DRM Alternatives (to Xbox One)
- Thread starter Rockster
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Your recollection is different to mine what many media sites reported. The DRM thing alone wasn't well received but what really turned a snowball into an avalanche was Microsoft's own execs were contradicting each other about how it would all work. After the Microsoft E3 conference different sites were reporting different futures based on details not included in the press conference because they were speaking to different Microsoft execs and this went on for a day or so until Microsoft clammed up entirely for two weeks then scrapped the whole idea.
The infuriating thing is Microsoft's original DRM plan, even as poorly explained, would likely to have been appealing to a whole bunch of people but importantly, it didn't require completely dropping the existing conventional model of a zero-ownership disc with conventional DRM to limit disc-based piracy. You can do both, with different pros and cons, and give customers a choice. Just as happens now.
Yeah. It's bizarre to me how some folk manage to put all the blame on the public and completely forget what actually happened. The discussion went at length with us asking what the hell it was, and it took a long time for the final, good case details to come out. Whether MS changed track as Tottentranz suggests, or whether that was always their plan from the off and they just failed to communicate it well (very in keeping with MS of the time), we can never know. But all the confusion and noise came from MS. Had they been clear from the off, of course the reaction would have been different.
Curiously, this is a 5 year old thread. Seems someone moved posts without notification.
If MS really wanted to make things better for everyone, they would have implemented both their new model for always-online and the offline version of games as options for the consumer to decide. Kept traditional discs in their model, and ADDED the option of buying a download license at retail as well, something in a slightly different packaging to avoid confusion, meant to work much like the cards you buy for MS Store Points, but meant for that one title and including a disc to speed up the installation. To make it more appealing, that version would be CHEAPER, like 50 or 40 bucks, but would not be tradeable or resealable unless through the MS propriatary program they had in mind. But the traditional discs without a code tying them to single users would still exist. Had they gone with such a hybrid offering, the value and acceptance of such new model would actually be put to test. But MS did not want to offer choice. They wanted to shove a fully DRM based always online model with no alternatives down consumer throats under the pretence the Xbox brand was so big they could do anything they wanted and people would eat it up. THANK GOD they have to back track. As a consumer, you never want to have companies be that arrogant towards you. You want them on their toes, bending over backwards to please you.
All that said, I don't see what is the difference from the hypothetical hybrid system I suggested and what we actually have now with disc copies vs. digital copies. The only difference is you can't buy the digital license of a game at retail, which seems like a minor thing considering you would have to be online to register it anyway, and there are MS Store points cards available at every detail location too, hell these cards are everywhere. The only thing we loose is the ability to buy the digital license AND get a CD for offline installation, but that too is a minor convenience to many titles today that would still have you download half the data on the disc again for the day-one patch.
All that said, I don't see what is the difference from the hypothetical hybrid system I suggested and what we actually have now with disc copies vs. digital copies. The only difference is you can't buy the digital license of a game at retail, which seems like a minor thing considering you would have to be online to register it anyway, and there are MS Store points cards available at every detail location too, hell these cards are everywhere. The only thing we loose is the ability to buy the digital license AND get a CD for offline installation, but that too is a minor convenience to many titles today that would still have you download half the data on the disc again for the day-one patch.
Interesting argument. I wonder what the counter to that is? What's the pro-consumer option for removing sellable discs? Is it a case of simplifying implementation (not needing a code per disc)?
I think this pretty much sums it up regarding lending games to friends and family;
Why did it change? Xbox One's game-sharing policies were, to say the least, extremely confusing. You could play your games on a friend's console, but not your friend's games on your console; Phil Harrison implied that if you wanted to play a friend's game, you'd have to pay a full-price licensing fee for the privilege. The whole thing was set up around licenses rather than ownership of a disc, and it seems Microsoft eventually decided that the market wasn't ready for that.
And more clarity;
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/...cond-hand-sales-and-always-online-in-xbox-one
"So, think about how you use a disc that you own of an Xbox 360 game," he began. "If I buy the disc from a store, I use that disc in my machine, I can give that disc to my son and he can play it on his 360 in his room. We both can't play at the same time, but the disc is the key to playing. I can go round to your house and give you that disc and you can play on that game as well.
"What we're doing with the digital permissions that we have for Xbox One is no different to that. If I am playing on that disc, which is installed to the hard drive on my Xbox One, everybody in my household who has permission to use my Xbox One can use that piece of content. [So] I can give that piece of content to my son and he can play it on the same system."
Harrison then explained what happens when you want to take that game beyond the borders of your own home and into a friend's place.
"I can come to your house and I can put the disc into your machine and I can sign in as me and we can play the game," he explained.
"The bits are on your hard drive. At the end of the play session, when I take my disc home - or even if I leave it with you - if you want to continue to play that game [on your profile] then you have to pay for it. The bits are already on your hard drive, so it's just a question of going to our [online] store and buying the game, and then it's instantly available to play.
"The bits that are on the disc, I can give to anybody else, but if we both want to play it at the same time, we both have to own it. That's no different to how discs operate today."
There it is in black and white and easy to understand, you had to be playing on anyones console you wanted to 'share' with, you couldn't lend it or sell it on...hell you couldn't even leave the disk with someone who had your account on their console because it was linked to your account! People who think MS were going to let you share your games with up to ten people are simply delusional.
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