it is essentially impossible for a company like Microsoft NOT to have noticed how most gamers (and the internet as a whole) loathed any form of DRM with a passion - so building the very thing they KNEW people loathed into the the next big console sounds like it was all done on purpose (in hindsight). As stated above, a multi-billion-dollar corporation that has access to endless statistics and keeps a watchful eye on the rest of the world doesn't simply make such an extremely obvious mistake of epic proportions. It makes no logical sense.
They have indeed gained a massive amount of publicity from it (watch the next few days) and some people are even convinced that Microsoft are the good guys now, they care for their consumers. The next week will be very interesting.

Most fucking aggravating thing of all is reading stuff like this around the internet: "Awesome! Now lets see what Sony have to offer".
Oh god, oh god...
 

MichaelPalin

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Oct 20, 2011
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(answering #54)

Not good enough. It seems Valve saw the backlash and are preparing themselves for the potential splash. However, they wont move unless forced, unless people ask them en masse. Journalists need to do their job and put the heat on Valve and EA now and we gamers should start talking about it on the internet so the idea spreads as far as possible. No Steamworks requirement for PC disc-based games, period!
 

Freyar

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May 9, 2008
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Yuuki said:
What he's saying that it is essentially impossible for a company like Microsoft NOT to have noticed how most gamers loathed any form of DRM with a passion - so building the very thing they KNEW gamers loathed into the the next big console sounds like it was all done on purpose (in hindsight). They have indeed gained a massive amount of publicity from it (watch the next few days) and some people are even convinced that Microsoft are the good guys now, they care for their consumers. The next week will be very interesting.
This simply isn't the case. The swiftness these policies were reversed with shows that there isn't really any regard for their core customers until it starts showing up on broadcast television. They are not the good guys here and this is sadly taken as vindication for the Xbox One fanboys as much as people who were legitimately concerned about their consumer rights.
 

BernardoOne

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PatrickXD said:
I'm really disappointed with the reversal of opinion. What made the Xbone interesting to me - the always online connectivity, family sharing and mandatory Kinect - has been somewhat put down. I was looking forward to what exactly 'cloud computing' can do, I was interested in more games adopting systems like Dark Souls and Demon's Souls. You know, integrating the single and multiplayer experience? Game developers can no longer guarantee that every user has access to the internet, which could have been an interesting point to develop from. Now, well, we'll never know.
And that's what hurts about this. What the Xbone was doing was unprecedented. Don't get me wrong, I know that doesn't mean good, inherently. It's just, and bear with me here, nobody has to buy the Xbox One. The PS4 was always an option, and a cheaper one at that. If you don't have an internet connection, you have the option of - no, not the xbox 360 - the PS4. It's there. It's a choice. A safe choice. It's not changing anything. The Xbone? Previously we didn't know if it would be a safe choice. We didn't know if it was what we wanted. It certainly wasn't a rich dark roast. And that's what we want, isn't it? We all want a rich dark roast. We all sing together that we know what we want and what we want is a rich dark roast.

The Xbone could have been a game changer. Microsoft has decided now to go where the money is, abandon it's backbone and chase after every ounce of hype and every last dollar. And now we will never know, at least not for another 8 years, if the Xbone's original system is in fact a great one.

For posterity, I wholly support being able to just, you know, give people discs.

EDIT: I just thought I'd point out something that really irks me about this whole Xbone situation, as I feel it represents the gaming industry and culture as a whole.
People complain, day in and day out, about the lack of change in games. The repetition of the exact same systems and stories from past generations of game. And yet, when Microsoft tried something new with a console, everyone cried 'What's wrong with the way things are? Can't everything just be the same? Everything is fine here, we don't need change!'.
Food for thought.
wut? Online games can be done without these restrictions. What you just said, made no sense at all.
 

SteewpidZombie

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TIS THE SEASON TO BE TROLLY TROLLOLOLOLO LO LO LO LO, MICROSOFT IS FULL OF SHIT TROLOLOLOLO LO LO LO LO, STILL NOT BUYING THEIR SHITTY CONSOLE TROLLOLOLOLOL LO LO LO LO


(Sorry, but REALLY? Microsoft is just looking like morons at this point. If they will so quickly back-pedal and change their entire stance on DRM after only like a week after having preeched non-stop about DRM policies, then I am very skeptical about them and how they will continue to treat customers in the future).
 

BrownGaijin

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Jan 31, 2009
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First Xbox one, then Xbone, then Xbox done, now the Xbox one 80, this console has had its name changed (by the fans) more than Puff Daddy... I mean P. Diddy, I mean Diddy, I mean Puffy, I mean, Puff, I mean Sean Combs!

I guess it now comes down to price for me...

...

...

(troll face)

OT: While I'm sure we'll never truly know where the pressure came from, though we can all make some very viable guesses, I glad to see that this happened.

Oh yeah so I guess some music is in order...

 

Irradiated Tiger

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Feb 8, 2010
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Hot damn, Jim, you work faster than greased lightning.

I feel like Microsoft's move might have been too little too late. As Jim said, people aren't going to forget this. Let's also not forget that the Kinect still has to be on to run the console and indies are still getting shafted by the new XBLA.
 

RJ 17

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Nov 27, 2011
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Now if they could only get rid of the mandatory Kinect, I might consider buying one of these.
 

drschplatt

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Aug 18, 2010
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I still am not sure how I feel about this. To me Microsoft assuming we'll be ok with this is like going on a date with Microsoft to a nice restaurant. About halfway through the meal, Microsoft stands up and asks us to bend over the table so they could ram us from behind. Horrified, we slap Microsoft in the face for getting fresh and leave the restaurant on the arm of the gentleman Sony instead. As we leave, Microsoft runs after us hat in hand begging our forgiveness for trying to hump us in the butt at the dinner table. Are we just now expected to tell Microsoft that its ok and then walk hand in hand back to the dinner table? Ok, they won't be trying to anally rape you at dinner any longer, this I suppose is a good thing, but what's going to stop them once you get in the car afterwords?

Trust is earned and in my mind, Microsoft took all the trust they had and chucked it out the window.
 

deckpunk

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Mikeyfell said:
Now... what about that Kinnect...
My thoughts exactly! Get rid of that dumb device, but the way microsoft have been talking the 'xbone 180' is built with kinnect 2.0 in mind, but then again they said the same thing about their drm policies. Maybe if enough people complain some more they'll remove the completely useless camera and drop the price by 100 quid.
 

nevarran

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Apr 6, 2010
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Awesome. Enjoy some sharing with friends now, along with retail specific pre-order bonuses, crappy dlc and digital games at the same price as the retail copies...
Welcome to the same next-gen.
 

Mikeyfell

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Aug 24, 2010
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deckpunk said:
Mikeyfell said:
Now... what about that Kinnect...
My thoughts exactly! Get rid of that dumb device, but the way microsoft have been talking the 'xbone 180' is built with kinnect 2.0 in mind, but then again they said the same thing about their drm policies. Maybe if enough people complain some more they'll remove the completely useless camera and drop the price by 100 quid.
They should drop the price 100 quid no matter what they do with the Kinnect,

Isn't 430 Pounds like 680 bucks?

Yeah, I know Microsoft is still bitter about the Revolutionary war, but still...


I still think Sony is going to win because there is a sizable demographic of "sane" people that don't want to put a camera in their living rooms.
 

DarkhoIlow

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Well they sure caved in fast didn't they? Way to stick to your guns M$.

Overall the gamers win here, but as we all know this may be just temporary just to manage to get more units preordered.

Let the console war spark anew like a phoenix, yay...*sits back near his PC and grabs his popcorn.*
 

Griffolion

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Aug 18, 2009
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Sorry, MS. Still getting the PS4. Regardless of what's gone on here, you've already proved too untrustworthy. Sony isn't exactly a saint, but they are better than you, and cheaper. You haven't got my business this generation.
 

Another

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Still not getting one. As an analogy, if I find out dude was plotting to murder me and then they were like "nah, not today" it still doesn't mean that we are gonna be friends. Because he still thought about doing it in the first place.
 

MrHide-Patten

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Jun 10, 2009
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So a tiger can change it's stripes, but I'll still remember its a tiger that rips out innards and feasts on them. A little sad to not see Sony on top of the podium this gen, even though out of the big three they should get their just do's without coming in third place again. But stuff like the latest software update shows that they will find a way to do a massive cock up.

Captcha: Up and Away!
 

Saltyk

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Sep 12, 2010
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PatrickXD said:
I'm really disappointed with the reversal of opinion. What made the Xbone interesting to me - the always online connectivity, family sharing and mandatory Kinect - has been somewhat put down. I was looking forward to what exactly 'cloud computing' can do, I was interested in more games adopting systems like Dark Souls and Demon's Souls. You know, integrating the single and multiplayer experience? Game developers can no longer guarantee that every user has access to the internet, which could have been an interesting point to develop from. Now, well, we'll never know.
And that's what hurts about this. What the Xbone was doing was unprecedented. Don't get me wrong, I know that doesn't mean good, inherently. It's just, and bear with me here, nobody has to buy the Xbox One. The PS4 was always an option, and a cheaper one at that. If you don't have an internet connection, you have the option of - no, not the xbox 360 - the PS4. It's there. It's a choice. A safe choice. It's not changing anything. The Xbone? Previously we didn't know if it would be a safe choice. We didn't know if it was what we wanted. It certainly wasn't a rich dark roast. And that's what we want, isn't it? We all want a rich dark roast. We all sing together that we know what we want and what we want is a rich dark roast.

The Xbone could have been a game changer. Microsoft has decided now to go where the money is, abandon it's backbone and chase after every ounce of hype and every last dollar. And now we will never know, at least not for another 8 years, if the Xbone's original system is in fact a great one.

For posterity, I wholly support being able to just, you know, give people discs.

EDIT: I just thought I'd point out something that really irks me about this whole Xbone situation, as I feel it represents the gaming industry and culture as a whole.
People complain, day in and day out, about the lack of change in games. The repetition of the exact same systems and stories from past generations of game. And yet, when Microsoft tried something new with a console, everyone cried 'What's wrong with the way things are? Can't everything just be the same? Everything is fine here, we don't need change!'.
Food for thought.
Dark Souls existed on the current consoles. Destiny looks to be doing the same thing and will be on PS4, as well. Nothing you just said requires always online. And PS4 supports the Cloud as well. You come off more like you're apologizing to Microsoft. Nothing they wanted to do required online at all times or DRM. There's nothing stopping this from happening.

I actually was interested in what the Cloud COULD do, and my console will probably be online 99.9% of the time, but that didn't make these policies okay. Making it mandatory, just forces me to do something I did because I wanted to. I should be the one who decides how to use my console. And what about people who don't have strong internet service either because it's not available or they don't want it (Both exist in force, even in the US)? Are they just out of luck for even single player experiences?

Change for the better is good. But what few good things Microsoft put forward were married to horrible policies. Now that those policies are dead, the good can flourish.

Anyway, I'll be enjoying my PS4 when it launches and seeing how Cloud gaming works on it. But I will also enjoy being allowed to play offline if I should want.

For the record, something like half of all 360's never connected to the internet. They didn't even look at their own numbers.
 

Fappy

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Kudos for throwing that video together after such short notice! It actually turned out quite well!

Still not getting an Xbox 180 until they offer exclusives I care about, drop the price point and drop the mandatory kinect.
 

Shamanic Rhythm

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Riobux said:
I may be alone in this, but just out of curiosity: Is anyone as bored and tired as I am with how PS4 and X-Bone One is being promoted? Or even just filled with apathy over this change?
You're not alone. The Xbone DRM fiasco has conveniently distracted everyone from the fact that the only really major change made in the next generation is the move to x86. Beyond that, nothing but gimmicks like the share button. These new consoles are boring, expensive and will no doubt be furnished with another cycle of bland AAA titles that are little more than expensive tech demos.

They're basically in a race to be the least shit.