Gamers Petition Microsoft - "Bring Back Xbox One DRM!"

[Gahars]

When the Xbox One first unveiled, the system's DRM (like its mandatory online check-ins) immediately drew the internet's ire. The Xbox One/Xbox One & Done/Xbone/etc. became a joke overnight, and Sony was quick to capitalize on the negative press.

After a humiliating E3 shut down, Microsoft pulled an Xbox One-Eighty and reversed the system's DRM stance, removing the maligned features and policies. Everyone applauded this decision.

Well, okay, not everyone. This is the internet, after all.

Microsoft's decision to abandon a digital rights management (DRM) system that would prevent second-hand games from playing on the Xbox One hasn't pleased everyone, with a petition springing up to reverse the reversal.

...Now, a petition has been started asking Microsoft to bring back those features - blaming "uninformed" consumers who did not understand the benefits of the system for the decision to remove useful features. While the petition, titledMicrosoft: Give us back the Xbox One we were promised at E3, has attracted nearly 8,500 signatures, many are from those counter-protesting the petition with names such as Banana Bobelstein, Valor Skywalker, John Whatzittoya and Todd McGoats appearing among the more legitimate-sounding names.

Expert Reviews
Needless to say, Microsoft has yet to respond.

So, GBAtemp, why aren't you demanding that Microsoft limit your ability to use your console as you wish? Sure, you could mention pesky things like "freedom", but then you're forgetting the ultimate freedom - the freedom from freedom itself.

Think about it, I haven't.

 

[beta4attack]

What's up with THAT? Why are the gamers so insatiable? O.o
Gamer: What is that bullcrap?! REMOVE IT!
Microsoft: Sure! *removes it*
Gamer: Wait, what?! NO! Put it back!

Get your crap together, people -_-

 

[Mantis41]

your signature says it all.

 

[FAST6191]

They had some interesting ideas and I could have stood to see some of them implemented.

Any restrictions upon second hand though and I am back out immediately.

I could probably even have taken "if you want the fancy features then submit to our will" if it just allowed straight up disc games to run otherwise.

 

[DinohScene]

Here goes a butthurt fest.

 

[AbyssalMonkey]

I knew this would happen. Some people are just stupid. I personally have no issue with the XB1 besides the fact that games are always online which leads me to believe that when XB1 servers shut down, poof go the games (unless M$ would kindly release a server pack for the cloud games so we could set up servers on our home computer, fuck you cloud, this also goes for PS4).
What I think would be a reasonable compromise is re-implementing the DRM and features that came with said DRM (family sharing) for digitally bought games ONLY.

Ha! Just read the top rated comments on the actual petition, ALL of them are negative XB1. Fuck those people, AFAIC XB1 not having the complete DRM is only good for the market, capitalism and natural selection will determine who wins and who dies.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

 

[Qtis]

Read about this on Ars in the morning. Not surprising, but then again, it's kinda odd that Microsoft rolled all the possible updates back to the original status of the 360. They had a great opportunity to do something that Sony wasn't doing with the PS4. The petition? Good try, but I doubt this will do anything to the console. At least not until it's released.

And yes, the E3 presentation from Microsoft was abysmal in many ways, but so were the reactions (probably me included). After analyzing the presentation and thinking about it, MS did have quite a few good ideas and points there. The only (and largest) problem for me would have been the 24h restriction. If it was once a week (or better yet, once a month), I'd have been tempted. Now I'll just wait till the console is a bit more mature and they release Halo 9 Limited Edition with 2 controllers and a game.

 

[PityOnU]

I had no issue with the system as originally envisioned.

I do not lend/trade games with friends (I try it at their house and buy if I like), I do not buy/sell used games ($7 trade in value? thanks, Obama!), and I have a stable internet connection (most people do). To me, this is what the used game market causes (check price differences between PC and console).

 

[a9cito]

One more Xbone fanboy s classic behaviour.

 

[AbyssalMonkey]

I had no issue with the system as originally envisioned.

I do not lend/trade games with friends (I try it at their house and buy if I like), I do not buy/sell used games ($7 trade in value? thanks, Obama!), and I have a stable internet connection (most people do). To me, this is what the used game market causes (check price differences between PC and console).

The issue with always on DRM is not YOUR internet, its THEIR servers. SimCity is a perfect example of what can go wrong with always on. People's internet wasn't the issue, Maxis/EA's servers were. Darkspore is another game, it had server-side issues, not due to people connecting albeit, but it was an issue you personally couldn't fix.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

What. The. Fuck. What the actual fuck.
Now I can understand why some people wouldn't care about the DRM (well, until their internet goes down anyway), as they might normally be in a situation where they always have internet access.
Though there is still the issue of servers going down, M$ hasn't exactly had unreliable servers in the past. XBL has for me been a flawless experience (not that I've used it that much), so I'm not worried about servers going down.

But why people would actually ASK for DRM, I can't even begin to understand. It's not like it has a single positive side for the consumer.

It's also a liability for M$ in the long run. Developers may like it, but it pretty much means M$ will have to keep servers up indefinitely or people will be unable to play their "retro" games.
When the next generation after X-Bone and P$4 arrives, M$ will no longer be making much money off the X-Bone. If they had online DRM at that point and decided to shut down the servers, there would be a lot of unhappy customers.
It would suck if the future of gaming is not being able to play anything older than last generation games. I really hope that never happens, but with the way DRM is headed, it might very well.

 

[Ethevion]

No matter what, people will always complain.

 

[PityOnU]

The issue with always on DRM is not YOUR internet, its THEIR servers. SimCity is a perfect example of what can go wrong with always on. People's internet wasn't the issue, Maxis/EA's servers were. Darkspore is another game, it had server-side issues, not due to people connecting albeit, but it was an issue you personally couldn't fix.

SimCity and DarkSpore required CONSTANT connections. Yes, that totally sucks and puts a huge load on their servers.

Xbox One was one check, once a day, doing the equivalent of checking license keys. Not a huge deal nor a ton of data. Also, Microsoft has an excellent cloud platform. I doubt they would have any issue with downtimes (their longest one so far was a single 8 hour period and had to do with a small bug in the date encoding).

 

[Hyro-Sama]

Judging from those names in the petition listed by the article, this doesn't really seem like a completely serious effort. I highly doubt Microsoft will respond to this and they shouldn't.

 

[AbyssalMonkey]

SimCity and DarkSpore required CONSTANT connections. Yes, that totally sucks and puts a huge load on their servers.

*Stares into a crystal ball and divines the future* I see a time when so many games are using a white puffy mass of evaporated water droplets that does require a constant state of networking in which everyday check-ins eventually become slow.

 

[PityOnU]

*Stares into a crystal ball and divines the future* I see a time when so many games are using a white puffy mass of evaporated water droplets that does require a constant state of networking in which everyday check-ins eventually become slow.

Then that's the developer's decision on a game-by-game basis. That has nothing to do with the Xbox One's once a day check-in.

Right? Yes?

P.S. - Even though SimCity had the horrible, HORRIBLE DRM policies, 1.6 million people still bought it. So... not sure who has an issue with DRM like that. (I certainly do, but clearly 1.6 million consumers do not)

 

[AbyssalMonkey]

Then that's the developer's decision on a game-by-game basis. That has nothing to do with the Xbox One's once a day check-in.

Right? Yes?

P.S. - Even though SimCity had the horrible, HORRIBLE DRM policies, 1.6 million people still bought it. So... not sure who has an issue with DRM like that. (I certainly do, but clearly 1.6 million consumers do not)

How about same servers, same resources. The cloud is going to become a way for developers to augment their games to keep them up to date on a dying piece of hardware. So yes, I do believe that it will become more and more adopted to keep the fidelity of games with in the ability of the current hardware. I'm willing to bet that if the 360 had cloud computing they sure as hell would use it to augment the 360's hardware.

P.S. And how many people do you think are still playing it? A lot of those buys were probably preorders before anyone knew Maxis would nerf the hell out of the game for the first couple months. I'm willing to bet that a lot of the people that got burned by that haven't even opened the game again.

 

[JustinFraley]

Nice troll post.

 

[Gahars]

P.S. - Even though SimCity had the horrible, HORRIBLE DRM policies, 1.6 million people still bought it. So... not sure who has an issue with DRM like that. (I certainly do, but clearly 1.6 million consumers do not)

How many of those 1.6 million knew that the game was always-online going in, or fully understood what that meant? Considering that SimCity attracts a wide audience, many of whom are more casual players than anything else, I'm guessing quite a few.

How many were happy with the results as their game was rendered completely unplayable? Probably not a whole lot.

Plus, considering how sales for the game plummeted quickly after release (and once people were fully aware of the issues), I don't think we can really say that the game's sales are a ringing endorsement for this sort of DRM.