Grouchy Imp said:
I disagree. Microsoft had plenty of chances to listen to us prior to E3 and chose to go ahead with their totalitarian vision of gaming anyway and only AFTER a shit storm of epic proportions commenced and headed their direction did they rescind their mind blowingly arrogant plan.
Sony didn't do that, Sony actually paid attention to what gamers wanted and didn't HAVE to ride it out until the last minute to make the right decision. They noticed gamers getting hot under the collar at the mere mention of RUMORS suggesting that PS4 wouldn't allow used games or might be always-online, and they opted to go ahead and make the console that gamers had been suggesting that they make.
I don't think it's rude or churlish as you put it to "not listen to Microsoft in return", I think it's wise both from a consumer stand point as well as based on principle.
Say the Government decided to impose a nation-wide curfew and anyone caught on the streets after 8pm would be shot dead... but after public outcry, went back on that plan and decided to allow people to stay out at late as they want (we'll just be watching you at all times). Do you just suddenly choose to trust that Government that so recently declared your life as fair game if you merely broke an arbitrary rule?
So why would you turn around and run into Microsoft's open arms just because they got tripped up in their plan to restrict and hamper free use of the Xbone? They didn't change their mind FOR YOU... they changed it for them. More specifically, for their wallets.
Don't be fooled, they still don't care about what gamers want.
I mean holy crap they couldn't have had this console generation more won if they had tried - all they had to do was take the Xbox 360, pump up the graphical power, throw in a bigger hard drive, add on all that social BS and redesign the controller and bam - GENERATION WON. Xbox WON is more like it. That's literally all they would have had to do and it would have sold like gang busters.
Instead... instead, they opted to view loyal customers as sheep who needed to be tagged and herded and monitored at all times lest we even THINK about making an attempt to use our Xbones for something that doesn't require paying Microsoft a fee.
You don't stop piracy by punishing the only people whom you don't have to worry about pirating. That should be common sense by now.