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Microsoft Kills Xbox One Phone-Home DRM
One of the biggest criticisms of Microsoft's recently-announced Xbox One console was that it would require an internet connection once every 24 hours in order to keep playing games. Enough people complained about the DRM, and Microsoft listened. Today, they announced that they're removing the phone-home requirement. "After a one-time system set-up with a new Xbox One, you can play any disc based game without ever connecting online again. There is no 24 hour connection requirement and you can take your Xbox One anywhere you want and play your games, just like on Xbox 360." They've also scrapped the game trading and resale system they'd built, which allowed publishers to set their own rules with regard to used game sales. "There will be no limitations to using and sharing games, it will work just as it does today on Xbox 360." Unfortunately, that also means users won't be able to take advantage of the good parts of the original system, such as trading and gifting games without needing the disc, or sharing games with remote family members. "While we believe that the majority of people will play games online and access the cloud for both games and entertainment, we will give consumers the choice of both physical and digital content. We have listened and we have heard loud and clear from your feedback that you want the best of both worlds." Also noteworthy: they've dropped region-locks as well.
Whew, that chair was clos.....
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
"Microsoft has--"
"Yeah, I saw."
"Well...they didn't have a choice. They're halfway there."
It's still recording while you masturbate.
they understood they were going to get buttfucked by PS4 at launch...and reversed their stance. I was seriously going to get a PS4 instead, glad they came around. After all "It's only software" right?
Well, duh...
screw them, they dont deserve my money
Hmmm... but what will happen now? This might be good news, but this is what should have happened from the very beginning.
So, even though they took it off for the Xbone, I fear that they simply paved the way for draconian restrictions by the next gen (if that happens someday).
This new Xbox 180 pretty much evens the console war again, it's going to be an interesting new generation.
was really hoping microsoft would shoot them in the foot on this one, looks like they are doing the "right" thing
If they were so quick to listen to the gaming community, why have they been so deaf to the feedback about Windows 8?
We have listened and we have heard loud and clear from your feedback that you want the best of both worlds."
Actually, we just want one world: The one we had before. And thank you kindly to get your creepy kinect out of our living rooms, thanks. We're already giving the paranoid, who thrive quite well in an anarobic environment, a veritable algae bloom of justified looking over their shoulder. You stepped in dog shit like you were laser guided, Microsoft.
I don't think your reputation can be salvaged at this point... most people have already decided on the PS4, and will be leary of signing up since you're just a firmware update away from returning to putting 'em over a barrel. And yes, we do think you'd do just that, once the furvor dies down. We saw your memo. We know how you think. You won't give up this easily on your DRM locked down to hell shitty ass XBone.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
"Oshitoshitoshit. That was bad PR. Let's backpedal a little bit and make them think we did them a favor."
"Make it so, xbox one."
We're all xboned, because the console won't be DoA, and they'll be able to go back to the original plan in a couple of years with a software update.
"Hey guys! I used to be for DRM; but when I saw that it would ruin my launch, I became totally against it! Don't worry, though, just because it would be trivial to alter the deal at any future time, either over the internet or through exciting and mandatory system updates baked into new disk releases, you can still trust me!"
Forcing you to buy $100 Kinect with the system? Tracking your gaming habits and selling the data if you are connected? Tracking your movements with Kinect at all times? Putting online features that are on the discs of games behind an XBL Gold paywall? Forcing XBL Gold subscriptions to use other online services through your Xbox? Paying MS money for XBL Gold only to be bombarded by advertisements?
I'll pass still. This is looking like a weak generation for gamers. Both the PS4 and XB1 have online locked behind paywalls (even for peer-to-peer games). The Wii-U is severely lacking in quality games geared towards older gamers. Hopefully the PC gaming developers take charge and win back some of the console players this generation.
The fact that the Navy blasted XBONE ( http://www.navytimes.com/article/20130614/OFFDUTY02/306140030 ) is probably the biggest reason Microsoft took such a drastic 180, not us regular consumers.
MSFT has made enough anti-customer moves to have lost much of the confidence of their user base. Not listening to feedback on Windows 8, until 8.1 was "developed" and not listening to XB1 pre-release feedback proves them to be one of the most arrogant major companies today. There is only one person to blame, Ballmer.
They still lost a sale here because of the combination of hubris and stupidity required to make such a decision re: DRM in the first place.
!#@%*)anks for hanging up the phone, dear.
While you are playing your games, the clock ticks down it the upper right hand corner, reminding you that need to play that other game in the background. Your quest is to find an internet connection before the "24" clock runs out.
And you get tortured and hounded by government creeps in the process. Feels real.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
With this change they also removed the ability to share downloaded games, and the ability to share a game without lending the disk. Those must have been the primary drivers behind the phone home requirements.
Well this is a change of events. Glad to see the elitist attitude is now swayed.... slightly. The media has already broke with "Xbox One Is Going To Suck because (DRM/Phone Home/Etc)" so they have already shot themselves in the foot and really I think its a bit too late to save face when they've pissed off so many already. But congrats to listening to your customers, you've adhered to one of the core business fundamentals. Maybe they will actually sell some units now. However without Indie getting back on the rails, Its looking like my Xbox-console run will be changing to PS this generation.
So they're going to sell Xbox One, wait a year or so after there's a good install base and then force a system update to play Gears of Halo 5: Madden Warfare which will of course reactivate all the restrictive DRM.
The restrictions they put on the system were horrible their justifications for them were insulting.
Above and beyond this could only happen if they thought we were idiots and simply wouldn't understand. They need to appreciate the distinction between lack of interest/awareness and actually being stupid.
Most people are not stupid. They're oblivious. But not stupid. Explain the rules to people and they'll typically see what is going on pretty fast.
MS tried to pull a fast one and was caught in the act. They've done this repeatedly with other product launches. It needs to stop.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
As much as I enjoy bashing Microsoft, they have redeemed themselves a little by listening to their customers.
They're reportedly on top of the security issue as well. A little focus on the areas of privacy, ethics, and standards might convince me to become a customer again.
[Rent This Space]
Still not buying one. They'll just turn all the DRM back on in 6 months after they've recouped their dev costs.
They turned it off for now. What's to say they won't turn it back on a year or two from now?
Still its amazing given the public's reaction to the roomers about the always on requirements they had an opportunity to "fix it" prior to launch and just say it was always just roomers. Seems they could have easily avoided the embarrassing public back pedal here and loss of trust.
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
People didn't complain. They simply told Microsoft off and said they'd choose Sony. Calling this complaining is like walking into your boss's office, telling him to go f*** himself, and walking out to another job that is just as good if not better that is waiting with open arms. Microsoft's response is basically like the old boss begging you to come back.
In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
Now can we get the start menu back? and maybe even Modern/Metro' apps being able to run in a window. With out needed to use a 3rd party add ons?
Seems XBox, by process of eliminating PS4 and Wii U is back to being a possible purchase for me. Its a known fact (http://www.cbc.ca/undertheinfluence/season-2/2013/06/02/trust-in-advertising-1/) that companies that listen to the customers - always fare better.
They should have announced some terminations to along with this news... That may have helped their story a little more.
Wow microsoft actually reacted to customers before it all went boom. The lessons from Windows 8 and Surface must be hitting home hard.
"But...but Microsoft, I've owned the console for 6 months, now you're making me connect to the internet again?"
"I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further."
"This deal is getting worse all the time!"
they'll be able to go back to the original plan in a couple of years with a software update
Anyone who can remember back a few years will realize that's what Sony is planning, too. You know they're both going to do it as soon as they can get away with it.
The cynic in me even wonders if they drew straws to see who would announce it first, take the PR hit, and then say "oops, I guess we won't do that." Then the other company (Sony) will take the next PR hit for silently implementing it as a software update, and then finally Microsoft will "follow the market trend" and do the same thing.
p.s. Enjoy your used games now. This is the last full generation of phsical game distribution; the transition to all-digital will occur in the PS4/XboxOne generation.
they'll roll it out later once they have your money.
bet.
And you'll all fall for it. Piss and moan when they do it. And STILL buy their next version console next time.
it's easy to see the future when it's this obvious.
Even the mainstream news cycle picked up the "Can you believe this shit" tone that was going around during and after E3. Many, many people have now firmly dismissed the Xbox One (or Xbone) as a choice based on that, and they're not going to be hearing that the restrictions have vanished because this correction isn't going to get nearly the traction the original story (and associated outrage) did. When you have active duty personnel penning columns in newspapers saying that Microsoft's basically decided to shit on all active servicemembers with the call-home and in-country requirement, a little retraction buried on page 29 isn't going to make it into many peoples' minds.
What guarantee is there that Microsoft won't later re-enable the phone-home drm feature?
(even if the system is never reconnected to the internet again after setup, it's conceivable an update could later be performed via a game disc with little to no notice to the user)
Likewise, what guarantees are there that a game publisher itself won't roll out a game update that includes phone-home drm?
On a related topic, what promises has Microsoft made regarding the always-on camera? Seems to me there's really no guarantee it can't be accessed without the user's knowledge unless there's a hardware way to turn it off (ie. an opaque cover over the camera).
I think the DRM would have been accepted a lot better. I think the Surface, Win8 and then the XBone had their flaws, but there is a definite piling-on mentality against MS. They just aren't sexy and their marketing and customer education/relations is awful and often just downright confusing at times. Again, I'm not defending MS or their products, they just seem to provide the perfect storm for consumer outrage and bad product launches where others might have faired a lot better given the same circumstances, imho.
Did they remove it or disable it until enough people own one they wont be able to do anything when they announce they are turning it back on. Or the more Microsoft approach, say you can get updates to new versions of software but have to have it installed.
Having to work for a living is the root of all evil.
Calling this complaining is like walking into your boss's office, telling him to go f*** himself, and walking out to another job that is just as good if not better that is waiting with open arms.
My. Ass. Nobody actually did anything, people only threatened to do things, that goes for Microsoft and it goes for the users.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
If they had taken this same attitude with windows 8 it would have been a usable product a year ago.
Alright, let's try another one. This is more analogous to walking into a car dealership, them telling the customers something they refuse to change (and owners cannot change) they don't like about the cars they sell at that dealership, and the customers going to a different dealership, resulting in a change of policy at the dealership everyone walked away from.
Either way, it's not complaining. It's economics. Offer what people are willing to buy, and you win. Offer crap that people don't want to pay for, and you lose. Sure, you can change at that point, but you may still lose.
In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
Sadly, I don't seem to have it written down anywhere, but the gist of it was that advertisers and politicians have long known that the best way to get people to eat rat-shit sandwiches is to heavily advertise a "rat-shit and garbage" sandwich, then after that media blitz, start another blitz saying "we listened to you! Our sandwiches no longer have garbage in them!"
As a PS3 owner, and I surprised that I have not yet seen the following counter-argument to all the MS hating, thus Sony loving. Sony has repeatedly demonstrated a complete and total indifference to the user experience. The PS3 is experience is a constant barrage of being forced to watch a long progress bar (and then another one) before you can do anything else. I know, I know, they've fixed that specific gripe in the 4, but I'm speaking to the culture within Sony. Sony customer support is one of the worst I've ever had to deal with. They care so much more about fighting against people who might try to get content without paying for it than they do about their paying customers, that they are willing to remove core features of the product that they sold you, keep your money. They also completely fail to see the problem with that. I see all these posts worried that MS will pull a bait and switch over this DRM scheme. I haven't noticed any comments recognizing that Sony is the father of the console bait and switch. I want to be clear that I'm not defending MS; their attitude is clearly not pro-consumer. However, I just want to be the one to point out that nothing I've seen here makes them any worse than Sony, and a consumer-hating product from MS is NOT a valid reason to buy a similar product from Sony. I for one haven't even turned my PS3 on since I built a gaming PC last Summer. I don't plan on buying any console this gen. Maybe I'm just getting old. Or maybe it's the case that neither company deserves consumer confidence anymore.
I'm pretty sure we didn't threaten to do anything. Which was the problem. The biggest thing we threatened not to do was "buy the XBone."
That's not "threatening to do something"
They're one-upping MS. The PS3 is now always offline.
The Xbox One is intended to be the biggest progression in NSA spying on the domestic population in Human history. Every element of the Xbone is designed to enable Orwellian spying on people in their own homes. What use is any of this if the Xbone doesn't sell?
The NSA have done research that proves those people idiotic enough to buy the Xbone will forget about any concerns about privacy invasion within two weeks. Explicit coercion to keep the Kinect spy sensor (where the camera, infra-red camera, depth 'camera' and microphone array live) pointing at the room and its occupants is fully disguised as simply a required function of the box for normal gaming and other use. Microsoft demands that all apps/games use Kinect for at least some of their function (like set-up screens), and have explicit links to Kinects calibration systems to ensure the user is pestered to ensure Kinect sees/hears the room.
Taping over the camera lenses or pointing Kinect at a wall immediately triggers the re-calibrate request system. Disabling Kinect's electronics in any way prevents ANY game or app running on the console.
The ONE thing the NSA doesn't care about or require on the Xbone is DRM and restrictions on single player and used games sales. The NSA assumes if you are dumb enough to use the Xbone, you'll be dumb enough to leave it connected to your internet provider all the time, and they are right. Explicit coercion over internet connection makes it too damned obvious what MS and the NSA are up to.
Here's the thing. You will NEVER see Microsoft offer to allow the Xbone to function without Kinect being fully functional. You will NOT see Microsoft offer to allow AAA games full use of the console hardware, disabling Kinect as a result. No Kinect = no NSA spying = no point selling the Xbone.
The fallout from the E3 show had the disaster of the Xbone causing gamers to even lose interest in Microsoft's previously successful game franchises. It was as if the sinking of the Titanic was causing all other ships of the same line to go down as well. The NSA learned that thanks to Microsoft's extreme incompetence, the market for the next gen gaming console was going to favour Sony 90%+, making the Xbone the biggest failure ever in console history.
Microsoft has lied through their teeth, and said the DRM system was not only NOT draconian, but was actually in place for all the benefits it would offer the gamer. Shiils flooded all the forums re-iterating these 'reputation management' talking points. Now, by removing the DRM, and hoping to win back sales for the NSA, Microsoft has revealed and admitted that EVERYTHING it says is a bald-faced lie.
It gets worse. Microsoft cannot make the hardware to the original performance specs (already MUCH lower than the PS4), and is going to have to release the console with far lower clocks, so the ESRAM chip can function to some degree. This will leave the Xbone with around ONE THIRD (yes, you read that correctly) of the maximum GPU performance of the PS4. The two massive inferior bottlenecks on the Xbone are the speed of the main RAM, and the 50% fewer ROPS on the GPU.
Half the ROPS mean half the performance, all other things being equal. When the RAM is much slower, and the shaders are much fewer, and the clock is much slower, you are talking about a lot less than half. Also, the PS4 has AMD's complete HSA and Huma architecture from late 2014 AMD desktop x86 parts (sometimes mis-named as Kaveri 2). The Xbone has AMD's half-finished HSA and Huma from AMD's Kaveri part due at later this year.
Expect next for MS to match the PS4 price- like I said, they'll do anything BUT compromise the NSA spy features.
The part that bugged me was it was more expensive, less powerful, and had loads a features I didn't care about. (Like Kinect.)
Did you know 80 to 90% of the moderators on slashdot wouldn't recognize a troll even if one dragged them under a bridge.
We occasionally hear about the dog-eat-dog corporate culture at Microsoft.
I hope someone will shed light on the details of what happened over the past 10 days or so, who managed to persuade who to reverse whose decisions, etc.
Must be an interesting story to tell.
So, why does the system need to phone home at all? What's with the one time setup phone home?
I probably still won't buy one, but whatev. I've always been a PC gamer and never really got into the console market. I was contemplating hopping on board this gen, but the initial xbox specs instantly turned me off. PS4 just isn't an option. I refuse to buy anything from Sony even though the price is always right. I'd rather pay double somewhere else than give a penny to that shit-stain of a company. I even try to stay away from their movies. I've considered the Wii, but never seriously. If I want to play such casual games, I'll open my browser. Xbox was really my only option. That's where the games are. That's where my friends play. I definitely won't be standing in line on opening night, but this news gives me some hope. I'll wait and see how launch goes and just maybe with enough glowing reviews, I'll bite the bullet. Or maybe I'll keep dumping money into microtransactions on f2p mmos. We'll see.
This is more analogous to walking into a car dealership, them telling the customers something they refuse to change
Yes, those adhesive advertisements they put on the back of the vehicle that ruins the paint.
Window 180 would be superior to Windows 360
worked on xbox 360 titles where we were requested by MS to have the user be logged into live in order to save the game. so basically they will continue to ask devs to do that so you still have a phone home or you just cant save the game.
(TF)
They were one of the earliest companies working for/with the NSA on snooping their customer base, that was listed on some of the timeline graphics leaked. They did what they could to get camera and mic in all their customers' homes. They could upload firmware to the unit under secret-non-court orders to enable live recording/viewing. The "gate" of everyone visiting said customer's home can be collected for future identification off security cams. Facial recognition collections. Voice ID. All of this would be considered meta-data in the business they are in, to be collected in the big data bin of Utah.
(/TF)
That's great. Can we have the Start Menu back now on Windows? (And no, a button going to the same crappy Metro screen as before doesn't count.)
... and it shows they really want the xbone to succeed, even if it involves a complete 180.
No matter the complaints over the metro interface in Win8, the only fix they're working on is to make the Metro interface extra sparkly and loaded with bullshit features non of the Desktop users need or want in 8.1.
Goes to show that Windows 8 needs a real competitor to make MS work for the money.
>> We have listened and we have heard loud and clear from your feedback that you want the best of both worlds."
Here let me fix that for ya...
"It was and still is our intention that customers were meant to discover how badly we're screwing them only AFTER we got their money and they are so locked in to our infrastructure they cant back out.
As we only care about sales, we now have to temporarily remove some income generating "features" until later, when we can again roll them out. This time we will do it over several firmware updates so people cant object in a united way.
As the Xbox is primarily meant to be the core of the home media environment, use of its core features already requires an internet connection so automatic upgrading will be unavoidable.
Only a few of the most difficult customers (probably all pirates a.k.a. Linux users) will actually do what we suggested was possible and never connect the Xbox to the internet, so we will also ensure all premium games will include artificial limitations to require updated firmware that, completely coincidentally contains the removed for launch "features".
In 2 months it will be like it never happened.
I dont care.
Even if they did do all of those things and more I still wont buy one. Because they arent doing it for the good of the customer, they are doing it because they were forced to. Being forced to give customers what they deserve is not the same as doing something because its good for the customer. They still have the same foul intent as they did before, now they are just doing it because they dont want to lose sales.
If they had simply done what was right to begin with I would be behind them. But you cant do what all they did, argue with consumers that whay they were doing is ok for weeks, then suddenly flipflop because of bad press and expect me to suddenly forgive them and think they are now ok.
Microsoft's big idea for getting people to actually buy a Windows RT Tablet is to partner with Best Buy and have actor/salesman "blue shirt" say the Windows RT is pretty cool. This is so snowblind to the actual tablet market conditions, and the way people in the real world think, it's almost impossible to comment on without resorting to expletives. Three years ago, I was just about to get my first Windows Phone, was enjoying my XBox 360, and for the first time ever, happily paid full price for a Windows license when I bought 7. Now, I hate my Windows Phone and curse at it on a semi-daily basis, am probably going to go back to exclusive PC gaming (despite racking up a 150K gamerscore), and I've completely abandoned trying to use Windows 8 for anything but testing software compatibility.
worked on xbox 360 titles where we were asked by MS to require a login to live in order to save. so you can play the game. but unless it phones home you can;t save.
Make a ridiculous threat that you *know* will invite revolt, then relent and follow through with the slightly less ridiculous (but still ridiculous) plan you had interned all along.
Next time, scheduled phoning home won't seem so ridiculous. Well, maybe not next time, but the time after that, or maybe the time after that ... but it's coming.
Also known as the Anchoring Effect
http://youarenotsosmart.com/2010/07/27/anchoring-effect/
Just look at the shit we put up with MS Office and new Windows installations these days. No, you can't just have a disc, you need to spend a half hour entering all your personal info (mostly re-entering those fucking captchas because their shitty forms don't validate interactively) in an MS account so we can keep tabs on you and send you spam. Even then, you're not getting an installation package file, we'll only give you some brain dead all-in-one downloader that only works on *your* computer, provides absolutely no configuration options and doesn't tell you where the installer files are located (though they probably aren't even usable if you do find them). Sure, you *can* get installation discs if you cough up another $15 and wait a week.
Fuck that, I'll head over to TPB and have a an ISO in 15 minutes.
Do you think we'd have willing to choke down this shit sandwich even a few years ago?
Ke$ha is fucking hawwwwwt
They still haven't won me over one bit. They never should have tried this in the first place and they'll need to do something else (price drop, etc) to clean their image up.
Maybe if desktop users shout loud enough MS will be convinced to roll back the interface formerly known as Metro into something grandmothers can love.
Although I believe that Microsoft did the right thing here, I did think that some of the DRM features were interesting, especially the pure digital trading portions.
What they should of done is make it opt in. If you want the ability to share digital games between opt in friends then you turn it on with the caveat that you must always be online. Don't or can't be online, then turn it off with the caveat of having to lug CD's around.
In Soviet Russia, Trojan exploits YOU!
http://news.xbox.com/2013/06/privacy
If kinect is optional and only needed for games that require then wake me up when xbox one can be played with the goddamn thing unplugged.
Apparently actions speak louder than PR bullshit.
This is the same reason I will never own a windows phone. It uploads your location to Microsoft and there is no way to turn it off... unless you never use the appstore...the one and only way to install anything on your device.
It is the same shit the same tactics...ringing every penny out of your wallet and rewarding you by throwing ads at you, spying on you, nickle and diming you. These things are designed intentionally this way.
When our own government can make secret laws and spy on everyone. When they issue secret orders and when either tech companies lie to our faces and plead ignorance or NSA lies to its own people in training material how do we know MS can't be compelled to turn on all the cameras and all the mics upon receipt of a "secret order"?
On what basis do we have any reason to trust either Microsoft or our own government when they continually lie to our faces without any repercussion?
MSFT is up almost 30% YTD.
MP3 players were becoming the in thing. Sony, which dominated the analog portable music player market with the Walkman, was expected to dominate the MP3 market. But somehow their $0.15 billion/yr music division pulled rank on their $35 billion/yr electronics division, and forced their initial MP3 player to be designed so that it couldn't play MP3s at all. It had to use a proprietary, DRM-encrusted format. (Yes it's advertised as an MP3 player, but you had to convert your MP3 collection into their proprietary format first.)
They flopped in the market, and Apple went on to dominate the MP3 player market in 2001 with an MP3 player which had DRM if you bought from iTunes but could still play MP3s you copied to the player manually. Microsoft corrected themselves much more quickly than Sony did back then (it took them years to finally add MP3 support, and they didn't give up on ATRAC until 2007), so we'll have to wait and see how bad the damage is.
Sony comes out with a ground-breakingly open game console (as modern mainstream game consoles go) which forces Microsoft to open theirs up, and recently opened one of their smart watches...could they actually be turning over a new leaf, opening up and providing something their customers want? This seems wrong. They were definitely one of the most evil megacorps just a few months ago.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
It seems we are seeing a trend here: 1. Create an undesirable product designed to extract as much money as possible from your customers. 2. Act all surprised when they complain about it. 3. Pretend you are doing them a favour when you are forced to backpeddle. I'm no brain surgeon but I have trouble equating this formula with sensible business practice.
The people spoke and surprisingly someone listened for once instead of just cramming profit increasing policies down consumer's throats. Now just add backwards compatibility capabilities between all three Xbox systems and you have me sold.
If you disconnect from most Steam games and all Blizzard Battle.net games, you instantly disqualify yourself for all achievements until rebooting, disable game saving, and disable high scores and stored scores of any kind or stat tracking. There are logical reasons for that related to cheating and modifying of files then resyncing them but still. So just keep in mind that they never promised they wouldn't make not connecting annoying or borderline unplayable.
Microsoft stuck the clutch on their paradigm shift.
As it is, I still see no reason at all to buy a dedicated game box when my desktop is more than equal to the task
One reason is the ability to play a game on a big TV without having to carry your desktop PC back and forth between your desk and the living room TV. Another is the ability to play a video game with house guests who happen to be visiting you but aren't carrying their own gaming laptops.
I thought Europe and Australia were one "region" with respect to the firmware of video game consoles.
CIA Head: We Will Spy On Americans Through Electrical Appliances
Global information surveillance grid being constructed; willing Americans embrace gadgets used to spy on them
Steve Watson | Prisonplanet.com | March 16, 2012
http://www.prisonplanet.com/cia-head-we-will-spy-on-americans-through-electrical-appliances.html
"CIA director David Petraeus has said that the rise of new "smart" gadgets means that Americans are effectively bugging their own homes, saving US spy agencies a job when it identifies any "persons of interest".
Speaking at a summit for In-Q-Tel, the CIA's technology investment operation, Petraeus made the comments when discussing new technologies which aim to add processors and web connections to previously 'dumb' home appliances such as fridges, ovens and lighting systems.
Wired reports the details via its Danger Room Blog[1]:
"'Transformational' is an overused word, but I do believe it properly applies to these technologies," Petraeus enthused, "particularly to their effect on clandestine tradecraft."
"Items of interest will be located, identified, monitored, and remotely controlled through technologies such as radio-frequency identification, sensor networks, tiny embedded servers, and energy harvesters - all connected to the next-generation internet using abundant, low-cost, and high-power computing," Petraeus said.
"the latter now going to cloud computing, in many areas greater and greater supercomputing, and, ultimately, heading to quantum computing." the CIA head added.
Petraeus also stated that such devices within the home "change our notions of secrecy".
Petraeus' comments come in the same week that one of the biggest microchip companies in the world, ARM, unveiled new processors that are designed to give practically every household appliance an internet connection[2], in order that they can be remote controlled and operate in tandem with applications.
ARM describes the concept as an "internet of things".
Where will all the information from such devices be sent and analyzed? It can be no coincidence that the NSA is currently building a monolithic heavily fortified $2 billion facility[3] deep in the Utah desert and surrounded by mountains. The facility is set to go fully live in September 2013.
"The Utah data center is the centerpiece of the Global Information Grid, a military project that will handle yottabytes of data, an amount so huge that there is no other data unit after it." reports Gizmodo.
"This center-with every listening post, spy satellite and NSA datacenter connected to it, will make the NSA the most powerful spy agency in the world."
Wired reports[4] that the incoming data is being mined by plugging into telecommunications companies' switches, essentially the same method the NSA infamously uses for warrantless wiretapping of domestic communications[5], as exposed six years ago.
Former intelligence analyst turned best selling author James Bamford, has penned a lengthy piece[6] on the NSA facility and warns "It is, in some measure, the realization of the 'total information awareness' program created during the first term of the Bush administration-an effort that was killed by Congress in 2003 after it caused an outcry over its potential for invading Americans' privacy."
--
Steve Watson is the London based writer and editor for Alex Jones' Infowars.net[7], and Prisonplanet.com[8]. He has a Masters Degree in International Relations from the School of Politics at The University of Nottingham in England.
(C) 2012 PrisonPlanet.com is a Free Speech Systems, LLC company. All rights reserved.
[1] http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/03/petraeus-tv-remote/
[2] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17345934
[3]
They will not be able to resist 24/7 DRM. Wait 5 years before buying it and see if I'm wrong. :)
They're exactly as evil as Sony but not quite as stupid about it.
I'd go on a Vegan diet but the delivery time from Vega is too long. --brownkitty
It also means that there is no more going out and buying a Sega Jaguar from 20 years ago
I'll assume you meant "Atari Jaguar or Sega Saturn from 20 years ago". With that out of the way:
A game you buy in September of this year on the 360 won't be playable when you upgrade to the XBOX ONE two months later.
How is that true? My buying a Super NES doesn't render my NES Game Paks unplayable on my NES, and just because my cousin plans to buy a Wii U for Smash Bros. U when it comes out doesn't mean the games he already has will stop working on his Wii, no matter whether they're Wii discs, GameCube discs, or from Wii Shop. How does buying an Xbox One break your 360?
On Steam (well, PC in general - let's stop acting like Steam is the entirety of PC gaming) - I can still play games I bought ten years ago on my newest rig, even though it is the tenth machine I've built in ten years.
Is that true even for games that use additional third-party DRM that counts installations? Or do Steam's terms forbid third-party DRM from enforcing install limits?
Gamestop is pretty crappy and so is their exploitive business model.
If you break GameStop, you also break person-to-person sales of game media on eBay and the like.
They will just make more games online only, no disc
As I understand the Xbox licensing structure, if a company doesn't ship a certain amount of discs, it isn't deemed a "publisher" and thus has to rely on another publisher that does ship disc games for slots in Microsoft's XBLA release schedule.
I think people are looking for a 3rd option this next generation (or 4th if you include the Wii U a part of this next generation). I don't think it's going to be either Sony or Microsoft.
Would this third option be Ouya or a home theater PC?
MS is just following Steam's lead.
That depends on whether Microsoft considers brown-nosing an established disc game publisher for an XBLA release slot to be equivalent to the Greenlight process.
Who in the world wants to physically switch a disk every time you change games? Why can't we be free of disks and move into the 21st century? I would MUCH rather have a console that silently phoned home once a week than one that tethered me to an archaic disk. Microsoft should not have listened to all the complainers.
Have you considered the absurd and audacious option of just disconnecting the Kinect when not using it? Use a power strip and turn it off when not using the console: problem solved. Use a wired Ethernet connection to the console and disconnect it when you don't need it to be online: problem solved.
It's not like the Kinect is some first cousin of the PowerPwn with built-in WiFi or something. If you disconnect it (from the console, from the power grid, or from the Internet) it has exactly zero ways to spy on you. Get a grip, people; it's not like there's some law that if you have a Xbox One, the sensor must remain online at all times. This is ludicrous.
There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
Sony tried a milder version of that last generation. It bit them, hard. Really, really hard. Lawsuits and downtimes and massive expenses and multi-month losses of revenue hard.
On the extremely unlikely possibility that Microsoft would do something so stupid as what you describe, well, it's not hard to guess what would happen: the backlash would be incredible. Since you apparently failed to make this eminently logical conclusion yourself, I suspect you're a fanboy (or perhaps more accurately hater) too blinded by emotion to apply logic to the situation, so you would probably cheer if Microsoft were to do something like that. It could easily mean the end of their presence in the entire market segment within a year or two.
Oh, and to pre-emptively address the "I didn't think they'd be so stupid as to make these policies in the first place" argument: yes, that hurt them some, but they backed off before the product reached launch. Not a single customer was ever impacted in any way by those policies, because thus far, there *are* no customers, and the policies are no longer in place. So... a little stupid to push that far at and before E3, but quite smart of them to back off now, before anybody is affected.
There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
This gives us a lot of insight into the desires of Microsoft, if they had their druthers. Given half the chance they'll hold their customers down and ass-fuck them. This move made SONY look like GOOD GUYS. Decide with your dollars wisely.
Exactly...
Sony is better on the subject of DRM? Sony, the company that retroactively removed features from their last console via mandatory update? Sony, the company that sued hackers who managed to re-enable those features? Sony, the company that included automatically-installing rootkits on audio CDs all in the name of DRM? You think *that* company is better?
Microsoft never actually *did* a damn thing to you, at least not on this topic. They said they were *going* to do something. Potential customers (there are no actual customers; the product hasn't been released yet!) said "do that and we won't buy it!" Microsoft said "OK, we won't do that then."
Some people...
There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
It wasn't "the people" they listened to, it was the sounds of Sony destroying them at E3.
"we've got trenchcoats and bad attitudes" - John Constantine, HellBlazer
You'd have to be some kind of lunatic to not go with the PS4 this generation.
Sure they just ditched their most objectionable aspects, but what does the XBONE have to offer now? It's still less powerful hardware, still costs more, still has forced Kinect, and simply doesn't offer anything that the PS4 doesn't. Unless you can't live without your precious Halo.
The aspects of the XBONE you could have grudgingly said were forward thinking are getting removed when the DRM does!
Not entirely true. One somebody did something, SONY. They used three-left-footed Microsoft to go preaching to the gaming choir, and then shoved their pre-order page up ASAP to drive the point home. I don't believe for a second that the internets would have ever been enough to turn that ship. But when your competitor very openly makes bank at your expense, even the dolts in marketing wake up real quick.
Microsoft will just silently re-add the missing features later on when all this has died down.
"They also dropped region-lock outs.!!! YEEEEHAW!!!!
SONY burned out their pond really well......
The Xbone connected to the .... wanker bone ...
...the good parts of the original system, such as trading and gifting games without needing the disc, or sharing games with remote family members
If it's a game system and the "good points" don't include //playing the games//, maybe you're doing it wrong?
if (!diskInTray) //do nothing
{
onlineCheckDoesTheGameStillBelongToUser
}
else
{
}
Last car I bought, I questioned them on it and they specifically do not use those, but my family has a tradition of making it clear that they will refuse to purchase any vehicle on which such a decal is affixed.
It's amazing how willing they are to either remove or not apply such a decal when you make it clear that you won't buy a car with one. All you have to do is tell them with unyielding firmness.
In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
but instead they did it for the survival of the XBox and even MS itself. They are still wolves but at least they are wearing sheepskins...
Screw Microsoft. Don't give them money.
I for one welcome our new Microsoft overlords.
Oh wait...
Clearly the low number of preorders has got them on the backfoot.
I swear i NEVER thought I would ever see the day that M$ was more responsive to it's customers needs than either Apple or Google. Looks like the "Big Bad Beast" has gotten a conscience.. while the "do no evil" camp has slowly become the devil incarnate... I think I like those guys at Redmond just a tiny bit more.... ;-)
It feels like MS used the gaming community as a focus group in a social experiment.
I still will be purchasing the PS4. To me, Microsoft has already demonstrated that they are willing to push boundaries on DRM. I do not applause Sony for their DRM strategies either but I feel I am choosing the lesser of two evils. To be sure though, even though they have removed the E.T. restriction, they still will have this unused code/system. We know from GTA games what happens to unused code. I don't trust them not to update the software in the future with incremental DRM updates that may someday resemble what they just pulled. Instead of doing it all at once though, they would take the incremental "improvement" approach much like apple.
I am a reformed PC gamer that plays console games exclusively now. I play predominantly online, and the reason behind the departure were three fold. 1.) Being able to play with multiple people in the living room. Yea, I did LAN parties back in the day, but that really is inconvenient. 2.) Cheating - I'm very competitive and I know it still happens on consoles (took awhile for the PS3), but there are far less people with modded games on consoles then PC. I need Valve and Steam and Pipe or whoever have helped rectify that to an extent, but its still far more common on PC 3.) And last, and probably the biggest... Everyone's console is the same. If I'm getting smoked at an FPS, its because the foul mouthed 12 year old on the other end is better then me.. Not because I didn't shell out $600-1000 on a video card and his mommy and daddy did. Kind of like Tom Curise in Days of Thunder "stock cars are built to run equal. I won't be beaten by a car, only by a driver". Or the game that comes out 3 years from now will work on my console without needed X Y or Z. So for the 50 people in this thread that keep saying just do PC gaming... That's why not.
I just wish Microsoft would listen to consumer complaints that quickly regarding their other big turd, Windows 8...
Microsoft Kills Xbox One. Phone-Home DRM!
Now which system rates higher?
as long as consumers make a bug enough racket, the companies will eventually listen. I'm betting my money that they'll find ways to bring DRM back without causing an uproar like before.
I meet this news with mixed reaction, on the one hand it is a blessing for those who enjoy a more 'open' console gaming experience, let us not forget that not everyone is made of money when it comes to buying video games, so its easy to see why that was a big issue, and not everyone has a half decent internet connection although that may be hard to believe for those who do. On the flip side of the coin however, developers need paying for their hard work and there is no doubt used games take money out of developers / publishers pockets. Also I really can see the benefit of a more connected box, games can leverage the power of cloud computing, more frequent updates enriching the experience etc. Here's hoping MS can merge the best of both worlds to everybody's satisfaction ;)
Citation needed.
Show me a review that shows a 20% real world boost from going to 1066 to 1333.
I have looked up going from 1333 and 1600, and it makes almost no difference whatsoever (about the only thing it might give you is some extra OC headroom, which you won't be able to do on a console anyway).
You would be hard pressed to find a real world review of going from DDR to 2, or even 3, without platform changes requiring other cpu/apu or other technology dictating the change.
That said, it was the minute amount of memory that both the Xbox360 and the PS3 had that dictated gaming challenges, so the faster you could potentially swap data in and out would seem to be critical. However this does not appear to be the case with the new systems (though I am sure time will tell), as both seem to be addressing the issue.
My son, a DIE HARD XboX FAN, was so turned off by this, that he said he will move to ps4, when microsoft killed those plans, I asked my son, will you reconsider now?
my son said why? they thought of it. they killed it for now so they can sell the xbox, just my luck after i buy it they will restart it. im not stupid. I will stay with PS4.
he is 10 years old.
remember, first impressions count. it only take one time to loose someone for life.
To err is human, to really screw things up, you need a robot.
http://www.tekeroyun.com/