EDGE The power of the crowd: how critical and consumer feedback made Xbox One a contender again
- Thread starter polishwonder
- Start date
Here is where you are wrong. The check-in wasn't for digitaly distributed games, it was too allow you to rip discs to your hard drive and then toss the disc away in a drawer and be able to play without the disc in the tray. Something the 360 cannot do, and now thanks to this lack of understanding, neither can the XBO.
Sure, if you don't want to deal with swapping discs or waiting, and listening, to them to spool up for validation every time you bounce from app to app or start up a new game then you could go digital still. Game sizes are tripling though, and not only down load times but ISP caps are going to make the prospect of "going digital" that much harder in the near future.
XBO's DRM bridged this gap as well as added the inherent ease of a digital sharing / family plan, not unlike the one Steam introduced a month later to praise. Realize that MS was not only offering the future but a pretty attractive transition to get there. Sony only offered to cling to the past.
MS is bringing the games and features. And lots of goodies are at launch. Can't ask for much more than that. Not too many (if any) other console launches with so many awesome games at launch (It can be argued Dreamcast has the best). Who wants to wait until 2014 for more games, when it's coming out in 2013.
I would have LOVED this but without the check-in every day. Just a 1 time activation would have been nice, IMO... but I do realize that this would be abused since the content on the disc can be sold.
In a perfect world, the disc would only be playable in demo mode (like XBLA) without activation (1 time). An activation code (or Kinect QR) would be in the case. Lending would only work with a connection check.
QFT
What they forgot is with every other device that is hooked to the net with digital downloads have an adult that understands these benefits. The children who can't bring consoles into the present let alone future can't wrap their brain's around another MS 1st to benefit console gaming. MS just forgot(thought everyone would be onboard?) console gamers maybe as slow as these forums proved time and again so they'll just baby it in slowly hopefully. (fingers crossed)
They were unprepared. Simply as that. Probably their policies wern't set in stone back then - and the onslaught of critical questions revealed the weak preparation.
I too think that MS actually had something great to offer - however there's no excuse for how they handled the situation. They completely lacked empathy.
This is a huge huge business. And they couldn't even anticipate their own customers fears and worries?
With a good, detailed presentation of how the system works (including family sharing etc.) there would have been no outcry.
Of course some idiots jumped at the chance to court controversy - it's MS fault however that they prepared an ideal breeding ground.
Agree. I don't know why they didn't do polls, focus groups, or trial balloons. To just put it all out there like that was pretty dopey, imo. I guess they thought people would embrace all the changes. Woops.
I agree to a certain extent, but I don't think you can blame them entirely. Keep in mind they were dealing with an audience that had convinced themselves ahead of time, before MS had announced anything, that this was an assault on used games and a sin against the laws of gods and men. So as soon as they announce their policy, these folks went into instant freak-out mode and were pretty much not listening to anything they said from that point on.
That really hurt them because there was a lot that needed to be explained because it was pretty much all brand new, at least for consoles. That was difficult enough in of itself, but made even more difficult when a significant portion of your audience is having a hissy fit because they think you're trying to steal all their toys. Unfortunately since we don't really have much in the way of credible journalism in the gaming/tech sector, the hissy fit became the story rather than what MS was trying to do.
So yeah, MS did fail in their messaging, I'm certainly not trying to argue otherwise. My point is that it wasn't entirely a self-inflicted wound. We have to acknowledge the role of the gaming press and the influence on that press by sites that trade in rumor and speculation to get web hits.
Well, for one, the news broke at a really bad time. The Sim City disaster had just happened, rumors of 3 minute DRM had hit the net, and then the Adam Orth situation. When Microsoft announced it (even though it was only 24 hours), people were ready for a fight.
That, coupled with the other bad rumors, like the used game DRM, forced Kinect, and the entire reveal's focus being on T.V. and Sports was a big mistake in messaging for MS. They pretty much said what every single hardcore gamer didn't want to hear about.
If they had revealed the console as what people see it as now, things probably would have been a lot different.
I truly and honestly blame Don Mattrick for the mess. That guy drank his own Kool-Aid and thought Kinect was the s**t. He left MS crippled and then took 5 million dollars and a CEO position at Zynga.
That, coupled with the other bad rumors, like the used game DRM, forced Kinect, and the entire reveal's focus being on T.V. and Sports was a big mistake in messaging for MS. They pretty much said what every single hardcore gamer didn't want to hear about.
If they had revealed the console as what people see it as now, things probably would have been a lot different.
I truly and honestly blame Don Mattrick for the mess. That guy drank his own Kool-Aid and thought Kinect was the s**t. He left MS crippled and then took 5 million dollars and a CEO position at Zynga.
Obviously they thought they were better and smarter than us all. Their arrogance and agenda only started to waiver when they realized we weren't the mentally challenged pushovers they thought we were and they feared the bottom line.
Haha, and now Zynga is in a death spiral!
Code:
http://www.bing.com/news/search?q=zynga&go=&qs=n&form=NWBQBN&pq=zynga&sc=8-5&sp=-1&sk=
Is that true?
I always thought they did it but based it on the most popular things on the 360 at the end of the generation when they had pretty much given up on first party development of games in any quantity. That and they simply forgot that it is the hardcore that purchase at launch not the casual audience that are in the fold by the end of a cycle skewing those numbers.
Agreed. But I'd say it was both Don and Ballmer. It was Ballmer that made advertisers, advertisers, advertisers a priority. And that ties back in with Kinect.
Wouldn't work - you could buy a disc, install it, sell it to someone else who doesn't opt in and you've suddenly got two people playing the full game for one purchase.
yeah, but either way, we end up pretty well. In the end, this model fits my internet situation at home better, but I am in the minority.
Those that buy the game on disk, require the disk check and can't share. Those that buy the game digitally, not disc, can share.