By Chris Kavan - 07/31/13 at 05:33 PM CT
As my friend George "Dubya" Bush so eloquently put it:
"There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."
After having what has to be considered one of the most disastrous launch campaigns ever conceived, it seems Microsoft has done a complete 180 and taken out all that nasty stuff that pretty much everyone was complaining about: the always on requirement? Gone. The crippling DRM preventing trading and selling used games? Gone. The Kinect 2 watching you while you sleep? Now you can turn it off. Giving Indie Gamers the finger? Now they're invited back to the party.
What does this all mean? To me, nothing. For one, if Microsoft has that little issue in turning things around so quickly - it just means they could just as easily change their minds in the future. Hell, if they would have simply stuck to their original guns, I may have at least respected their decision (not agreed in any way, shape or form but at least respected it) - now that they've backed off on pretty much everything, it makes them look like the sad kid sent to the principal's office for cheating on a test or skipping class.
If you don't want to look up multiple stories, Kotaku has a great breakdown here. The buzz was all negative around E3 - and now that they have pulled their heads firmly out of their rears, things are getting better. But that's the rub - it's not really better - you can shine it any way you want to, I still think the Xbox One is a recipe for disaster. The whole next generation thing kind of has me scratching my head a little but I truly hope the general populace isn't fooled by this game Microsoft is playing - because it will make them the real losers.
Comments
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 08/03/13 at 03:13 PM CT
Considering that Sony was able to remove Other OS and PS2 Backward Compatibility with little complaint from the vast majority of console owners, it would not surprise me in the least if MS decided to flip the switch back on for all these anti-consumer policies once people have bought the consoles and they are left with the choice of accepting the new EULA or throwing out their $500 XBONE-cum-paper-weight.
