More Xbox One Nonsense

I've seen a lot of people lately defending Microsoft and the Xbox One. Mostly this defense comes from fanboyism or console warrior nonsense, which makes no sense to me. Microsoft (or Sony or Nintendo for that matter) doesn't need you to defend it on message boards around the world. They have a multi-million dollar PR department whose sole purpose is to make their company look good as a whole, if they can’t stop their executives from calling their fans “Backwards” then there is no reason for you to step up to the plate and take a shot at it. More importantly though, is a trend that I’m seeing a lot of with regards to the Xbox One, and that is the “I don't use it, so the console doesn't need it” defense.

It works like this: There are rumors floating around that the Xbox One will lock games to your account when you buy them, and if you give or sell the disc to someone else, they can’t use it to play the game, and must buy the game online at full price, making the disc alone totally worthless. This is a really big deal, and will change the shape of how digital “goods” are perceived, even if only a little bit. The EU courts have ruled on a case where, it was deemed legal to resell digital content, even if it violates the digital EULA, because the person who bought it “owns” it, and can do with it whatever they see fit. The new DRM for the Xbox One laughs in the face of that idea, and basically says that even though you “bought” the game, you don’t actually own it or have any rights to it, and that Microsoft gets to control what you can do with it.

That’s what DRM is, essentially, a company dictating what you can and can’t do with their product, but DRM alone isn't the problem. No one would care if the DRM was totally invisible and would only matter if you did something actually illegal with the software, but it isn't invisible, and is in fact actually quite obtrusive, hence the whole reselling used games problem. Then, when this multi-billion dollar company does this, people come out of the woodwork to defend those actions, and when pressured for reasons they say “well I don't sell my games, so it doesn't matter to me”.

How selfish do you have to be to think that is a reasonable line of thinking? “Oh, well I don't use that thing, so it might as well not exist! What are other people? Am I not the center of the universe?” Do these people also thing that any food they don't like shouldn't exist? I don't like seafood, but that doesn't mean I think the fishing industry should shut down because “who eats fish anyway amirite?” Just because YOU don’t use something doesn't mean it shouldn't exist, someone else may love or need it. This argument can be used to justify the existence of the TV and Motion features of the Xbox One as well, but the counter-point there is that those features are being implemented in lieu of features that make gameplay better, and will drive up the cost of the system. This new DRM provides no benefit to the consumer and is totally negative. The system and the games will not be cheaper, or better as a result of this system, and even if it doesn't affect you personally in any way, things like cheaper used games are one of the major driving factors of price drops and sales for new content. There may be some argument out there in favor of this new DRM, but “it doesn't bother me” certainly isn't it.

For the record, I used to trade in games and buy used copies, but I don't anymore. At the time I didn't have the money for every new release I wanted, and selling games was a great way to overcome that. I no longer need to sell my games, but that doesn't mean that I approve of this new business model in any way.