Microsoft drops DRM policy for the New Xbox One, is this good for gamers? [Podcast]

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When Microsoft announced the highly anticipated Xbox One, Many gamers were not happy to hear that the new Xbox One gaming System would have DRM policies that would check up on its gamers every 24 hours. Now, after much criticism, Microsoft has backed down. Lets find out just how these DRM policies would have affected gamers and how not having these 24 hour checkups made the Xbox One loose some pretty nice features, which would have set the Xbox One apart from the PS4.

Click here to listen to the podcast concerning Microsoft’s Xbox One’s DRM problems

So how would Microsoft's DRM policies have affected gamers and the Xbox One?

We will not dwell too much into this, since Microsoft could not even fully explain how all this DRM stuff would have worked out, but there were to main points that Xbox gamers were royally upset about:

#1: 24 hour check-ups -

Microsoft would have required for the Xbox One to be always connected to an internet connection. This would allow the Xbox One to check in once every 24-hours, just to make sure everything was ‘a-ok’. If your new Xbox One was disconnected for more than 24 hours, you would not be able to play any games (even off-line), until you reconnected the Xbox One so that it could check into Xbox Live.

#2: Restrictions with how you sell, trade and share your used game disks:

When a gamer would purchase a new game from lets say, Gamestop, as soon as that disk is inserted into the Xbox One, it would have to be registered to an Xbox Live account. This would make that specific game disk tide to a specific Xbox Live account. This means that once the gamer is done with the game and wanted to sell it, they would have to go through some hoops to be able to maybe trade it in or give it away to another gamer friend.

Why did Microsoft drop its DRM policies from the Xbox One?

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Many current Xbox 360 gamers were already threatening to switch over to Sony's new PS4. Sony had made it clear that pre-owned game sales would be fully supported on its new machine.

Amazon had a poll asking which Gaming system would players choose for pre-order, the Xbox One or PS4, as you could imagine the PS4 was highly in favor. Gamers were so in favor of the PS4 (94% of gamers in favor of the PS4), over the Xbox One, that Amazon closed the poll a couple days early. Before Amazon closed the poll, the new Sony PS4 had 38,984 votes VS Xbox One's 2,162 votes.

After a couple of days of non-stop criticism from gamers about these DRM policies, Microsoft caved in. Microsoft decided to listen to its gaming customers and remove the DRM restrictions. But by removing these restrictions every one protested against, other neat Xbox One features that made the Xbox One truly next-gen had to go also.

What cool features did Microsoft have in mind for the Xbox One?

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Microsoft talked up a potential for an online exchange service where players would be able to sell old/unwanted digital game purchases, without having to head into a store with a bundle of game discs and hoping for an OK buy back price. We wont be seeing a digital pre-owned market place any time soon without those DRM policies in place.

A cool feature Microsoft had showed off at E3, was the ability to digitally share your Xbox One games with up to 10 family members. Now you can kiss that digital sharing good bye. Gamers will now have to share the old fashion way by sharing the disk, instead of just logging online and playing straight from an Xbox Live account.

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Also what might have been one of the best features Microsoft had going for the Xbox One, was the ability to play all your games without a disk. Once you would have bought a new game from the Walmart or BestBuy, you would initially put the game into your Xbox One so you can register the game and upload it. After that, you would never have to worry about loosing or scratching your game disk because the game would have already been uploaded to your Xbox One. You would have been able to just chuck the CD out if you wanted too. Xbox One games will now work just like Xbox 360 games. You can Still buy the games like normal, then take them back to your local store to trade them in for something else, or just give/trade them with friends.

Why did Microsoft need to take away these cool features when they got rid of the DRM policies?

Microsoft needed to figure out a way to give its gamers some great new features, without allowing people to take advantage of the system. Without DRM and authentication policies being in place, gamers would be able to just bypass the marketplace entirely.

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For example, gamers could be able to share games with up to 10 people, but if none of these gamers ever went online to check-in, they would never have to pay for another game again. There needed to be some kind of rules or restrictions put in place for these new Xbox Live features to work. This would allow developers of games (such as Forza Motorsport 5) to feel comfortable developing for the Xbox One platform, which in turn would allow gamers to experience some awesome new features only the Xbox One would have to offer.

Was it worth dropping the Xbox One DRM policies?

By forcing Microsoft to loosen its grip on the Xbox One’s DRM policies, gamers lost some key features the Xbox One had over the PS4. Was worth it? Some people will say it sure as hell was, others never even cared about the 24 hour, always online check up requirements.

For now, It seems like Microsoft has made the right decision, by holding back on all these restrictions they were trying to put in place, made gamers feel at ease for now. But hopefully Microsoft does figure a way to get these awesome features back onto Xbox Live. I for sure wouldn't mind sharing my games with friends and family members, without having to give them a disk and also be able to borrow there games online.

What do you think? Was it worth loosing those key Xbox One features? Or do you think it was a bad move for Microsoft to remove those features? Do you think Microsoft will figure a way to get these features back? Let us know in the comments down below.

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