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[BrokenSymmetry]

Another excellent analysis from Rob Fahey for gamesindustry.biz (his contributions are the best content on the site):
The Xbox One Question: Why Did Microsoft Do It?

[...] nobody really believed that Microsoft would paint itself as a villain to this extent unless it was absolutely confident that Sony was going to be compelled to do likewise.

However, I think there's a cultural difference at work here too. I suspect that within Microsoft's culture the notion of "restricted licensing, not outright ownership" is viewed as uncontroversial and mundane. I suspect that there are quite a few people at Microsoft wondering what all the fuss is about, and far more who are just waiting for the "vocal minority" to quiet down and go away, confident that the "silent majority" is perfectly comfortable with everything that Xbox One is doing.

I suspect that those same intelligent people are today rather shocked by the backlash and while some will be seeking to justify their decision, the brightest and best will be thinking of the most effective ways to backpedal and limit or even reverse the damage.

Was it really worth risking the company's image and its product's popularity with the core market, potentially undoing years of hard work at building up the Xbox business, just in order to hasten on that process by a few years? Was this not a fight that could have been won just by being a little more patient?

 

[Iacobellis]

Two words: Don Mattrick.

 

[Aaron]

Being deaf to the world around them is Microsoft corporate culture. You can see it in their handling of the Surface and Windows 8 long before the Xbox One. They simply do not react to what the general public is telling them until the public becomes so deafening they can no longer ignore it. See adding the start button back to Windows 8

 

[Durante]

I think the point about Microsoft's overall culture is an insightful one.

At this point, they are trying to turn products into services in every single part of their business. Also applying this same philosophy to games would seem like a logical next step to in such an environment.

 

[Saint of Killers]

nobody really believed that Microsoft would paint itself as a villain to this extent unless it was absolutely confident that Sony was going to be compelled to do likewise.

Personally I feared they would sign up some of the leading publishers to exclusivity deals which would make core gamers look past DRM and games ownership policy.

 

[bigbaldwolf86]

I've said a similar thing before in that the biggest problem is MS trying to force the market to move to somewhere it isn't ready rather than letting the market move to digital and providing compelling reasons to do so

 

[Replicant]

Being deaf to the world around them is Microsoft corporate culture. You can see it in their handling of the Surface and Windows 8 long before the Xbox One. They simply do not react to what the general public is telling them until the public becomes so deafening they can no longer ignore it. See adding the start button back to Windows 8

This. It's not like this is a precedent for MS. As a designer, I had to struggle for years trying to fix up the CSS mess that shows up on their Internet Explorer. Because for some God-knows-why reason, they thought it was clever to ignore the W3C standard.

As a customer, I had to deal with the unpleasant support for Windows XP not to mention all of the viruses crap I had to deal with. That was the tipping point for me. I realized that this company is toxic and I want nothing to do with them. This served me well during 360 era because I didn't have to deal with their RRoD. I almost thought that they've changed and wanted to get Xbone. Wow, was I proven wrong. They haven't changed a bit.

 

[pieatorium]

I think the point about Microsoft's overall culture is an insightful one.

At this point, they are trying to turn products into services in every single part of their business. Also applying this same philosophy to games would seem like a logical next step to in such an environment.

There is already a working model on how to do that for games and its called steam.

They took the bad parts of that model, added more bad parts and gave none of the positives (to the consumer at least).

 

[BrokenSymmetry]

I think the point about Microsoft's overall culture is an insightful one.

At this point, they are trying to turn products into services in every single part of their business. Also applying this same philosophy to games would seem like a logical next step to in such an environment.

Yes, in business software, Software as a Service (SaaS) has been around for more than 10 years, is completely uncontroversial, and is seen as a very positive step forward, because it removes the need for companies to setup and maintain their own IT-infrastructure.
Games (and consumer products in general) obviously need to be handled differently.

 

[cookie-monster]

They will tackle it with FUD, bait and switch, divide and conquer. This is the only way they know how to operate. Unfortunately the world is a little wiser and more well connected than it used to be, so these tactics are not so effective.

 

[Sky Chief]

Two words: Don Mattrick.

Eh, just used Windows 8 extensively for the first time this week and it is fucking terrible, far worse than I imagined. I see a lot of similarities between this product and the Xbone, both are trying to solve problems that people never had and break everything else in the process. Just a total abomination. I blame Ballmer, MS has really lost its way.

Also, they actively try to stop you from having real ownership of anything in W8 and Office 2013. They just want to control everything.

 

[Burger]

Being deaf to the world around them is Microsoft corporate culture. You can see it in their handling of the Surface and Windows 8 long before the Xbox One. They simply do not react to what the general public is telling them until the public becomes so deafening they can no longer ignore it. See adding the start button back to Windows 8

Pretty much this. The over reliance on data-points, focus groups, market research. The top heavy company organisation, the design by committee feeling everything has. The feeling that Xbox is now run by executives etc.

It's all so bureaucratic.

 

[Phonomezer]

Was it really worth risking the company's image and its product's popularity with the core market, potentially undoing years of hard work at building up the Xbox business, just in order to hasten on that process by a few years? Was this not a fight that could have been won just by being a little more patient?

If not now, then when and by whom? Sony has demonstrated that they aren't too interested in taking risks.

 

[Durante]

Yes, in business software, Software as a Service (SaaS) has been around for more than 10 years, is completely uncontroversial, and is seen as a very positive step forward, because it removes the need for companies to setup and maintain their own IT-infrastructure.

It's not completely uncontroversial.

(Though I am probably a bit of an outlier, what with my "Don't SaaS me!" pin I bought at a RMS talk )

 

[BrokenSymmetry]

Two words: Don Mattrick.

Do we really think that Don Mattrick has designed these policies on his own? This has to come from the very top.

 

[Mr Swine]

If not now, then when and by whom? Sony has demonstrated that they aren't too interested in taking risks.

Well Sony did take a big risk with PS3 and Vita

 

[Toski]

MS is using the wrong tool to fight Apple & Google. I wonder if the whole Xbox program rested on implementing the DRM of Xbox One. I really wonder what MS will do if the Xbone does Wii U numbers. Backpedaling on the DRM is out of the question at this point, I think if the Xbone "fails," MS pulls out of the console market because it doesn't give them what they're looking for.

 

[Durante]

If not now, then when and by whom? Sony has demonstrated that they aren't too interested in taking risks.

How about simply making DD so much more appealing than boxed products that the vast majority of customers gradually switch over?

 

[mysteriousmage09]

It is amazing. Also looking back and all the people that said "there is no way that any of this is true, MS can't be this dumb" and then moving the goalposts to "if MS does this DRM stuff, Sony is guaranteed to be doing it to", to now with MS not giving a single fuck...

MS has really dropped the ball with the Xbone and keep showing just how out of touch they really are.

 

[Gokurakumaru]

Being deaf to the world around them is Microsoft corporate culture. You can see it in their handling of the Surface and Windows 8 long before the Xbox One. They simply do not react to what the general public is telling them until the public becomes so deafening they can no longer ignore it. See adding the start button back to Windows 8

Except the noisy majority clamoring for a start button in Windows 8 are the people who aren't even using the OS. It's completely pointless in the age of indexed filesystems and type to search. People don't browse Google, they search it.

 

[gofreak]

I think the point about Microsoft's overall culture is an insightful one.

At this point, they are trying to turn products into services in every single part of their business. Also applying this same philosophy to games would seem like a logical next step to in such an environment.

Yeah, this is something that trickled down into Xbox. They've been pushing this elsewhere for a while now.

So long to the days when Xbox was almost a 'rogue' project in its own silo.

 

[Shake Appeal]

Pretty much this. The over reliance on data-points, focus groups, market research. The top heavy company organisation, the design by committee feeling everything has. The feeling that Xbox is now run by executives etc.

It's all so bureaucratic.

More than that, they don't allow their different products (or services) to be granular. If there's a general philosophy, they run it roughshod over everything instead of considering the ways that might be contextually blind, offend a particular audience, etc. So no 'rogue' projects, as gofreak put it above.

 

[chugen]

they are forced by the nsa to put a camera in every home, so they made sure they did everything wrong to protect us.

 

[gofreak]

If not now, then when and by whom?

The market!!

Why do we need it to be 'hastened'? What happened to letting the market steer on their consumption options?

Sony has demonstrated that they aren't too interested in taking risks.

Nonsense.

Sony and others have set up everything to allow for consumers to go all digital if they want. They've offered some of the most compelling digital consumption options out there (PS+). They've allowed digital sharing, PSN gameshare. They can keep doing that and keeping innovating in that space without screwing the pooch on traditional options.

But they recognise you have to use carrots and not force the decision on consumers!

This idea that Microsoft is putting itself up on the cross to enlighten the great unwashed about the wonders of digital consumption, that Microsoft's way is the 'forward thinking', 'future proof' way, is a load of bollocks.

 

[BrokenSymmetry]

Backpedaling on the DRM is out of the question at this point, I think if the Xbone "fails," MS pulls out of the console market because it doesn't give them what they're looking for.

I don't know, I still believe we will see a substantial revision in the DRM/online/Kinect policies of the X1. As Rob Fahey says:

the brightest and best [at Microsoft] will be thinking of the most effective ways to backpedal and limit or even reverse the damage.

This may be my Xbox-nostalgia fueled wishful thinking, hanging on by a thread.

 

[Durante]

Except the noisy majority clamoring for a start button in Windows 8 are the people who aren't even using the OS. It's completely pointless in the age of indexed filesystems and type to search. People don't browse Google, they search it.

Too bad they actually made the text-based search worse in Windows 8. (Before you try to argue this point, be aware that MS has acknowledged and is apparently fixing it)

 

[Whiteshirt]

If not now, then when and by whom? Sony has demonstrated that they aren't too interested in taking risks.

What Microsoft is doing is a huge risk because it literally gives nothing back to the consumer, except for perhaps the 10 game sharing thing which was probably cooked up the minute after they got blasted for the whole DRM thing. Even then, who the fuck knows how it works since apparently its not ready for launch and Sony couldn't get away with that sort of game sharing.

What Sony has been doing with PS+, Steam has done on the PC, and Google/Apple have done with their app stores are acceptable to most people, and not at all risky, because they took the time to think of ways why the digital future is better that existing methods of distribution.

 

[mclem]

[...] nobody really believed that Microsoft would paint itself as a villain to this extent unless it was absolutely confident that Sony was going to be compelled to do likewise.

No one would have believed that in the first years of the twenty-first century that gamer affairs were being watched from the timeless world of Redmond. No-one could have dreamed that trades were being scrutinised, as someone with a microscope studies creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. Few men even considered the possibility of sanctions against used sales. And yet, across the gulf of perception, pockets immeasurably richer than ours regarded this market with envious eyes; and slowly, and surely, they drew their plans against us.

 

[kitsuneyo]

I see it more like this. A certain section of the Xbox customer base is much more profitable to MS than the rest. Namely, the section that has internet, has a lot of disposable income, always buys new and loves the brand. Xbone was designed for those people because the rest of us aren't worth that much to them.

If MS can make more profit per customer they will be happy.

Look at the system price. PS4 is cheaper and will sell a few more than Xbone, but Sony is selling at a loss. Xbone is probably being sold at profit, and it will still sell a shitload. 8 million at profit is better than 10 million at a loss.

MS is coming to collect on the groundwork it's put in over the past decade, and if it loses a few stragglers along the way then so what.

 

[BrokenSymmetry]

If not now, then when and by whom? Sony has demonstrated that they aren't too interested in taking risks.

Cell, PSPGo, Vita digital release on day one.

 

[SmokyDave]

Why did they do it?

Because they're confident they can get away with it, that's why.

 

[Toski]

I don't know, I still believe we will see a substantial revision in the DRM/online/Kinect policies of the X1. As Rob Fahey says:



This may be my Xbox-nostalgia fueled wishful thinking, hanging on by a thread.

As Don Mattrick knew, there would be backlash. The "hubris" MS is accused of having doesn't exist, if the console market will not bend to MS's wishes/profits, they will pull out. Designing an all-in-one box with the DRM Xbox One has is the ultimate swim/sink the Xbox detractors at MS want to see. If Xbone sinks, they get out and focus on how to combat Google/Apple/Samsung/other unknown device/tech.

 

[zoukka]

Why did they do it?

Because they're confident they can get away with it, that's why.

The dough is also nice.

 

[gofreak]

What Microsoft is doing is a huge risk because it literally gives nothing back to the consumer, except for perhaps the 10 game sharing thing which was probably cooked up the minute after they got blasted for the whole DRM thing. Even then, who the fuck knows how it works since apparently its not ready for launch and Sony couldn't get away with that sort of game sharing.

What Sony allows with PSN gamesharing at the moment is the same as what's being proposed by Microsoft as far as maximum simultaneous play is concerned. And that it can technically work on PSN today speaks volumes for what kind of DRM and policy regimes are or aren't required to allow this kind of digital sharing. The specifics of Microsoft's DRM etc. are targeted at completely different requirements that have nothing to do with digital benefits that have already been feasible in the past.

 

[mrklaw]

office 365 suggests MS are completely comfortable moving entirely away from 'ownership' of products and towards ongoing subscriptions to access their services.

This isn't MS being 'evil', this is MS doing what they think is right. That makes it even more scary

 

[megashock5]

As a designer, I had to struggle for years trying to fix up the CSS mess that shows up on their Internet Explorer. Because for some God-knows-why reason, they thought it was clever to ignore the W3C standard.

For real. I'm also a designer. Working with developers, the amount of times I hear, "it's working in everything but IE" is astounding and frustrating. If IE ceased to exist, the overall internet experience for all users would be elevated.

 

[Slayer-33]

Because most people love the Xbox brand even though they might deny it.

 

[Phoenician_Viking]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLmKpV0i8t4

 

[marc^o^]

Why is the question I keep asking myself. It's an auto destruction for a gain that appears minimal compared to what are losing.

 

[Slackbladder]

Really interesting articule. Basically it sounds like Sony out-maneuvered Microsoft.

Has anyone straight up asked a publisher about what, if any, DRM etc they will use on their PS4 games?

 

[WrenchNinja]

I see it more like this. A certain section of the Xbox customer base is much more profitable to MS than the rest. Namely, the section that has internet, has a lot of disposable income, always buys new and loves the brand. Xbone was designed for those people because the rest of us aren't worth that much to them.

If MS can make more profit per customer they will be happy.

Look at the system price. PS4 is cheaper and will sell a few more than Xbone, but Sony is selling at a loss. Xbone is probably being sold at profit, and it will still sell a shitload. 8 million at profit is better than 10 million at a loss.

MS is coming to collect on the groundwork it's put in over the past decade, and if it loses a few stragglers along the way then so what.

There are like 25 million Gold subscribers. Why would they suddenly start buying more to make up for the 15 million silver users and thirty million offline users that Microsoft isalienating if all of them bought xbone? It doesnt make any sense. With the whole game sharing thing it makes even less sense. With out users being able to resell toward a new purchases even even less sense.

 

[artist]

They will tackle it with FUD, bait and switch, divide and conquer. This is the only way they know how to operate. Unfortunately the world is a little wiser and more well connected than it used to be, so these tactics are not so effective.

You forgot loads of cash, 1B of marketing. I bet they are riding on that "hope".

 

[Kill Your Masters]

If MS can make more profit per customer they will be happy.

Look at the system price. PS4 is cheaper and will sell a few more than Xbone, but Sony is selling at a loss. Xbone is probably being sold at profit, and it will still sell a shitload. 8 million at profit is better than 10 million at a loss.

MS is coming to collect on the groundwork it's put in over the past decade, and if it loses a few stragglers along the way then so what.

Is this confirmed somewhere? Like, how many does each system cost the manufacturer?

 

[Shake Appeal]

Too bad they actually made the text-based search worse in Windows 8. (Before you try to argue this point, be aware that MS has acknowledged and is apparently fixing it)

More than that, quick text-searching requires me to take my hand off one input device and put it on another. The more that can be done just through simple clicking, the better.

 

[Randy Monk]

Microsoft doesn't ask why they ask why not?

 

[Manmademan]

There are like 25 million Gold subscribers. Why would they suddenly start buying more to make up for the 15 million silver users and thirty million offline users that Microsoft isalienating if all of them bought xbone? It doesnt make any sense. With the whole game sharing thing it makes even less sense. With out users being able to resell toward a new purchases even even less sense.

exactly, (though i think the actual number is higher, your point stands) and the xbox one seems designed with the idea that "well, they should all be online, so let's push them that way."

so out of the 77 million or so who are online and connected, they figure they'll be able to get 2/3rds of that total by REQUIRING an online connection, and the remaining 1/3 or so simply aren't worth much. Remember, microsoft makes a ton of money on advertisements, not just live subscriptions- so the more people that are confirmed to be online and active period, they more they make.

 

[semiconscious]

I suspect that those same intelligent people are today rather shocked by the backlash and while some will be seeking to justify their decision, the brightest and best will be thinking of the most effective ways to backpedal and limit or even reverse the damage.

maybe, under the circumstances, yes. but we're seeing strong indications at this point that, as hard as they might be thinking about this, they don't seem to be the ones that ms tends to listen to a whole lot the rest of the time ...

 

[Gokurakumaru]

Too bad they actually made the text-based search worse in Windows 8. (Before you try to argue this point, be aware that MS has acknowledged and is apparently fixing it)

The program search -- which is the function of the start menu -- works fine. And yes, I'm aware MS are adding both it and boot to desktop back. And before you try to argue this point, be aware I'm running Windows 8.

More than that, quick text-searching requires me to take my hand off one input device and put it on another. The more that can be done just through simple clicking, the better.

Browsing the start menu is slow compared to typing three characters of your favourite program. And in Windows 8 if you've used a program recently it's on the start page, one Windows keypress away. You can even do that with your left hand.

 

[ComputerMKII]

In a nutshell, they think their customers are idiots and treat them as such.

 

[Awntawn]

Hands down the best article I've read regarding the matter. I had a post a couple days ago in a locked thread saying the exact same thing about the Steam comparison that simply won't die, hopefully now people can just quote this article every time it's brought up and just put the issue to bed.