Every time I go to a department store, I always get a good chuckle at stopping by the electronics section where I see PS4's sold out, and a shelf full of XBox One's ready for sale. I even see a sign outside, half of the time, proclaiming that the store has XBox One's for sale, and every time I think to myself, 'Why would I want an XBone?' Back in the day, I switched from PS2 to an XBox 360. When I finally get around to getting a next generation console (more games, perhaps a price break), I will be switching back to Playstation. Because of all of the crap that was pulled by Microsoft during their new console launch, I'd personally tell Phil that XBox's bad decisions hurt ME PERSONALLY. Sure it wasn't the loss of bonus salary, nor do I have some sort or religious faith that my favorite Game Companies 'do things for the right reasons,' but I enjoyed my XBox, I loved some of the exclusive titles. I even like the feel of the controller better than Playstation's, though it did take some initial getting used to.
In my belief, companies exist to make money, AND it is impolite in today's societies to say that. We like to call our corporations people (at least here in America) and pretend that they have a singular goal and are good or evil, rather than are guided by groups of people out to make money for themselves and their employees (sometimes, not even the latter). Microsoft's DRM decisions were (most likely) based on profit and controlling profits. But when groups of people set their minds to something, they tend to get a little full of themselves and find it harder to see their own errors. Due to (as far as I know) poor sales, and perhaps some awkward belief that we (the gamers) were wrong about Microsoft's potentially world-changingly awesome DRM, we're still getting reminded why I (personally) hate the XBone, even months after the non-player friendly shenanigans have all been changed.
This may sound cruel, but I wish an example made of Microsoft. I want XBox to go under. Let somebody else step up as the third console manufacturer and let everybody know the price of going against your customer base. I want game console developers for the next couple of decades looking back and saying, "Are you crazy? We can't treat our customers like that! Don't you remember what happened to XBox?!"
As for old comments about not sugar-coating the things that make player's unhappy. I remember getting VERY offended when someone from XBox, via twitter said, that they have a console for playing 360 games. It was called the XBox 360. If that's sugar coating, I'd hate to see what bitter-news is to them.
