Escapist News Now: Fans Petition Microsoft For DRM

[Escapist News Now]

Fans Petition Microsoft For DRM

Did you celebrate when Microsoft announced they were eliminating DRM? Well turns out not everyone was.

Watch Video

 

[cidbahamut]

Wait a minute, it's not April.

 

[zalithar]

First off, fuck those who actually want it.
Second, I saw this yesterday on AlphaOmegaSin's YouTube channel, and a LOT of people in the comments said they were signing it to spite Microsoft and see if they'd actually bring it back. I checked the comments for over an hour (I had nothing else to do), and I'm pretty sure a large percentage of those signatures are just trolls.

 

[MiskWisk]

I can understand (okay, maybe not the right word) the trolls, but what is wrong with these people. It's like they've all contracted Stockholm syndrome or something.

 

[roushutsu]

I was under the impression that what people wanted out of all of the stuff that Microsoft cut was the digital sharing stuff, not all the DRM that came attached. Regardless, chalk this up with the hundreds of other internet petitions about video games that go absolutely nowhere.

 

[varmintx]

I was under the impression that what people wanted out of all of the stuff that Microsoft cut was the digital sharing stuff, not all the DRM that came attached. Regardless, chalk this up with the hundreds of other internet petitions about video games that go absolutely nowhere.

My apologies for the completely off-topic post, but that is one inspired choice of an avatar you've got there.

 

[Doctor Proctor]

I was under the impression that what people wanted out of all of the stuff that Microsoft cut was the digital sharing stuff, not all the DRM that came attached.

Yes, but the problem was that it seemed that the DRM was necessary to allow for all that digital sharing and trading.

I'm actually kind of conflicted on the whole XBox 180 thing. On the one hand, yes, having the console work much the same as it did this generation is great. Now troops can play overseas, people can bring their consoles on vacation (although, isn't that what portables are for?) or play it when their internet is down.

On the other hand though, I really want my friend to play Dust: An Elysian Tail. I own it on XBLA and, were it an XBox One title under their original policy, I could've given him that game. Or sold it to him. Or just let him access my library and play it for awhile (whether this was unlimited or merely an extended demo was never clarified). Basically, they were proposing to allow me a degree of freedom with my digital purchases that doesn't really exist anywhere else really (sans totally DRM free publishers like Stardock).

As the original petition in the video said, I would want to see a compromise. Make it an opt in system only for digital purchases and start from there...who knows, it might just move the industry forward a bit.

 

[Something Amyss]

I was under the impression that what people wanted out of all of the stuff that Microsoft cut was the digital sharing stuff, not all the DRM that came attached. Regardless, chalk this up with the hundreds of other internet petitions about video games that go absolutely nowhere.

They even say there has to be a compromise, that it's not all or nothing.

The point really does seem to be that people wanted digital trading. They just didn't want mandatory install discs that become coasters and daily check-ins. I do agree that there has to be some middle ground. It looks like Microsoft was all "you don't want to let us have our way? FINE! We'll just take our ball and go home!"

 

[Crazy Zaul]

It wasn't gonna be Steam for consoles. Major Nelson said they were never going to do Steam like sales. The Xbox has become such a joke.

 

[zalithar]

First off, fuck those who actually want it.

You shouldn't be so quick to dismiss it or the people who want it; The DRM policy might be a better future for gaming, if it brought reasonable prices, being able to sell games again and sharing them with friends, all without much hassle.

I'm ambiguous on this point, because I'm not going to buy one anyway, but it'd be an interesting experiment.

I'm a huge supporter for a free digital world, I absolutely believe that all movies, games and music are part of cultural history and should after a while be free for everyone. I think this is the true way, but I don't believe it's possible before we change a lot of things about society in general. It'll likely never happen.
Until such a thing is possible though, this is a viable strategy that may or may not bust.

All in all, people should think it over, instead of rage about it.

They won't go through with anything you mentioned. EVER. They want to make money. sharing a game in their eyes is a lost sale, and every sale counts. They also recently changed over some of their software from being available to purchase to subscription based. THAT IS BULLSHIT! They can legally do that, but that does not make it morally right. It denies consumer rights, and pushes us closer to an inevitable collapse (that sadly if it wasn't for businesses would never have been possible). They've been pushing game licensing for a long time now and it would have been brought closer by this shit.

 

[Doom972]

I can see where they're coming from. I guess that as far as they're concerned, there's no need for two identical consoles. The problem is that DRM will screw over those who want the Xbone exclusives but don't want or can't play with those restrictions.

I wonder how sad one's life has to be to troll-sign online petitions for entertainment.

 

[Arawn]

I do recall a topic were people were disappointed with losing the game sharing aspect of Xbox One. The details on the library sharing system are stilled debated to some extent. Some claim it's only a demo like trial of said games that you share with friends/family. Others said it's the full game. The former is hardly worth the DRM that accompanied it, and the latter would be unprofitable to MS and game producers. Why would you make a system where you would sell fewer games? I'm at a loss. I'm very curious to have tried the original system just to see what it was truly capable of. Still I say no to the DRM. It's not innovative enough to warrant a loss of control of my games. I guess I don't have much a right to say anything since I'm not going to purchase the revise Xbox One.

 

[AkaDad]

This is like alcohol drinkers petitioning for prohibition.

*sigh*

 

[Cid Silverwing]

Had to try and look-up the petition starter. And now I wonder if Mr. Fontenot was involved in some sort of freak hypnotherapy accident.

This.

I really can't tell if the person who started this petition is clinically retarded or loves anti-consumer bullshit.

 

[Agent357]

Personally, I like Yahtzee's theory about the whole thing.

Anyhow, Microsoft's kinda painted themselves into a corner at this point. A lot of their policies were fine, but they needed to:
-Leave discs alone
-Take away the once-a-day check-ins
-Allow the Kinect to be turned off or disconnected completely
-Actually learn what their system does
before ever showing it to us. This whole thing is a massive clusterfuck on Microsoft's part, and I would rather have waited until September to actually see the system if it meant refining the system's ToS.

 

[Griffolion]

Personally, I like Yahtzee's theory about the whole thing.

I don't think I'm aware of this, what is it?

 

[circularlogic88]

First off, fuck those who actually want it.
Second, I saw this yesterday on AlphaOmegaSin's YouTube channel, and a LOT of people in the comments said they were signing it to spite Microsoft and see if they'd actually bring it back. I checked the comments for over an hour (I had nothing else to do), and I'm pretty sure a large percentage of those signatures are just trolls.

First off, fuck those who actually want it.

You shouldn't be so quick to dismiss it or the people who want it; The DRM policy might be a better future for gaming, if it brought reasonable prices, being able to sell games again and sharing them with friends, all without much hassle.

I'm ambiguous on this point, because I'm not going to buy one anyway, but it'd be an interesting experiment.

I'm a huge supporter for a free digital world, I absolutely believe that all movies, games and music are part of cultural history and should after a while be free for everyone. I think this is the true way, but I don't believe it's possible before we change a lot of things about society in general. It'll likely never happen.
Until such a thing is possible though, this is a viable strategy that may or may not bust.

All in all, people should think it over, instead of rage about it.

Well... as long as Microsoft and any publisher with Microsoft is making a physical disc copy of a game available at retailers, they can't/won't lower digital prices out of fear of upsetting the retailers. why buy a new physical copy of a game at a store at $60 when its digital counterpart is potentially $20 cheaper?

Not only that, but do you really expect Microsoft OR publishers to lower prices less than $60 when AAA developers are only increasing the scale of their projects? When Resident Evil 6 sells almost 5 million copies and is still considered a failure, something is wrong. When Tomb Raider and Hitman Absolution both individually move 3.5 million units and are still considered failures, something is wrong. Unless developers and publishers learn how to spend their money wisely, we're not going to be seeing any sort of significant price drop in games.

BTW totally like where you're going with the conversation. I have seen a lot of people in defense of Microsoft's DRM services, but never really expand upon how or why it would benefit the consumer in the long run. People SHOULD be looking at the positives of future potential business models and how they could work to benefit the consumer experience, but from my understanding of how Microsoft was planning to go about this (me being the internet scholar that I am, lol), it would have benefited the Publishers, Advertisers and Itself first and the consumer last.