I watched Joe Vargas's (also known as Angry Joe or The Angry Joe Show) Xbox One Rant Part 3 where he talked about Microsoft's change of DRM policies on the Xbox One, and he really did say a lot of good things. A lot of things I'd like to say here, now.One thing he really made me feel more comfortable with is the amount of anger I've been receiving about my anti-Xbox DRM articles. Sure I haven't been getting anywhere near the type of hate that a giant YouTuber like Joe has been receiving, but people seem angry at those of us who tried with all our might to get Microsoft to change their dumb-ass policy.
Why? Why are people getting pissed?
Microsoft are big babies and they like to finger point. When the DRM was in place, Microsoft finger pointed to the game publishers as the ones who were to blame for the used games restrictions.
"It's not us!" They said, "It's THEM!"
However now we've successfully got Microsoft to remove DRM, they decided to remove other features with it too.
"You want the family feature? You want all the BENEFITS of DRM? Yeah? Well fuck you because we wanted our own way but now we can't have it so you CAN'T have these features! See what you've done journalists and YouTubers and haters and writers and everyone who opposed us and spoke their minds, see what you've done? You got rid of DRM but now we've removed other features too so you can suck a dick!"
That ^ is basically (not literally. They didn't REALLY say that...) what Microsoft are NOW saying. They're being sulky bitches because they didn't get their own way. OK, well you should've kept the DRM then. Kept it and got your own way. But good luck selling an unsellable console.
The bottom line is that MS has removed the family sharing feature, the 'cloud gaming' features and all the stuff they claimed they could only do"'because of the DRM 'enhancements'". And they're blaming us, the people who, for lack of better term, got the DRM removed, as the ones who ruined it for everyone else, as the ones who also got rid of this 'family plan' and shit.
Basically, we're the bad guys.
And people are falling for their bullcrap and getting pissed.
If you saw Angry Joe's Part 3 rant, you'll know I'm just kinda echoing his words, but I feel exactly how he does and I want to get this off my chest.
Calm yo tits. No need to get aggy. But, if you are gonna get pissed,
get pissed at Microsoft.
We are not to blame. As Angry Joe points out, the family plan could still probably have been kept in if MS had wanted because it could have been used in conjunction with downloaded games. But MS decided no one was going to enjoy that feature, because they're cry-babies.
People seem to be saying: "Well look what you've done you idiots! You got DRM removed and now you've ruined the console! Now all the cool 'DRM only' features are gone! Screw you!"
But not only is the lack of DRM a good thing (you can now actually OWN your games. Don't you want that? No? OOOOOOOK....) but it's MICROSOFT who took these features away from you. They could've kept a load of them in even WITHOUT the DRM. Don't you see that?
OK, rant over.
So why DID Microsoft remove the DRM if they didn't want to?
This part makes me laugh. There seem to be two types of people out there talking about this right now.
The first type are the people who are saying that Microsoft got rid of the DRM because we wanted them to and because they're a nice company and they listen to us.
To these people I say (nicely by the way, I'm not being a dick): don't be so naive. Microsoft doesn't really care about what you or me want.
The second type of opinion some people have is that Microsoft only did it for money. They did it so MORE people would buy their console and they'd get more money. "Don't you see!" These people are shouting, "Microsoft don't care about YOU! They only changed their policy so you would actually buy it and they'd get money!"
To these people I say: Well no shit Sherlock.
Look, Microsoft didn't change policies for us. They changed it to benefit themselves which just so happens to benefit us.
See it this way: to sell something you need to attract customers, right? Right. To sell something, you need to APPEAL to customers, right? Right. DRM wasn't appealing to us, and we let Microsoft know that. And as it wasn't appealing to us, not as many people were going to buy it, right? RIGHT. So for the sake of their pockets Microsoft changed their policy.
People often mistake a 'good' or 'customer' focused gesture from a company as being genuine and 'for us'. It's not. It's just they need to satisfy YOU and US in order to make YOU and US buy it so they can get THEIR money.
If Microsoft had announced the DRM scheme and we'd all said nothing and not complained and then there had just randomly been less sales of the Xbox One, Microsoft would be scratching their heads and looking at their sales analysts. Meanwhile we would've had a shit console (well, shit by most people's standards).
However because we all said "WE DON'T WANT DRM" and threatened to boycott the Xbox One, Microsoft had to change things in order to get people to buy it in order to make - yes you guessed it - MONEY.
You see, getting their money and being nice to us, the customers, go hand in hand. We don't get what we want? They don't get money. Simples. That's why they changed their policies.
Yep.
So, do Microsoft REALLY care about you an me and the fact we don't want DRM? No.Do they care about their money bags? Yes.
And in order to keep the things they do care about - the money bags - full, they need to satisfy their customers.
This is why when a company has a monopoly on something, you often find that their standards are lower.
Why do EA fail to impress us each year with their new FIFA games? Because they have monopolised the football (soccer) games part of the industry. They basically own the rights to all the clubs, leagues and player faces. Konami and no one else can compete. And due to this lack of competition, people pretty much have to go to EA for their sports games. And because people are almost 'forced' into going to them, they don't need to up their game or satisfy us because we'll always keep coming to them so long as they have this monopoly.
(Note: I know a lot of people do like Konami's PES series, and I wasn't slating it, I was just using it as an example because FIFA is, clearly, more popular and EA do have a monopoly where the rights to clubs and players is concerned)
I hear people say all the time that they wish there was just 'one phone company' or 'one computer company' because with only one company producing computers or mobile phones, things would be easier and simpler and less complicated. But they wouldn't. Because as you'd HAVE to go to that company and wouldn't have a choice, the company itself wouldn't be under any pressure to make sure they keep YOU happy. They could give you a laptop covered in shit and you'd have to deal with it. I mean, you'd have to #DealWithIt #AdamOrth.
Anyway, I just wanted to rant and get this off my chest. I'm done on this particular matter now. I'm sick of the angry comments and tweets and generally pissed off people having a go at journo's and vloggers and people like Angry Joe and me who stand up for what they think. And we didn't take away your family sharing, MICROSOFT did.
PEACE.
(Note 2: I know I mentioned Angry Joe a lot in this article but no, before some smart-ass comments this, he is is NOT paying me, I do not suck his dick and all that shit. He is just one of the best, most consistent, intelligent and truthful gaming YouTubers out there)
