Hey guys, just giving a quick update and my views on the recent stance taken by Microsoft in regards to the Xbone. Microsoft purportedly reverses their position on the whole DRM, 24-hour online check-in and used games issue. Read all about it here.
So, hurray! *clap clap clap clap* For once the consumers' voice reached the ears of uncaring high-profile executives! *clap clap clap* They did it because they cared! It's not about the sales! Hurrah! Hurrah!
Okay, all sarcasm aside, in general, this is a good thing. Competition in the home console scene is back, to a certain extent. The Xbone has gotten back part of its appeal as a next-gen console, and there shouldn't be anything hugely negative per se to discourage people from purchasing an Xbone.
The Xbone will however still enforce its mandatory-Kinect system. XBLA Gold is required to play online multiplayers, a system similar to Sony's take on online gameplay, but with the PS+ instead. The benefits of having a PS+ subscription far outweighs XBLA Gold's. Also, The HDD can be easily replaced for the PS4, and its raw hardware is better than the Xbone's. Though, exclusives titles which have been revealed thus far spell a better future for the Xbone's audience. Its UI is familiar ground to those who are Windows users, making the interface learning curve incredibly shallow.
Personally, I still feel that the PS4 is a bit more appealing. Raw hardware suggests that it won't reach a performance wall anytime sooner than the Xbone. Its non-mandatory camera usage doesn't expose users to risks of privacy breach, which is a legitimate cause for concern due to the recent exposé on the whole PRISM scandal. It is not verifiable if the Kinect itself can be turned off wholly or it's just a "soft off". Other than that, it seems that the Xbone has turned itself around and start to be more appealing, right?
Well, in the grand scheme of things, I feel that a huger issue needs to be addressed. What is it you ask? This whole scenario of Microsoft attempting to exert its control to monopolise the sales of pre-owned games and enforcing DRM on a scale which totally snuffs out consoles' simplicity, suggest to me that they aren't what gamers are looking for.
Back when they were lauded as anti-consumeristic post-reveal, Microsoft took no official stance and dawdled around in the shadows. The internet was in an uproar over their reveal, which placed no emphasis on games (yes, they want to show off their hardware but to demonstrate a DVD player's ability to go online instead of its ability to smoothly play DVDs is downright silly). After that, their representatives began talking about things which contradict each others' statements, causing further confusion amongst consumers, and perhaps amongst Microsoft employees themselves.
After the whole preliminary shitstorm, E3 came along. Before E3 however, Microsoft released official statements as to the Xbone's policies. This stirred up the murky depths that is the preliminary shitstorm, which had started to settle when E3 was around the corner. A lot of people went nuts over how Microsoft consolidated their stance and how they just outright ignored the words of its existing loyal Xbox fans. Madness. During then, news of Microsoft attempting to push the Xbone to Hollywood celebrities were circulated as well, which didn't really help in their whole "made for gamers" statement.
Then, E3 came along. Their conference showed a few exclusives (Titan Fall exclusive for PC as well, so it's not limited to Xbone) and confirmed its departure from an indie-, game- focused platform to a generic consumer's home entertainment system. The audience was hugely interested in Killer Instinct, a fighting game sequel which its fans had been longing for for ages. Alright, time to move on to the demo's.
E3 proceeded to its next few days, and people were able to test out game demo's on booths. Things were looking bright for the Xbone, until news of its games were being run on high-end PCs which had 4x the processing power of the Xbone, during the press conference and in their demo booths, was made known. Pictures were taken which show the Xbone booths' cabinets having PC's running, with no Xbone console in sight.
After all these shenanigans, after all the confusion and shitstorm Microsoft had stirred up, they FINALLY released a statement that they are going to reverse their stance on things gamers found to be detrimental to, well, gaming. This brings us to where we are today.
Now, granted, some people would argue that everything people were complaining about were non-issues, to which I say, no. Those are valid concerns. If everything went according to the original plan Microsoft had, game retailers and rentals would be out of business, while mindless DRM would encroach upon users and slowly become an unwanted norm. 24-hour check-ins would have been disastrous should Microsoft's servers crash, which is a known issue. Also, those 300,000 servers Microsoft promises, are they all physical servers or virtual ones? If virtual, one machine crashing would equal to multiple servers shutting down. All flair, no substance.
In any case, the way Microsoft has been dealing with this just makes me feel uncomfortable. They are definitely more focused on grabbing your money than giving you bang for your buck. For now, they are making a move to satisfy consumers, but they still managed to retain at least one of their money-grubbing policies, namely making Kinect mandatory for all Xbones. For me, this is their first successful step in their path to anti-consumerism. Well, I'm uber pessimistic.
So yeah. Microsoft not only doesn't know what gamers want, they want to impose their stupid regulations on people so in their perfect world where they dominate the market, everyone has to obey their every single whim.
Okay, I am a supporter of Sony's products, because they haven't given me a good reason to not support them. Back when Sony was partnering with Nintendo, they wanted to implement CDs for the SNES, but Nintendo's obstinance in using cartridges forced Sony to push their own console. When DVDs were no longer satiating digital storage needs, Sony came out with the Blu-Ray. I don't know about you guys but it just seems that Sony knows what's going down and they know what the market needs. I would rather trust them than Microsoft, at least, in the gaming department. I mean, their uncertainty and back-pedalling in policy-making and herd-following (they are trying to imitate Steam's digital sales) just assures me of their ineptitude at understanding the market, at all.
Well, okay, that's that. I am drowsy and this is my rant. Good day to you, and thanks for reading.
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