Microsoft Drops Xbox One DRM Restrictions - UPDATED

[Deadcyde]

There's a really interesting article on Gizmodo which details why Microsoft's original vision for the Xbox One might actually be better for consumers, in the long run, compared to their new Sony-like no-DRM policy.

Just putting it out there, offers a rather unique perspective on this whole thing.

http://gizmodo.com/the-xbox-one-just-got-way-worse-and-its-our-fault-514411905

And that's worth the dodgy kinect, the higher price tag, less trustworthy hardware, the constant need to be online?

no way, besides, Microsoft could have struck a happy medium, but it didn't.

That's in no way our fault.

Seriously, if they had made the kinect optional and lowered the price tag accordingly, added digital game trading and depreciation so we'd actually trust they wouldn't just take control of the gaming market with digital only content and screw us over with prices like they did with xbla*, as well as adding trustworthy hardware; it would be definitely worth getting. But no, they wanted to screw us over and when we said no, they decided to be childish about it.

So they won't get my business and i certainly won't feel guilty about it.

*tell me you never noticed how digital games are the same price as retail despite lower costs with no discs or shipping, or how they don't seem to depreciate in value with games like sleeping dogs and bioshock still at 50 bucks despite being 15 for new copies at gamestop

 

[IshimaruHayato]

But I thought all those were fundamentally necessary in order to make the console work properly. You're telling me Microsoft could just (gasp) turn it off all along?

Well it's good to hear Microsoft (might) be listening to the gaming community and/or reason.

However, this does make all those arguments from Xbone supporters defending all these restrictions seem somewhat funny in retrospect.

http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20061204141643/yugioh/images/thumb/9/90/ConvulsionofNatureDB2-EN-C-UE.jpg/300px-ConvulsionofNatureDB2-EN-C-UE.jpg

 

[JenSeven]

You thought they dropped it? No, they just made it less clear.
As we all know the XboxOne did a 180 on their DRM policies, however some things are pretty vague and missing from the announcement.

Let me start with things that are clear.
Region locking is gone.
The fact that the XboxOne shuts down the console part of being a game console after not getting on the internet for more than 24 hours is gone.

That's all clear, now lets see what things are strange.

"An internet connection will not be required to play offline Xbox One games"
The problem with this is what exactly Microsoft considers "offline games". Titanfall is a pure multiplayer game, so that is certainly not an offline game.
But what about games with online components, such as competitive multiplayer? Even if you don't want to play the multiplayer part of the game it could be that that game will not be considered an offline game. This could mean that more and more games will have crappy tacked on multiplayer so that Microsoft can force us online.

Also that brings up another part of the problem here.
When Microsoft announced they would use the "infinite power of the cloud" to enhance the gaming experience, what could that mean?
Now that the mandatory internet is cut off, would that mean that the cloud was just a load of hot air since the games obviously didn't need it?
Or is the cloud power now being used to brand single player games as needing an online component to "access the cloud" and again making them not offline games again?

Second point:
No mention was made of Xbox Live. Would signing onto Xbox Live do something? Would that make the new Xbox into the mandatory online Xbox again? What limitations does connection to Xbox Live have?
There was no mention of this, so we don't know. Although we can probably assume the worst.

Third point:
Second hand games will work as they do today.
Today second hand games work with Online Passes in most cases.
Does Microsoft mean this? I wouldn't expect them to pull this old joke again under a different name.

So yeah, it may not be the outcome you expected.
I hope I am wrong, but I kinda expect I will be proven right.
Thanks for reading.

EDIT:
There we go, had a small talk with Stephen Toulouse:

 

[D-Soul]

Meh, It seems to me all because of all the backlash they got from the gaming community they had to double back ASAP to try to get on the community's good side.

Too little, too late Microsoft.

 

[TomWiley]

Meh, It seems to me all because of all the backlash they got from the gaming community they had to double back ASAP to try to get on the community's good side.

Too little, too late Microsoft.

Too little, too late? This is like the biggest policy reversal in the history of Microsoft, perhaps in the history of the entire gaming industry, and the fastest response to consumer complaints too. What more could they possibly do?