Giant Bomb Reax! Xbox One DRM Revised

So, how soon will we see an increase in the cost of games from 60 to 70 dollars from 3rd party publishers? Next Gen day one or a couple years down the road? The people that buy and keep games will continue to pay for everyone else.

(best Johnny Drama impression) Victory!

It's actually worse than that. Now you have people coming out saying, "I hope the whiners are happy" and seriously defending the old system. It's preposterous. It's just cool to go against the grain no matter what.

And the hilarious part? If you actually listen to the interviews Microsoft has given about this today, some of the cool features are still there, like the ability to download your games to any console. The only difference is that it's only for digital games now, which sounds fine to me. If you want the benefits of digital ownership, buy digital. I do it now with my PS3 and I can already download my games to other people's consoles. Right now. My old housemate and I used to share games and DLC because he left his PS3 at his mom's house since I already had one.

Bottom line is people are never happy.

But what the hell does this mean for the "Cloud" stuff Xbox One games are supposed to use? Single player games are now excluded from those that can take advantage of whatever that was actually going to produce, just in case someone is playing offline. Or will there be an decrease in fidelity when offline gaming?

I'm basing these guesses all off the fact MS were really pushing what they can do with the "Cloud" at E3.

Holy shit balls ! nice work scoops

And Sony would stab you in the back if they thought it would ultimately help their bottom line.

If you're only going to deal with companies that truly have your best interest at heart, then you'll never buy anything ever again.

Like Jeff was saying in the video, if this is how crazy things are now; what the hell is going to happen in the next few months leading up to launch?

Someone launches early?

New subsidized pricing models?

Sony throws the camera in there?

Free games in the bundles?

This is going to be a bloody struggle this holiday, and god bless them, everyone. :)

If this is like the US-American election, does Microsoft now run on a Democratic ticket? Or is Sony the democratic candidate with its liberal views. Does NoDRM mean small government or Consumer Financial Protection Bureau? Metaphors, metonyms, synechdoches, tropes, topoi, hypercorrections. War never changes.

Awesome to see Patrick's story getting so much play today. #BigScoops

This certainly doesn't 'undo everything Sony did'. Microsoft has still had a PR disaster and back tracking from it with their tails between their legs isn't a great look, but I suppose it was their only move at this point. Scoops comes through with the goods though, nice one man!

Don't forget Sony's PS3 conference, razielcuts. They had that same arrogance that Microsoft showed this year, having come off of the PS2. Sony is still the same company that would suggest you get a second job to afford their video game console. kentonclay hit the nail on the head. While goodwill is important to these companies, nothing is more important than our dollars.

As for their mentality behind these decisions, you could well be right. We shouldn't forget that this almost happened, and had likely been in the works for years between Microsoft and publishers.

Patrick, awesome job!

canceled my xbox one pre order , the only thing i liked about the system was it didn't need disc's to play games , might as well save the 100$ and buy a ps4

That is the xbox one premise fallacy.. both system can and will run Games without disc. Just buy them digitally.

Actually PS3 and 360 run games without disc as long as they are on their respective store. The whole always online thing, was DRM bullshit plain and simple.

I don't know if I consider this as Microsoft "hitting back" as much as them bending over and taking it.

Kinda weird that the guys clearly didn't even read the entire announcement since they were wondering if the digital sharing "family/friend" stuff was gone.. it clearly says at the bottom "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." So yea, everything they announced previously is gone, read the whole thing guys :X

Anyways, I agree that the timing of this announcement on the same day as Sony's big fuck up with bricking some PS3s can not be a coincidence. They were probably sitting on this waiting for a good chance to announce it and Sony handed it to them on a silver platter. Microsoft saw an opportunity to kick Sony in the balls and they took it, just like Sony did to them at E3. Shit is gettin downright crazy, both sides are fighting tooth and nail for this, no holds bar. As the customers, we can only benefit from this craziness.

Honestly, even if you ignored all the negative feedback they were getting, they had to do this I think, if you looked at what they were saying about the digital games sharing with the "family" stuff, where people could potentially abuse it and form "families" and take turns buying games and sharing them easily, it was looking like that could kill sales even more than used games did and I think publishers realized this and gave them even more shit behind the scenes.

Anyways, though I'm still on the PS4 side, cause Microsoft will probably find another way to try to fuck us or reimplement some of this stuff, this whole thing makes them look like a mess, ps4 has better indie support, ps4 is still 30-40% more powerful, and xbone is still $100 more, I look forward to the next bomb that gets dropped by either side. /popcorn

Do you think that any company out there selling you games is doing it because it's "for the good of gamers". They ALL do it for the money. Companies don't run on hopes and dreams. They all are trying to sell you goods to put money in the companies pockets.

You heard it here first. I will bet that ~month or so from launch MS will announce a subsidized $299 XB1. It will be easy with MS stores going in every Best Buy.

Badass Patrick. Badass. :D

@heatdrive88 said:

Somebody 'shop this pic so that they're on fire.

BIG. PLAYS.

I was not expecting them to do this due to the fact of what Patrick said; there was infrastructure in place on Microsoft's end to support all of this and now that's all been thrown out the window.

Totally and completely blown away by this. No one is safe from the Interview Dumpster.

Congratz, Scoops, on finally breaking a story.

i preordered just in case o.o

@donpixel: i liked the idea of being able to play games from different sources without disc's in the system , my pc can do it , and it doesn't have 24 hr drm . and being able to switch between games with a voice command was cool . they lost their only selling point for me !

He's reported first on a couple stories, I believe. The Infinity Ward saga post MW2 being the most notable.

Fucking nuts.

He also broke the story on West and Zampella getting fired from Infinity Ward.

awesome that Giantbomb and especially Patrick, were the first to report this complete 180 by Microsoft. I knew it would eventually come, but for it to come this fast makes it so much sweeter. Microsoft saw they were on an island by themselves, after Sony told the people they wouldn't limit like Microsoft was doing, Microsoft would've have to of been psycho to keep the DRM stuff. because Nintendo, no matter how small they are, was the first ones to keep it the same, and then Sony stays with the same policy, and with out this 180 they were looking to lose a ton of customers, so bravo Microsoft. #ShotsFired #TheWarIsOn

Awesome job Scoops, but if what we see is more of this when you move to Chicago I'm a little hesitant. After all, we don't need the website to go down every week because of you. Also, I was very glad to see the majority of game journalists congratulating Patrick on Twitter after Microsoft made the announcement. The few who tried to pass off the "our story" line though...

God I love these guys.

Reax? :P

Dave Lang! Watchugot to HIDE!? Patrick can I have your magnificent beard?

Guys? Steam?

Guys! Steam!!!

Don't forget all the tech writers(except for those at Tested) that have consistently shit on 'whiny' consumers since this news broke out today.

It's so crazy to see Patrick have being credited on sites like Time for breaking this. Good job, Patrick.

Proof that "internet rage" can actually change the world. Now about that Prism stuff...

So glad the vocal minority of luddites were able to stop our procession into the digital future. I cant wait for the new era of mediocre console iteration now that all the really interesting stuff has been cut.

GOD JOB INTERNET!

Giant Bomb, continuing to break huge stories. Kudos, Patrick!

I NEED to know

Scoops always scooping till the end.

@pitta: God job, indeed.

Yeah, it sucks that we'll actually own the things we pay for and don't have to worry about our $499 gaming consoles practically turning to bricks if the authentication servers go down. Such innovation will truly be missed.

@pitta: I see it as mainly a problem with Microsoft's messaging. If things like Jimmy Fallon telling a national audience that the Xbox can't play used games start happening, there's almost no way to reel that back in short of doing what they did today. The older Reax video with GB trying to understand their digital policies outlines a serious problem in their push. Their PR and Marketing departments must be losing their minds.

I think the difference between this and other instances of "internet rage" regarding games or the gaming industry is that there is way more money on the line here (at least for Microsoft). For example, complaining about a game after it's already come out and they already got your money does not have nearly as much of an impact as complaining about a console that isn't out for a while, resulting in a huge drop in pre-orders compared to your competition.

Couldn't think of a better farewell gift, Patrick. Congrats.

As for the news itself, I'm still with Sony. This doesn't change my mind at all, though it definitely is a good thing. But man, this console launch is going to be a bloodbath, perhaps unlike any before it.

For more news and reviews in the world of video games, find me... in the Giant Bomb Interview Dumpster.

LOL, Interview Dumpster.

Patrick proving there is still some journalism in the games press. I love it. Shit like this is why Patrick will be missed on the bombcast and live shows; he's great at his job. I mean he broke the shady dismissal of the Infinity Ward guys and now this.

Patrick summons up his inner Doakes.

The difference is that pre orders proved that people weren't just full of shit when they said they would get the PS4 over the Xbox One. All the naysayers could wave anything away as "internet rage", but when people voice their opinions with their wallets they could no longer be denied.

Microsoft didn't listen to feedback. They were getting feedback for over a month. They listened to pre order numbers.