Microsoft drops all DRM.
- Thread starter phillgt2002
- 304 comments
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- 7,226
- beyond down under
- Skython11
Even if it was always on, there is a very simple solution to the problem (if someone is really paranoid). It comes in the form of a small bit of solid coloured tape, or a small box that you place infront of the Kinect. Then you don't have to worry about being spied on. Or you could just turn the Kinect a direction that it won't be able to see you Why would MS want to be checking that it is plugged in anyway?
It's really good to see MS drop some of the less desirable features of the "One." Listening to fans is something which is usually forgotten, but still. MS didn't think anything of critical fans until the sales showed them falling behind.
Dropping Kinect requirements will be much harder if all games have been created with one. They aren't going to want to sell major AAA games with that 'Kinect Required' label because then it's no different, people will still basically need one even if it isn't bundled.
If MS dropped the kinect out out of the package to create a cheaper skew closer to the PS4 price it really will be game on, today's bombshell announcement evened things up but I say PS4 will still come out of the gate stronger simply due to the cheaper price.
I'm betting they will keep their one skew for now due to all the interface stuff the kinect can be used for, see what happens though.
I'm betting they will keep their one skew for now due to all the interface stuff the kinect can be used for, see what happens though.
- 9,741
- Las Vegas UTC-8
- Wardez
- Wardez
What upsides? Are you talking about the family share plan thing? What else was the Xbone going to do differently? Cloud computing's still there, and it's not like the PS4 isn't capable of doing that either. Marc Whitten said that the family share feature isn't necessarily off the table here:
http://www.giantbomb.com/articles/m...alks-xbox-one-s-big-poli/1100-4675/?preview=1
The only "price" for dropping all of this non-sense restriction, is that the "family share plan" is no longer happening at launch.
Now, were you planning on using this "family" share feature? Which, btw, we're still not sure how restrictive they were going to be with. That is, whether you could add anyone as a family member or if it had to be people on the same network the console checked in with. They were never clear on it, like most things still.
Did you really think that was going to be a gamechanger somehow?
Inevitable, yes, but not a "upside" in this current tech landscape. Every feature has its time and its place. Microsoft effectively tried selling us cellphones in the '80s as a mass market item. We've done fine with taking discs with us we knew we were gonna play at a friend's house. Now we don't have to deal with having to sign in, we can just play it, no nonsense.
When the timing is right, all of this stuff, which is really just Steamworks on consoles, will happen. It'll happen properly, when the whole world has much better and unified internet architecture and common law. We weren't whining and crying about all this for selfish reasons, but for those that would've been left out for absolutely no good reason.
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Ibonibo
Premium
- 5,440
- Luxemburg
- Already paying my Isp 4 Access
So a good thing for people wanting to buy an xbox.
A good article:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...stores-game-ownership-and-expects-us-to-smile
For me I see it this way:
MS wanted to screw us. They now saw how bad they were doing so fast backtrack.
But that doesn't change the fact that they tried to bend us over and **** us. Who says the policies will stay that way.
MS for me is showing the true colours, and now they are acting. I don't buy it.
I only will regain trust in this company once, and this I said before a lot of times, when Ballmer leaves. The guy needs to go.
Yet I am still a windows user, but there (win7) I choose what MS can do and don't.
A good article:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...stores-game-ownership-and-expects-us-to-smile
For me I see it this way:
MS wanted to screw us. They now saw how bad they were doing so fast backtrack.
But that doesn't change the fact that they tried to bend us over and **** us. Who says the policies will stay that way.
MS for me is showing the true colours, and now they are acting. I don't buy it.
I only will regain trust in this company once, and this I said before a lot of times, when Ballmer leaves. The guy needs to go.
Yet I am still a windows user, but there (win7) I choose what MS can do and don't.
CAMAROBOY69
Premium
- 18,567
- Michigan
- CAMAROBOY69
Knew this was going to happen. That's why I stayed out of the X1 and PS4 threads until ms finally confirmed the info. 👍
Haha, sure you did.
- 8,945
- F1 chimp land
- AnotherStory
Laughing my ass of. Mad Matt tries to save his.
- 593
- Lohmar, Germany
- jabofu
- DAG JaboFu
It was needed for several features that they had to drop also with this decision. How about reading the articles and not just rumours and headlines. 👍
And I think it is a good think to include Kinect in every bundle. Now we hopefully get some good support of kinect in some core games. But only optional for people to turn it off, that dont want it. But without having Kinect with every xbox, the devs wouldnt work on it like on the 360.
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- 4,962
- Nelson, England
- GTP_ASH32
They said DRM was not going to be removed and then removed most of it. Yes a few features are not possible now because of that but that wasn't really what my post was about.
It was more about Microsoft saying things like removing the DRM was not possible or was not going to happen and then removing it and how we now don't know for sure, however unlikely, that Kinect is 100% needed and won't be removed at some point in time at the cost of something else, like what has just happened.
- 243
- Norway
- ZeroTheNorth
- ZEROTHENORTH
Glad that Microsoft relised their mistake. But im still slightly over the PS4 side (The price)
Dont get me wrong, i will buy the XB1 at a later time when i get the money.
Im going to enjoy both the PS4 and the XB1 just playing their games and having a great time with them.
Dont get me wrong, i will buy the XB1 at a later time when i get the money.
Im going to enjoy both the PS4 and the XB1 just playing their games and having a great time with them.
- 593
- Lohmar, Germany
- jabofu
- DAG JaboFu
I understand. Answering your point. I think it is just marketing talk. But I think they just want to have Kinect connected to every xbox, so the devs have to use it in a useful and exciting way. No crap kinect games. I want to scan an oject with the kinect and us it in a game like dead rising 3 to smash zombies with it. Just some cool features that are more than mini games.
Plus there is a big potential in Kinect. They have to let indie developers release stuff too. (http://www.kinecthacks.com)
- 893
- Mill Creek, WA
- HighSeasHoMastr
- HighSeasHoMastr
Again, the only answer that anyone has to this right now is we don't know. You can't know that it has to be plugged in to spy on you any more than I can know that it doesn't. All we have to go by is what the manufacturer has said, which is that you can disable it even though it is still plugged in.
Honestly, I'm not even trying to defend it. I know I won't change the mind of anyone who has a deep enough corporate paranoia to think that "Off" actually means "Still on but we don't tell you it's on". All I've wanted, from the start, was for people to stop saying Kinect is "Always On" when literally every hard fact available says that isn't true. I have a standing challenge for anyone to prove, with facts, that Kinect is always on, but nobody has yet.
I understand the difference, but like I said, I don't really see the big issue. In order for Kinect to be recording me without my knowledge, one of two things would have to happen: MS would have to be lying about being able to turn it off, or 2: It gets hacked.
Regarding the first scenario, I've already covered that, and I think we can all agree that MS isn't stupid enough to try something like that, for the reasons I've already mentioned.
Regarding the second option: I suppose this is possible, but so are a lot of things. I don't make a practice of planning for every scenario that is within the realm of possibility. It's entirely possible that the government has a spy satellite trained on me at all times, or that cameras have been secretly installed all over my house while I'm gone at work, but I don't actively change my life to accommodate those possibilities.
This particular idea strikes me as fairly improbable, to the point where I don't really regard it as a real risk. The process to do so would be extremely difficult (hack into XBL, then through my IP to my console, then through my console to Kinect) and I can't really see anyone doing it outside of proving a point (which, once they did, I'm sure would be addressed).
To answer your last question, everyone I live with sees no reason why it should be regarded any differently than a webcam or a cell phone. It won't be recording anything without us knowing its recording, therefore it's basically a non-issue.
All I'm calling you out on is to back up your statements with some evidence. You're contradicting the manufacturer of a product, saying that their press statements are false or misleading, and expecting that I won't want to see some proof...?
This is semantics. If it's not recording/listening, it's off no? And that's exactly what MS say you can make it do. So unless you can provide some proof that you can't...
Major Nelson =/= official MS press release. He's a guy. A human guy. Humans make mistakes. Beyond that, he probably didn't have all the facts at that point, and was doing his best to cover for MS. Obviously he was wrong in that case.
Exactly. Therefore, all we have to go on right now is what MS have said about it. What MS have said is that you can turn it off.
Regardless, this is waaay off-topic now. If either of you want to reply, it might be better to take it to PM/VM or a different thread, so as to not further derail this one 👍
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- 28,352
- Brooklyn, NY
- KR_Viper
- I Renown I
That's precisely my point, we know very little about any of the positives because Microsoft didn't find them important enough to explain for whatever reason. They simply presented these inane policies with no rhyme and reason and expected you to accept them without any justification other than "this is a next-gen box, and we're moving in the right direction."
There was going to be a feature with Live Gold where the service would extend to anyone that used your system, and something else where a person could access Gold features on what I presume to be a Live Free account without any additional cost.
How that's spun in probably up in the air now because it's being thrown to the wayside because they were too pompous to bother explaining anything in a fluent manner. I was never bothered by the policies put in place but I'm glad it was overturned (as I've said yesterday) in part because it was the "right" move to make in the face of adversary, through no fault of their own, and also I'm even more glad they were forced to eradicate their policies based on the same principle.
They're at the core of the blame.
- 40,885
The fact is, the lack of trust in Microsoft on the Kinect is never going to go away. If it is truly off and has no function, it stands to reason that you should be able to unplug it and put it away. That you can't do that, and that Microsoft has repeatedly said that you can't despite saying several times that you can turn it off completely, is bound to raise a few eyebrows because if the thing is indeed completely and fully off then it is is perfectly valid to ask why does it need to be there?
I can understand why they are including it with each system. They want developers to use it regardless of if how many actually give a crap about it, just like Nintendo with the Wii U gamepad; and if it raises the price so be it. But that doesn't explain why they are including it with each system with the demand that you must use it at some level.
I can understand why they are including it with each system. They want developers to use it regardless of if how many actually give a crap about it, just like Nintendo with the Wii U gamepad; and if it raises the price so be it. But that doesn't explain why they are including it with each system with the demand that you must use it at some level.
- 893
- Mill Creek, WA
- HighSeasHoMastr
- HighSeasHoMastr
To take a guess at why it would still need to be connected even when turned off:
MS don't want people literally throwing it away. Can you imagine the amount of butthurt there would be from people who were too stupid to think that "Hey, I might need this for games" and threw it away when they saw they don't need it for the console to function, only to realize that they do need it to play Call of Battlefield: Generic Shooter 15?
It's better to force people to keep it somehow, and the easy way to do that is to make sure it's always plugged in even if it's not being used.
- 9,741
- Las Vegas UTC-8
- Wardez
- Wardez
I know it's just your guess, but I don't think that'd be a sound strategy if it is what they're going for. It's just annoying, it's annoying to me in the same way toolbars try to sneak their way through when you're installing programs.
I just think it's too early to make this sort of tech necessary for enriching our gaming experience. Yeah, there's voice controls, but everyone I've talked to about it on the 360 said they never used it but once or twice as a novelty. The gaming application is a joke, not just in the sense that it was so glitchy on the 360, but that they think we wanna get up, gesture, and run around to do things instead of just plunking down with a controller.
I think they know this, and the fact that Kinect 2 doesn't deviate substantially from the Kinect 1 tells me they want to use it for other reasons. That reason is probably marketing.
Yeah, it's interesting tech, and they wanna get people to start getting used to it more by not allowing them to opt-out, I get it. A better approach would be to just make the damn thing more compelling than it is.
- 593
- Lohmar, Germany
- jabofu
- DAG JaboFu
- 2,801
- fatkrakr
They are forcing the use of it so that they can implement all of the patents they filed for with the kinect. If games require its use then you wont have much option but to agree to its use. In that agreement is where the fine print will be about sharing the info with MS. Once you agree to share that info once, MS can use whatever info they can collect with the thing as they please for marketing or whatever else they may think of.
- 388
- Antwerp, Belgium
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