Microsoft and Your Rights as an Xbox One Gamer

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I wonder if anybody turned to whoever gave the go ahead for the Xbox One ever had anybody turn to them and say “You know you’ll alienate the people you are meant to be marketing to right?” …what, you are guessing nobody said that? Well I think they should have, because before the Xbox One was revealed people were excited about it and were eager to see what games would be revealed.  Then the reality struck, Xbox One was not about games, it was more about TV and when games were focused on the rules had changed.  Do you think you own those games that you are installing? Not any more, you are only buying permission to play it.

When it comes to gaming news I’m normally fairly laid back, I have to read a lot of it and watch presentations because I write about it a lot, for this and other sites.  With the Xbox One news I could see the disaster that was waiting to happen and I at first thought that all of these new rules would be subject to change, and indeed they were.  The problem was the changes were actually quite small and didn’t fix the problem.

The big problem is Microsoft want to become stricter about how you use your console and how the games will run on it.  In ways it’s understandable, if this cuts down on piracy that would be a good thing right? But no, it’s not just piracy that Microsoft are protecting themselves and publishers from but it’s the curse of the pre-owned game and renting.  The fact is all of these rules like “only ten people can be authorised to use the games” and “games can be sold on but it’s at the discretion of the publisher as to if this can be done and added costs to it” and other rules, oh and don’t forget the dreaded fact that the Xbox One must be able to sign onto the internet at least once in 24 hours.  You would think these were inflated stories made up to turn people against the Xbox One, but the sad fact is these appear to be the new rules, unless Microsoft suddenly have a change of heart.

As E3 finally gets here and we look forward to seeing what games are going to be available not only on the Xbox One but Playstation 4 Microsoft have a huge job on their hands.  I’m sure they expected everybody to be loving the Xbox One right now, and that they would have secured the market, and Sony would be having to fight back, but the truth is Sony has the upper hand and they’ve not even shown what the Playstation 4 looks like yet.  The fact is though Sony got it right by focusing on the games and showing what their machine can do, and Microsoft? Well they are enjoying talking to their machine and watching television with it.

The fact is gamers want a console to play games on, they don’t want a machine that appears to follow the licensing model that PC gaming does.  This model may work on the PC, but the PC market is a very different beast and accepts the DRM problems as being just part of the process, although it’s a nice change when DRM is pushed into the background. The sad fact is though when it comes down to it, Microsoft are the only ones who can decide to change their new rules and by the looks of it they’ve decided we either have to accept it or not live in the magical new world of Xbox One gaming.  With Playstation 4 offering something very similar to what Xbox One can offer though and offering a more user friendly experience, maybe it’s time for Microsoft to rethink what they are doing before it’s too late.  I doubt it though.

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