Microsoft to Pull Complete Reversal on Xbox One DRM Policies

CHOO CHOO! HYPE TRAIN(?)

Hahahahahahahahahahaha.

Joking aside, that's actually pretty cool. I'd still buy the PS4 before the XOne, though, because I feel like Microsoft is charging $100 more for a piece of hardware (Kinect) I couldn't possibly care less about.

SCOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOp!!!! See what I did there? little p

This.

I was really excited at being able to own the physical copy, yet still have the convenience of a digital game.

However, if this is true, it will be a more awesome epic fight from now on. I was really hating all the hate solely on one system.

"We've been closely listening to consumer feedback."

"We've been closely watching preorder numbers." would probably be more accurate.

Boom goes the dynomite! What the Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuk! damn I never thought they would do this!!! now they just need a $399 sku and the war is ooonnnn!!!

HAWT SCOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP

Nicely done, Klepek.

SCOOOOOOOOOPS SON!!!

No brainer for MS, they look bad now but it'll be firmly in their rear-view now, leading up to thanksgiving.

Well, quite the turn around, but in the face of Sonys proposition I'm not surprised, what else could they do? In fact I think more of them for responding and realising what a stupid idea it was.

Bad idea posting this before anything official is said.

I though GB was staunchly anti-rumor.

WHAT ABOUT THE INFINITE POWER OF THE CLOUD?

Seriously though, it's still overpriced for what the console offers.

OOOOOH, DROP A BOMB ON IT!

ps4 is still my choice, there are other things, many things about the console as to why i wont be getting it

Gloves off and it's fightin' time.

This ^^

HILLARIOUS, I bow to you.

Wow. Looks like yesterday's Humble Bundle contained pie!

hahahahha

Wow now they need to lower the price but i don't see that happening, I still going for PS4 first at least initially, I just don't trust someone that would make a turnaround that quickly. Anyway you see it most of the games coming out will be on both platform.

SCOOPSS! But seriously, Patrick and Giant Bomb aren't ones to post rumors like this. Wonder who the source is?

#HOTSCOOPZ

And with a devilish grin, Scoops pressed the "Publish article" button, screamed "If I leave, I'm taking GiantBomb down with me! I'm OUT", ran away and was never seen again.

But in all seriousness if this is true...I don't know anything anymore. At least GB is up again.

Scooooops!

They're going to pull a 360 and walk away from the Xbox One DRM policies.

idiots...

It is unclear what caused this huge change in policy right after E3

Oh, I think it's very clear.

I hear it was none other than Adam Boyes himself, that got Microsoft to overturn their DRM policy.

Pretty surprising that they would do a complete 180 on these issues. Granted, that's what people wanted, but we never thought that would actually happen. Good on them though, this will make the competition between Microsoft and Sony more fun to watch!

I would be really wary of this if it was coming from pretty much anyone except the GB crew.

SCOOPS

To everyone who thought shareholders held more power than public opinion (their justification for Microsoft not retracting their DRM policies):

You have no idea how capitalism works.

" Multiple sources inform me Microsoft will announce...."

oh god the vague rumor scoops strike again. Can we please get credible sources before we post Patrick?

Sweet, now I may actually buy one(assuming this is true)

If this is true this is great news

Doubt it. MS has been defending these positions since their announcement.

Considering Scoops' "inside sources" told him Sony would enact the same policies, I'll take this with a grain of salt.

Wow, that's... Whoa.

You realise that they don't want to be named, because they are probably not allowed to talk about it?

interesting. im getting both systems but as a game collector this makes me happy

Wow, this is superbly dumb. Now they just look like backpedal-ers. I was interested in seeing what kind of things could be done with a 100% online community, questions of DRM aside. Where does this put all of the cloud tech if not every player has access to it? This seems like way too big of a change to pull post-announcement.

Sweet! time to preorder

@saga: That's super dumb to pre-order something because of info that hasn't even been confirmed.

Doubt it. MS has been defending these positions since their announcement.

Considering Scoops' "inside sources" told him Sony would enact the same policies, I'll take this with a grain of salt.

I was expecting they might chance policy if sales numbers for the system weren't burning up the charts, but if there changing it before the thing is even out then that is a crazy turnaround.

@jasonleeson: "Region locks have been dropped"

This is amazing and consumers won and we were right to bitch this loud and I'm proud of us. But it's too little too late. They've already killed a lot of confidence in their product, and that's especially bad when the general opinion about Microsoft in general is pretty low - I know I'm not the only person to go from almost exclusively playing on Xbox 360 at the beginning of the generation to being so sick of Live and the ads and the bad interface that I only turn on the 360 when I have no other options. All this really changes is that the One has gone from "I will never purchase that anti-consumer piece of garbage ever" to "well maybe I'll consider this when the price drops to $300 if there's some exclusives I've got to play," and that sure as hell doesn't help them now.

If this is true it'll be a more interesting stretch up until the consoles release, that's for sure.

Wow...

This is possibly one of the worst PR management fiascos I've ever seen. You don't go to E3 to 'test' the public opinion on your policies, you present them to the public when you already have an idea of what will sell. Do they expect everyone who payed attention to them all these past weeks, as they justified anti-consumer policies as if WE were the ones at fault, to suddenly have renewed faith in them as a company just because they forced themselves into a compromising situation?

It's obvious that Microsoft is changing it's ways not because it's good for the industry, or even its customers, but because they've screwed up so much that the only way for them to look even remotely attractive is to copy the more successful company. They've already shown their hand, have let us see first-hand the future they would prefer come to pass had it not been for the enormous public outcry. While Sony could have enforced the same spiteful measures against gamers, they at least have the benefit of the doubt when it comes to all this DRM atrocity. We honestly don't know how the company really feels about it all, and that engenders trust. But we know that, given the chance, Microsoft would see fit to treat us like cattle, and what goodwill they had shriveled up once they flew their true colours.

While this is undoubtedly better for everyone in the end, it's still surprising to see people hailing Microsoft as saviours; you don't get to threaten people with the absolution of their rights, apologize, and have everything be just dandy afterwards.

@moab: You win!

SCOOOOOPS.

This is great news. As a long time card carrying Xbox fanboy, I was distraught at the idea of passing on the X1.

Don't get me wrong, I like all the consoles and I own all the consoles and a gaming PC. I use "fanboy" only in jest. The Xbox has had two console cycles as my go-to platform. But I wasn't prepared to support a console that has to call home to daddy every 24 hours, no matter if the reasons were pure in design or malicious. It's too far. Even STEAM has an offline mode.

That said, I hope they don't dial it back too far. I think a lot of the things they were doing had potential, and just got mishandled by people who shouldn't be put in front of cameras or talk where people can hear them. (Mattrick).

For the record, I don't mind if Mattrick talks to dogs. Or bears. Especially bears.