Microsoft Responds to Xbox One Petition to bring back DRM

4.7
Xbox One chief product officer Marc Whitten has responded to the recent fan petition asking Microsoft to re-reverse their Xbox One policies. In an interview with IGN, Whitten lamented Microsoft’s back-and-forth messaging since May, admitting that the company still has a lot to work on when it comes to communicating with consumers.

“I think it’s pretty simple. We’ve got to just talk more, get people understanding what our system is,” Whitten told IGN. “The thing that’s really gratifying is that people are excited about the types of features that are possible, and it’s sort of shame on us that we haven’t done as good of a job as we can to make people feel like that’s where we’re headed.”

“The number one thing I want to do is I want to get the product out, because people are going to use it and obviously a lot of this is more evident, but certainly what I want to do right is now is talk more about how we thought about these features,” he continued. “How we thought about how Xbox Live works, how digital works. I see people feeling like we’ve moved away from digital, when certainly I don’t believe that’s the case. I believe we’ve added on choice for people. It was an addition of a feature onto Xbox One, not a removal of a feature. And I understand people see things like Family Sharing and they’re like, ‘Wow, I was really looking forward to that,’ which is more of an engineering reality time frame type-thing.”

As far as the petition, Whitten believes that kind of response is directly related to Microsoft’s recent ability to communicate its policies.

“What it tells me is we need to do more work to talk about what we’re doing because I think that we did something different than maybe how people are perceiving it,” he said. “When I read some of the things like that petition, from my perspective we took a lot of the feedback and, while Xbox One is built to be digital native, to have this amazing online experience, we realized people wanted some choice. They wanted what I like to call a bridge, sort of how they think about the world today using more digital stuff. What we did, we added to what the console can do by providing physical and offline modes in the console. It isn’t about moving away from what that digital vision is for the platform. It’s about adding that choice. Frankly, I think we need to just do more to let people see how the console works, what they’re going to be able to do for it. I think a lot of the things they’re wishing for are frankly there.”

“What it tells me is we need to do more work to talk about what we’re doing because I think that we did something different than maybe how people are perceiving it,” he said. “When I read some of the things like that petition, from my perspective we took a lot of the feedback and, while Xbox One is built to be digital native, to have this amazing online experience, we realized people wanted some choice. They wanted what I like to call a bridge, sort of how they think about the world today using more digital stuff. What we did, we added to what the console can do by providing physical and offline modes in the console. It isn’t about moving away from what that digital vision is for the platform. It’s about adding that choice. Frankly, I think we need to just do more to let people see how the console works, what they’re going to be able to do for it. I think a lot of the things they’re wishing for are frankly there.”

On the subject of the removed Family Sharing feature, we asked Whitten if any kind of road map is in place to restore the ability to share your digital library with family and friends.

“If it’s something that people are really excited about and want, we’re going to make sure that we find the right way to bring it back,” Whitten said. “A ‘road map’ sort of implies more like ‘on date X it’s back’ than I think exists, but we believe really strongly in how you build a great experience on Xbox One for me as an individual, but also for my family. Family Sharing is a great example of how you do that with content. I think you’re going to see us, both with examples like that and with other things, keep pushing on how that’s something great. An example is some of the stuff we’re doing with what we announced around Gold, where other people in the house get the advantages of Gold when I’m a Gold member. You’re going to see us continue to push in those areas.”

Posted:
Related Forum: Xbox Forum

Source: http://uk.ign.com/articles/2013/07/12/microsoft-shame-on-us-for-xbox-one-messaging

Comments

"Microsoft Responds to Xbox One Petition to bring back DRM" :: Login/Create an Account :: 214 comments

If you would like to post a comment please signin to your account or register for an account.

RuinsPosted:

Woobie There are a lot of things I will never understand about this world.. this being one of them.


to be honest no one understands what is happening to the human race except for the fact it is deteriorating

WoobiePosted:

There are a lot of things I will never understand about this world.. this being one of them.

BruhPosted:

Yin
liamcole123 How is this milking your money? It's the exact same system that Steam uses but with more flexibility, if millions of PC gamers don't have a problem with this then I'm sure a few uneducated folk on Xbox can live with it! Seriously research what the DRM brings with it!


Being the educated person that I am, I see it being a problem being like Steam. You don't actually own your games with Steam. You paid for the right to play it, but not the game itself. That means that they can cancel your subscription and delete/ban your account at anytime. You will lose your games that you paid for, and there will be nothing legally you can do. In my eyes, that is a problem. Until they make some laws that protect the consumer from things like this, I will never be behind the DRM or strictly digital sales. This is why physical copies are the smarter way at the moment. We need laws that protect consumers, then we can move forward with being all digital.


They wont just ban you or delete your account for just any reason you would have to be modding or doing something getting banned for and if the licensing is like it is now then the games will still work on that console btw how would they "delete" your account ? one more thing is I guess you dont download arcade games and GoD games cause you dont own them? no because you can play them now and in the future

RuinsPosted:

Yin
liamcole123 How is this milking your money? It's the exact same system that Steam uses but with more flexibility, if millions of PC gamers don't have a problem with this then I'm sure a few uneducated folk on Xbox can live with it! Seriously research what the DRM brings with it!


Being the educated person that I am, I see it being a problem being like Steam. You don't actually own your games with Steam. You paid for the right to play it, but not the game itself. That means that they can cancel your subscription and delete/ban your account at anytime. You will lose your games that you paid for, and there will be nothing legally you can do. In my eyes, that is a problem. Until they make some laws that protect the consumer from things like this, I will never be behind the DRM or strictly digital sales. This is why physical copies are the smarter way at the moment. We need laws that protect consumers, then we can move forward with being all digital.


i agree, i think microsoft also saw this

YinPosted:

liamcole123 How is this milking your money? It's the exact same system that Steam uses but with more flexibility, if millions of PC gamers don't have a problem with this then I'm sure a few uneducated folk on Xbox can live with it! Seriously research what the DRM brings with it!


Being the educated person that I am, I see it being a problem being like Steam. You don't actually own your games with Steam. You paid for the right to play it, but not the game itself. That means that they can cancel your subscription and delete/ban your account at anytime. You will lose your games that you paid for, and there will be nothing legally you can do. In my eyes, that is a problem. Until they make some laws that protect the consumer from things like this, I will never be behind the DRM or strictly digital sales. This is why physical copies are the smarter way at the moment. We need laws that protect consumers, then we can move forward with being all digital.

RuinsPosted:

Bruh
RATF
Oxidize So what does it mean if they bring this back?


this will basically restrict your access.


I dont know for a fact but im almost positive if you have the disc you can play offline


nope. They even confirmed that you won't be able to play offline...

BruhPosted:

RATF
Oxidize So what does it mean if they bring this back?


this will basically restrict your access.


I dont know for a fact but im almost positive if you have the disc you can play offline

RuinsPosted:

Oxidize So what does it mean if they bring this back?


this will basically restrict your access.

RuinsPosted:

liamcole123 How is this milking your money? It's the exact same system that Steam uses but with more flexibility, if millions of PC gamers don't have a problem with this then I'm sure a few uneducated folk on Xbox can live with it! Seriously research what the DRM brings with it!


the only thing i did not like about the DRM was the Online part

liamcole123Posted:

How is this milking your money? It's the exact same system that Steam uses but with more flexibility, if millions of PC gamers don't have a problem with this then I'm sure a few uneducated folk on Xbox can live with it! Seriously research what the DRM brings with it!