Microsoft Sued for Locking Out Third Party Memory Cards
- Thread starter Greg Tito
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I'm with Microsoft on this all the way. Especially if what Wofiel says about this case is true.
And I bet it is.
If Datel still wants to earn money on the Xbox, I bet all they need to do is to remove the part of their memory cards which makes it work on a computer. Make them identical in use to the ones Microsoft makes themselves, just with a larger capacity. I bet that would fly well with Microsoft, and they would probably make them work again.
But even if they didn't this is fully OK. I hope Microsoft wins the case.
And this is not because I am a massive Microsoft fanboy or something. I just view this as it is. Microsoft have the right to do this. And they should, especially if the cards help piracy and cheating.
And I bet it is.
If Datel still wants to earn money on the Xbox, I bet all they need to do is to remove the part of their memory cards which makes it work on a computer. Make them identical in use to the ones Microsoft makes themselves, just with a larger capacity. I bet that would fly well with Microsoft, and they would probably make them work again.
But even if they didn't this is fully OK. I hope Microsoft wins the case.
And this is not because I am a massive Microsoft fanboy or something. I just view this as it is. Microsoft have the right to do this. And they should, especially if the cards help piracy and cheating.
Microsoft was founded on the idea that if you create something, you can be the sole vendor of that thing for as long as possible and have a near-perfect monopoly.
Now they are just expanding that to cover other electronic devices. What's the big surprise?
It's well-known that third-party cards usually suck, but most other game companies at least allow (tolerate) off-brand companies to develop alternatives for the customer. I don't see how keeping a third-party company from making memory cards affects piracy in ANY way (modders or pirates will use hard drives and writable discs instead of memory cards, anyhow), but this absolutely affects M$' ability to squeeze every last dollar out the consumer by forcing them to shop for cards at Microsoft and nowhere else.
Now they are just expanding that to cover other electronic devices. What's the big surprise?
It's well-known that third-party cards usually suck, but most other game companies at least allow (tolerate) off-brand companies to develop alternatives for the customer. I don't see how keeping a third-party company from making memory cards affects piracy in ANY way (modders or pirates will use hard drives and writable discs instead of memory cards, anyhow), but this absolutely affects M$' ability to squeeze every last dollar out the consumer by forcing them to shop for cards at Microsoft and nowhere else.
Maybe not, but there's been an unspoken agreement for years now that companies like Datel can make accessories for systems they don't own. None of the main video game companies seem to openly endorse this, but up until now I hadn't heard of any of them being strictly against it. I mean, goodness sakes, I've seen 3rd-party memory cards around since the birth of memory cards themselves!Avykins said:
It's sort of like if all of a sudden anyone who went a mile over the speed limit or jaywalked got a ticket. It's technically illegal, but people have been doing it for years and it's totally commonplace.
Legally they might be in the wrong, but third-party support seems pretty essential (to me) in keeping a system alive. All those useless system decoration options and pointless crap keep shallow people paying attention to the console, and if a company refuses to provide a decent-sized memory card, they should have the decency to allow somebody else to make it and simply charge a small fee.
I was thinking more like the end of West Side Story.Sparrow said:
Oh yeah, I really didn't know the 360 still has memory cards. Why doesn't it save on the hard-drive?
The "it's there hardware" argument doesn't work because they sent out the message that 3rd party memory cards are allowed by allowing them to work on the hardware in the first place. When a company starts producing those cards (which costs a lot of money) and Microsoft turns around and makes them unusable, that's sabotaging a company.
Oh and piracy? I thought they just burned games onto disks and put them in a modded xbox?
Cheating in online games should be prevented via a very good anti-cheat system (seeing as the option of dedicated servers on Xbox is made out to be stupid for some reason).
Oh and piracy? I thought they just burned games onto disks and put them in a modded xbox?
Cheating in online games should be prevented via a very good anti-cheat system (seeing as the option of dedicated servers on Xbox is made out to be stupid for some reason).
While I don't agree with what Microsoft's done, it is pretty depressing to look at the news forum and see every other story be "this person/group is suing so-and-so", seems to be that suing people is a new trend, and from the looks of it is mostly unfounded (eg. PS3 gamer who tried to sue because he was banned for being a douche online)
But with lightsabers? =DSparrow said:
On a serious note... what the hell microssoft, I think they're on a road trip to piss off as many people as possible.
and yet, you still see cheaters on XBL... watching people with aimbots in FPS games (like cod4, waw, mw2, etc...) is awesome. >.>Dudeakoff said:
Avykins said:
Dirty Apple said:
MS was sued and lost over including anti-virus and web browsers in its operating system, the argument being that it meant the majority of users never even knew there were alternatives and thus stifling competition. It's been a long-standing tradition on consoles that third-party peripherals and the such like are available and accepted by the market - you don't need a license to put dashboard ornaments in your car or upgrade the tyres just as you shouldn't need a license to produce a better memory card than MS does. With all the cash they have I'm surprised MS hasn't made bigger cards already :/Aura Guardian said:
Do savegames affect online play? I doubt it, and even if a minority of gamers are cheating in their games that's no excuse to hit a rival company - I thought that's what the last wave of bans was for. There's basically not enough of a case here to ban a save game storage unit on grounds that it will prevent cheating, especially as I'm sure that it would mostly affect single-player anyway, and who cases how people play a single-player game?
Basically, if MS can loose by reducing competition through bundling its own software with its own OS, then it can loose by actively attacking a competitor's superior hardware. I don't see any valid defence here.
sorry this is off topic but i dont know if this just my xbox being shit but i cant play any of my arcade games unless i'm connected to live which is annoying cause now me and my mates cant play marvel vs capcom, trials etc unless my xbox is in a certin room. Also everytime i want to watch a video i have to watch it on zune which updates everytime i go on it and takes about 2 mins to load.
Alright. Thanks. As I said, if it had to with XBL it was a different matter. And not having a 360 myself I don't know the terms. Good info.Wofiel said:
The only real difference between this law suit and their previous one they lost over windows being hard to put competitive programs on is the existence of the DMCA. I wonder if they'll invoke it, stating that it aids and abets piracy by allowing easy interface between computers and Xboxes (I was under the impression that it was pretty easy already?). Also isn't this pretty similar to the Nintendo R4i cart lawsuit? Yet every one was lining up behind Nintendo on that one (though i guess the almost expressed use of the R4i is piracy, where as these ones do at least have some legitimate uses).