Bucknut24;2347596; said:
this is my last post in this thread because I feel I will be banned soon if I keep going at is
http://dudehugespeaks.tumblr.com/post/53457606850/brutal-honest-thoughts-on-this-whole-debacle
I think this is a pretty good read on MS's complete debacle of getting their info across
I believe this guy gets some points I TRIED to make across better than I did, or ever could
So I was reading his article, but he showed his hand when he started talking about the airlines and luggage fees. The charges for luggage have very little to do with fuel costs and passengers being fatter than in the past. Conversely, they are about driving profit.
$3.5 billion in profit for last year alone.
Again, I'm not trying to argue with you about this. I'm actually quite a fan of much of what M$ does. As an IT professional, I earned several M$ certifications when I first started, and they have led me to having a very nice career.
The real point here, is that M$ was trying to make a power play with their roll out (and Sony was too, before they changed their plans after witnessing the backlash towards M$'s announcement). They basically wanted to control their sales.
Let's take a look at how this would happen.
Digital media - With their DRM strategy, they were going to let people "buy" games from them that would be tied to their accounts (much like iTunes). These downloads would not require physical production (disc and packaging), and would cut out any middle men (both of these are cost savers and drive profit). They would presumably only be downloadable from a M$ app store (in which M$ would control how much money each party would receive) and effectively allow M$ to control all download pricing models (hello monopoly!) to their consoles.
Retail - Even the physical media would be different. You would then be "allowed" to "share" something that you "own," but within the new DRM terms and conditions. For instance, I couldn't simply let one of my brothers borrow a game for a week and then let my other brother borrow it for a week. I live within a half mile of each of them, and can currently let them borrow any disc I own (not that we actually share many games, but it's good for illustration). That would all change with the implementation of their big brother (DRM) program.
And, on the back end, only select retailers would be able to buy and resell used games. So why is this important?
First, fewer resellers means that more price fixing can occur among the chosen retailers. This, in turn, would likely diminish the trade-in value of the games. Hey, if you don't like their offer, well that's too bad. You can only get another offer from another chosen reseller, and their offer will be the same. It's not like you'll be able to sell it on craigslist or ebay, unless the buyer would want to join your friend list and wait 30 days for the transaction to complete (curious, did anyone just have an "aha" moment as to why they had a 30 day friend stipulation?).
Second, to be selected by M$ as a reseller, the retailers would then be beholden to M$. They would likely have to pay fees to M$, or at the very least comply with all of M$'s demands, for the right to resell games, which would make used games more expensive. And they would be more prone to having to sell games at M$ approved prices (again, more price fixing opportunities).
And the required internet connection every 24 hours is a complete nanny move. WTF is that all about? I'm not aware of our iPad having to connect to the internet everyday for us to use games and media that we've already downloaded. That is full on big brother mode. Why do we need to check in with M$ every day if we truly own those games?
Simple, like I mentioned before, it's a model that allows you to pay for access to media, not ownership of the media. And if that's the model, then they shouldn't be charging ownership prices for leased items. Of course though, they wanted the other business model because that would allow them to control the "ownership" structure, and ultimately the pricing structure, so they could charge higher prices to drive profit.
So while some people (such as yourself) are disappointed about missing out on certain features, I hope you are able to see the real "business model" they were trying to implement and are now better able to understand why this is such a big win for consumers.
PS. You're not going to be banned in this videogame forum for simply being upset that you will be missing features you were looking forward to. Just remember to be civil and accepting of differing views and you'll be fine.
