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Four Years Later, Xbox Exec Admits How Microsoft Screwed Up Disc Resale Plan (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: We're now approaching the four-year anniversary of Microsoft's rollout (and subsequent reversal) of a controversial plan to let game publishers limit resale of used, disc-based games. Looking back on that time recently, Microsoft Corporate Vice President for Windows and Devices Yusuf Mehdi acknowledged how that rollout fell flat and discussed how hard it was for the firm to change course even in light of fan complaints at the time. In a blog post on LinkedIn posted last weekend, Mehdi writes: "With our initial announcement of Xbox One and our desire to deliver breakthroughs in gaming and entertainment, the team made a few key decisions regarding connectivity requirements and how games would be purchased that didn't land well with fans. While the intent was good -- we imagined a new set of benefits such as easier roaming, family sharing and new ways to try and buy games, we didn't deliver what our fans wanted. We heard their feedback, and while it required great technical work, we changed Xbox One to work the same way as Xbox 360 for how our customers could play, share, lend, and resell games. This experience was such a powerful reminder that we must always do the right thing for our customers, and since we've made that commitment to our Xbox fans, we've never looked back." It's an interesting reflection in light of an interview Mehdi gave to Ars Technica at E3 2013, when the executive defended Microsoft's announced plans for Xbox One game licensing. Mehdi, then serving as Xbox chief marketing and strategy officer, stressed at the time that "this is a big change, consumers don't always love change, and there's a lot of education we have to provide to make sure that people understand... We're trying to do something pretty big in terms of moving the industry forward for console gaming into the digital world. We believe the digital world is the future, and we believe digital is better."
for Microsoft
Nullius in verba
MS had this long drawn out "you can do this but not that" speech that took minutes to explain.
Sony says "here's how you lend your friend a game with Playstation" and hands a box to his friend.
It didn't even take 10 seconds for Sony to eat MS's lunch there.
If that was their only problem, they could have recovered more easily. But they also had:
- $100 higher price to cover the cost of Kinect -- a device few wanted
- the TV stuff and the Snap interface so you could split-screen TV and gaming -- providing a poor TV-watching experience and a poor gaming experience simultaneously
- a giant box that looked like a VCR with a big external power brick
- somewhat worse performance than the PS4 because of the speed of the RAM interface
It's difficult to dig yourself out of a hole that deep.
"...we imagined a new set of benefits such as easier roaming, family sharing and new ways to try and buy games, ..."
If he can't even be honest about the basic intent of drm as a method of protecting revenue, why should I take ANYTHING else he says as credible?
-Styopa
For anyone that uses the Library Sharing feature of Steam, this is essentially what Microsoft was attempting to do. But because Microsoft was building a traditional console, not a download-only service, is why it was met with such negativity. I'll dis on Microsoft as much as the next guy, but they due try to do new innovative shit all the time, they're just notorious at always fucking it up or never actually releasing it in the first place. Other examples include UAC (sucked in Vista, fixed in 7), WinFS (never released), Photosynth (released, then dead shortly thereafter)
An unfortunate aspect of games this generation - virtually every game needs a large update to make the game playable. The size of the patches and installs means you probably don't have sufficient hardware space so once Sony & Microsoft stop providing online services for the console those disks will effectively be unusable.
As complexity increases it becomes less likely we'll see emulators thus many of these games will be lost forever in ~10-15 years.
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Uno.
They can take my LifeAlert pendant when they pry it from my cold dead fingers.
- $100 higher price to cover the cost of Kinect -- a device few wanted
What do you mean nobody wanted a microphone and HD camera focused 24/7 on their living room or bedroom (or kid's bedroom)?
It was also intended as a platform to force-feed ads, first and foremost:
http://www.sticktwiddlers.com/...
So what about the future of advertising on the Xbox One? “It’s going to be an exciting transition though because the 360 console wasn’t built with advertising in mind, it was more of an afterthought, so we’ve had to adapt to the technology and how we work to fit them in to the console,” said Technical Account Manager for Xbox LIVE Advertising, “whereas this new one is going to have advertising in mind. So a lot of the limitations that we have now, hopefully the release of the boundaries will widened so the opportunities will be a lot greater.”
http://hothardware.com/news/mi...
The Xbox is developing native advertising, where ad content is displayed alongside relevant material, either embedded in search results, promoted on a network like Facebook, or a "Liked X? You'll Love Y!" style of marketing. Not to worry, though -- the company plans to use Kinect to make these advertisements even more engaging than their current counterparts. In the future, Kinect may offer you a "Choose Your Own Adventure" style narrative in which you speak commands or give orders to an ad as its playing to change the final outcome.
The other way the company wants to use Kinect is to monitor what's going on in the living room to serve you group-appropriate content, rather than resorting to the plain old method of bombarding you with non-interactive advertising for things you don't care about. Microsoft claims that the demographic data the ad team can access is very limited, but it's hard not to see shadows of the same patent for movie licensing that the company applied for last year.
I also hate "ALWAYS ON" connections for anything but mobile games
I hate them even for mobile games. A tablet might not be in range of Wi-Fi, nor might a smartphone on a prepaid plan that includes voice and not data.
People love digital downloads. They love not having to look for a disc with the game on it
Perhaps in the land of FTTH, cable, or VDSL. But if the only Internet access where they live is satellite or fixed cellular, they don't love the overage fees associated with downloads in the double digit GB.
Uno.
Wild card -- draw four, one card for each year since #dealwithit.
Your business has absolutely nothing to do with what you want to sell... it has absolutely everything to do with what your customers want to buy.
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No I don't, that's why I'm asking!
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
"this is a big change, consumers don't always love change, and there's a lot of education we have to provide to make sure that people understand... We're trying to do something pretty big in terms of moving the industry forward for console gaming into the digital world.
Imagine a future where people play games on a digital console, instead of today's crappy analog consoles.
Sheesh! I think we know who needs some education.
The education that they seem to think we need is their plan for us to never own anything, to pay over and over, and to have no say or control over anything.
Once you are able to admit this, you might be able to recover from your mistake. But based upon your statements, Microsoft will continue to shoot themselves in the face.
-- Will program for bandwidth
"...we imagined a new set of benefits such as easier roaming, family sharing and new ways to try and buy games..."
OK, fine, but thats not what people were pissed about, and you know it. There is no rational explanation for DRM (aka digital non-rights) to prevent resale. You want to digitally revolutionize and save money on distribution and make things more convenient for your customers? Fine, but give me a button in my Xbone UI that says "release rights" or some such or better yet, an online marketplace to resell digital content I no longer want. Why should I give up the fundamental right of resale on my $2000 plus library of games just because the original seller saved $7 on not having to sell me a physical disc, case and manual? Hell, digital should give me more rights or a discount, like the right to rent my copy out to others when I'm not using it.
This was a straight up money grab by MS and the developers, and the consumer bitch slapped you down because there was real meaningful competition. Own it and move on.
If you disagree, please post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like
for a fraction of the cost of a boxed retail release. Usually around 87% off (no kidding, $5-$7.50 vs $60). Either that or I'm buying a niche title (like GG Xrd) where I can't really complain about the premium I'm paying since the base sales will be low. On a console if I buy a used disk I might get $20-$30 off that $60 price point (I paid $27 for a copy of Marvel vs Capcom 3 for PS3 used years after release).
So yeah, I'm giving up the ability to sell/share it but I'm paying a fraction of the cost.
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If you're in the US illegally, Trump isn't playing around. You will be deported. Living in Chicago or San Francisco is no protection. ICE is coming for you and you will be deported.
You're really doing well turning America into such a shit hole that no one would ever want to go there for a visit let alone to try and make a living. It's one way to deal with immigration that's for sure.
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I also hate "ALWAYS ON" connections for anything but mobile games (and those are "free" anyway for the most part).
Why does mobile get a free pass? They're mostly free? Well, unless you actually wanna play them they mostly are. You do know mobile games are the absolute worst for hosing consumers and ripping them off? You don't seem to be standing against them even though there is absolutely no sharing, resell, refund or anything on them and they are orders of magnitude worse than console games.
Wanna buy a shirt?
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Don't have sufficient space? I think the smallest XBox One is 500 GB. I have a 1TB model and have used less than half the space after installing five AAA games and a few other things.