This is a pretty bold move by them. They're essentially getting rid of all the changes to the DRM set up from the 360 (which also has DRM; this isn't a complete removal), <i>including all the beneficial changes</i>. Of course, they weren't that compelling to me and introduced a lot of confusion about how they would work and exactly what limitations would be put in place.<p>Looks like they're still going to struggle with the Kinect privacy concerns, but that's more of a PR battle than an actual privacy one. You can turn off Kinect, but you couldn't turn off the Xbox DRM system.
I'm not all that thrilled about this. I wanted to see where Microsoft would go with this. It would have been great if we could transition to a pricing and distribution model similar to Steam. I saw this as a step towards weening console players off of physical media.
"Thank you again for your candid feedback. Our team remains committed to listening, taking feedback and delivering a great product for you later this year."<p>Translated: "Please stop telling us to burn in the 9 circles of Hell. Our team would also like it if you stopped threatening their families."
I am more sad at all the potential advances that have been lost / delayed:<p><pre><code> These changes will impact some of the scenarios we previously
announced for Xbox One. The sharing of games will work as it does today,
you will simply share the disc. Downloaded titles cannot be shared
or resold. Also, similar to today, playing disc based games will
require that the disc be in the tray
</code></pre>
The last thing that next-gen consoles need is to remain anchored to last-gen practices. The road was going to be bumpy but, as many have said before, so was Steam and now everyone loves what it's become.
Good move, but I can still see the one becoming this generations Wii. Sort-of gaming system mixed up with home entertainment and novelty controllers...going up against the PS4 which has similar guts but is designed as a no-compromise gaming system. The Wii did OK to begin with, but was then smashed by 360, I suspect the PS4 will do same to One.
WOW, maybe the hope of DRM being redefined as Dynamic Response Marketing over the more common Digital Rights Managment (We not only know what you did last summer but can dictate all yoru summers), has hope.<p>If anything it shows a more consumer responsive Microsoft, which can't be a bad thing.