Microsoft to Military Gamers: Thanks for Playing, Now You’re SOL
Microsoft has unveiled its follow-on to the Xbox 360 – the Xbox One. Some of its new “features” are nothing short of a swift kick in the “package” for military gamers.
- Stationed somewhere with spotty Internet connectivity? Well, you can still use your Xbox One – for all of 24 hours. After that, you’ll need to wait until you can reconnect to the Internet to use it again.
- Stationed overseas and get a new game mailed to you from someone in CONUS? Sorry. Games will be region-locked, and can only be activated in the region in which they’re designated. You’ll have to wait until you get back to the US to play that one.
- Stationed in Japan, Kuwait, or Afghanistan? Again – sorry. You can only use that new Xbox One in the 21 countries included in Microsoft’s Xbox server network. If you’re elsewhere, that’s just too bad.
- Oh, and the built-in microphone? It cannot be turned off. Security folks shipboard are gonna just love that one!
Microsoft says they “empathize”. And they do have a work around for those in the military who, you know, deploy. According to Don Mattrick, President of Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Division, “Fortunately we have a product for people who aren’t able to get some form of connectivity, it’s called Xbox 360.”
That’s right, folks: Microsoft’s “military friendly” solution is to continue to use their older, soon-to-be-obsolete-and-unsupported product.
I wish I was kidding above – but I’m not.
I’m not a gamer. But many soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines are. And this action by Microsoft – and their truly crappy attitude here – is a slap in the fact to all military gamers.
Mattrick’s e-mail address appears to be “ donm@microsoft.com “. His boss is Steve Ballmer; his e-mail address appears to be “ SteveB@microsoft.com “. Perhaps they’d like to hear from military gamers what they think about the new Microsoft Xbox One.
Added by Sporkmaster:
Oh and it seems that it is getting worse for Microsoft when it turns out that the Demos for the Xbox One at the E3 convention were being run on high end PCs.
Category: Who knows
if you listen to the gaming media, this round of the consul wars has already gone to Sony. I really DGAF simply because I haven’t bought a “new” gaming consul since the PS2. I chose to completely skip this last round and stick to PC.
*meant console. derp
In other news SONY announced the PS4 will be priced at only $399 and will not require an always on internet connection and is welcoming any and all former XBox owners.
I know Microsoft has some smart guys working there, what f#cking idiot thought $499 and an always connected product would compete for 25% more cost and have an idiotic anti-piracy always internet connected scheme?
Maybe someone at Microsoft can look up Betamax and figure out how SONY was able to conceive this novel PS4 competitive idea….
VOV: they only have to review the history of their own core business for a better example. Remember the IBM PS/2 and OS/2?
@4 Indeed that debacle should remain in their memories, SONY backed Beta…..SONY clearly has learned that lesson.
I like the XBOX 360, and SONY’s security is suspect as they were down for a month when they were hacked…..but Microsoft is really screwing the pooch on this idea….I have no problem in my home I am such a tech wienie I have the 50mpbs service from Comcast and I love it. I have over twenty five devices (phones, blue rays, tvs, computers, i-pads, laptops, slingbox, music) streaming movies, music, internet, gaming, etc…so the XBOX one would have no problem on my system, but I object to the requirement that I be online all the time….it’s them deciding we are all crooks instead of them deciding to hunt the crooks down….it p1sses me off and will quite possibly drive me to the PS4….
There was a time when we deployed that we still slept in GP mediums, and having electricity was a novelty for everyone but the guys in the TOC.
Part of me says, I get the hurt and upset here by Microsoft, and part of me recalls watching the evolution of what we took along between the mid 1990s through to today. I think I remember finding my friend’s GameBoy too damn boring that I read every airport novel I could get my hands on.
all this hoopla over a stupid game? jeesh, i must be getting old! sigh
Just sent an email to MS over this. Doubt it’ll do any good. How can a company purport to support the troops and done something as insensitive as this. Guess PS4 will be the deployment system of choice for our guys and girls in uniform.
I’m a gamer, but not in the service. I was turned down due to me being legally blind in one eye. That being said I’m still a huge patriot and staunch supporter of boots on the ground. I’m an ex-gaming industry insider and have better access to folks than most.
I’ve heard rumors that the online check can be turned off and, CONFIRMED, you can do the 24 hour check-in via a smartphone tether. I’m not sure if region codes are updated dynamically. My guess would be that if you registered in the States and go overseas the box would not update when moved and remain a US region lock.
Data collection may also optional, but I have yet to confirm this. I will keep you posted on any info I get.
That being said. I still have a huge concern about this and I think they should make some special exemptions for everyone who’s served.
Respect.
I’ve seen quite a few individuals who aren’t gamers play a few just to be entertained for a few if there really wasn’t a whole lot else to do. Specially on the small bases where that might be the only thing till poker. I guess Microsoft thinks they can do without.
Simple .. you VPN the XBox One … I can see a nice market of VPNs going up, or a nice TOR based XBOX network .. have fun M$ way to kill your fan base.
Perfect example of when you let lawyers get into the design is as bad as when you let security guys drive the product. (ala windows longhorn)
I’d heard somewhere that Microsoft is already backpedaling on this, but not with a coherent message – sometimes saying it’s up to publishers, other times saying this is a ‘feature’ that can be disabled, but never owning up to the mistake that it’s a complete and utter failure. Hopefully the days ahead will shine some additional clarity on things.
There’s also an amusing video from Sony on how to use a used game on THEIR system:
I guess Microsoft thinks they can do without military gamers. I know I’ve seen quite a few people who don’t normally play video games, play a few cause it was all we at our location for entertainment. Also means the deployed/overseas exchanged won’t be selling if they won’t work.
Microsoft can backpedal out of this but they just opened themselves for everyone:
1. not trusting that an update will force this
2. JTag will be the next big thing on them
Such a fail … time to get a PS I guess..
DRM is up to publishers of BOTH platforms and is controlled on a game by game basis. Sony has also confirmed this in their “mic drop” interview.
The two platforms work very similarly with the exception of you reselling your game on Ebay. With the Xbox One you can let anyone on your friends list, up to 10, play any game in your library with a click of a button. With the PS4 you actually have to meet them in person. ;D
The X1, Always On idea, was based on the ability to stream updates as they are released instead of waiting for them to download before you can play. It was also to offload code to the cloud so it could process and transfer faster. Dedicated servers mixed with the cloud processing is a huge reduction in lag time. That was one of the major reasons why I sold my PS3. I’d log into play and get nailed with 20 minutes worth of updates.
I’m trying hard not to sound like a fanboy, but the media has pretty much ignored the facts and run with their feelings.
Me? I just want to play.
Dear Leader said the war on terror is over so we’ll no longer have people deployed. /s
What? Tech companies not responsive to their customers? Impossibru!!!
EA has also gotten in on the always-on fun by making the new SimCity an always-connected game. The last petition I saw (and signed) had a good 100,000 plus signers. We get that they’re trying to stop piracy, but making life suck for your customers is a good way to convert them to ex-customers.
@18 But let’s be honest all this things are not going to work to stop piracy, first you will still be able to JTag them, as they are computers, you CAN just tap into the chips (Hey if you can tap into a smartmeter chip you can surely tap into those half secured ones)
The ip address all is goign to happen is ppl are going to buy a linksys put m0n0wall on it VPN into a friends place in the US and gateway from there … and have fun trying to denote if you are in there or not as I have all the right of taking my game and going to my friends place and playing it, as well I’m stil on the US right? same region
updates and graphs will still be hit on the disc, thus you can grab them and just generate the server and commands
And let’s be honest they are not the best in their security (http://www.vg247.com/2013/05/27/xbox-one-leaker-will-release-information-if-arrested/)
There are different ways to try to fix piracy but this one is not it, it will just spike up *sigh* *facepalm* anyway I’ll just slide out of this post or I’ll endup ranting forever 😛
I can’t play vidya games while at war!!!!
*first world problems*
It isn’t a slap in the face of military gamers. You have to be a very special retard to even think that.
You know what is below stolen valor veterans in my book? Faggots that complain while on deployment that they can’t video game. Get the fuck over yourselves.
Sincerely, a “gamer”.
Thus ends my last connection to MS. To the fanboys the strict limits on sharing or reselling the games are as bad if not worse than the connectivity. And at $60 a pop they can go screw themselves…this coming from someone who has never sold or traded in a game. Its the principle.
@20: Well god forbid that Joe be allowed to blow off steam during his down time downrange with a video game just because you weren’t able to.
I learned a long time ago never to buy a console when they first come out. I now wait until they are well past the halfway point in their life cycle. That way, I can buy all the good games off the clearance rack.
FatCircles0311: no, it’s not necessary to have video games in a war zone – or shipboard, or on a stateside military base for that matter. Ditto for hot chow (MREs will keep you alive). Or periodic phone calls home. Or mail.
But little things like that do boost morale. And individual and unit morale are kinda important IMO.
Today, technological toys like video games are a reality – just like smartphones and laptops. The troops are going to bring something to pass the time when they’re not busy, and to stay in touch with home. Years ago, that was pencil and paper, cards, and dice. Today, it’s laptops, smartphones, and video games.
The slap in the face I was referring to is Microsoft’s patronizing attitude towards the military. What they essentially said was, “Oh, we know we’re screwing over those in the military who use our products. But we don’t care. Use our old stuff instead. Otherwise, screw you.”
Microsoft certainly has the right to take that position. But IMO they – and any other company that does the same – should get appropriate publicity for doing so.
Cool Beans… Seals it for me.
M$ can go pound sand
just freakin great. Now all of the CoD noob wannabe SEALs are going to be total badasses on the internet. Stand by for next year’s crop of fakes for the tournament!!!
My main concern about this new platform is the ‘always on’ mic for the required kinect component. MS *says* it’ll only be used to listen for the words ‘Xbox on’ buuuuuut….. MS also is sharing data willingly with the NSA, and now wants me to put a device in my house with an always hot mic, and an always active internet connection?
So what about some genius little bastard getting into my system and turning it on remotely? There was a school system that got busted for activating the webcams remotely in their school issued laptops to ‘check on’ students, and now MS wants this shit in my living room? You can’t tell me this won’t be abused by multiple parties, our pious, law abiding intelligence agencies not withstanding.
‘Scuse my language, but I don’t fucking think so. Time to switch platforms.
Microsoft is a joke. Their DRM is the worst in the industry, yet they wonder why people pirate their stuff.
#20 and #24 – Yeah not sure what the hell Fatcircles problem is…but every base I was deployed at, had morale centers for gaming or phone calls. Has nothing to do with being a “faggot”, dumbest thing I read. Yeah because on your downtime, 12 hours you are off, you probably should just sit in the dark with your thumbs up your ass. There will be Xbox One exclusives and games that wont even be on 360. Xbox One doesnt work over there, there no point of buying it for troops who want to pass the time while out there on downtime or down day.
Oh yeah forgot the other thing: NOT everyone is deployed or stationed out at a warzone either. So this means, Army/Navy/Air Force out in Germany, Spain and UK are just screwed. We were screwed out in Lajes (Portugal) when I was stationed there already from Xbox and getting Microsoft points. Netherlands we were also screwed because cant buy the MP either. So it was like a waste of money buying a 360 then. Ended up getting a PS3. Also got fucked over by Microsoft out in Kuwait as a contractor.
Video games are just another form of brain cancer, like television and other insipid entertainment.
Sounds like MS is doing a great job of helping their competitors get market share. I don’t like what a company does, I probably don’t complain to them – I just go buy something else. Let them try to figure out what they did wrong- it’s not my job to help them with their marketing issues. Just like when Smith folded on handgun sales under the Clinton administration – haven’t bought a Smith since then.
@19: no kidding. For every countermeasure, there’s a counter-countermeasure.
@ #33: Yep, GNULinux & WINE for the technically inclined amongst the troops. Set up a ‘nix box (or laptop), install WINE and run your old MS software no sweat. 😉
OK i have to note how funny is that this thread of the XBox got found and “trolled” so fast .. one can only wonder .. yo Bill your minions are failing!
@20 FatCircles0311 You know what is lower and even Phillip Dale Monkress now in my book? your existence, honestly kiddo you are a waste of air go have your teenager “OMG i’m so bad ass telling ppl they have first world problems” kinda attitude in a gamer forum.
@27 Yeah that’s exactly the problem I can see and is not that I’m doing something shady but really I don’t want to traumatize someone that grabs the mic turns on camera and sees me playing video games in a 72 hour frenzy … dude might need some therapy and I would feel bad (well, not really)
And on the counter measures, I’ll just say something to the M$ bots that will come here … you can try but see I have this thing in my house to play with because of my work . is called JTAGICE mkII might have heard of it .. so … http://www.theandroidscloset.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/come-at-me-bro-meme-anteater.jpg
I have an X-Box 360 Live. I keep it so as to be able to stream NetFlix onto my flat screen, and to stream Music Videos via YouTube. If I am unable to use my X-Box 360 Live in the future, well, I’ll just have to figure something else out because there is no damned way I am buying and/or using an X-Box 1. Nada. Zip. Etc.
The other little tidbit that came out is that games for the X-Box 1 will only be useable to the player who owns it. You have to sign into the X-Box 1 with the owners screen name and password. Thus, you can’t lend it to a friend to play. ALSO, and this is another customer base killer, is that these new games cannot be resold to anyone by the owner. The games will have to be sent to a MicroSoft center where you’ll get a coupon for something like free postage on your next order, and then refurbished and offered up for sale again.
This is really pissing off companies like Game Spot, who make a good chunk of their money through 2nd-hand games. After my X-Box 360 Live is either removed from service or it dies, I’m done with their stuff.
Yeah Authentication BS which was the first uproar to happen. Authentication even goes so far as to detect used games and new games allegedly. Lack of backward capable gaming was a red flag for both systems. Next uproar was hard drive lacking expansion. Then came this mess with servers.
Most people applaud PS4 already because region free, expansive Hard drive you can use Cloud to add more memory, etc.
#35 – Doesnt surprise me from Fatcircles other post that he would do some BS like this and try to be a hipster in here. As if he never been downrange and saw Xboxs at a Morale center where I dont know, phones are located and movies to borrow out.
Yeah, Fatcircles stepped on his dick with that one.
As to everyone out here in my unit, they voted the only way XBOX understands. We are all pretty much going to get PS4s. XBOX is trying to be an all in one movie theater. PS4 is gaming. I am willing to bet half the guys have already pre-ordered it.
We all like gaming.
Games, huh? Shouldn’t You People be studying for tests, or writing books or something? Maybe going for target practice at the shooting range? Playing basketball or hockey or chess in your off time?
Tsk tsk tsk tsk. I’ll bet I could find plenty for you to do.
Ex-PH2, when you sit in a plywood shack on stilts for a couple hours trying to play a game of “Let’s spot the extra sweaty one” for some hours, you need a good way to just ignore the world.
And playing games can help that. Listening to a female soldier in a game say “If you shitpiles follow me I will kill your dicks!” is just a smile waiting to be smiled.
All the good books are taken in the MWRs anyways.
The game is called Bulletstorm by the way. Shear amounts of swearing and fun are involved.
AtDrum, if you have a way to get e-mail I’ll send yo a book to read.
I’m an odd sort of “gamer”, who hasn’t bought a new system since the Wii (prior to that the PlayStation–or PSOne to you younger types was my last new console). IF I were to buy one of the next generation consoles, it would be the PS4 based solely off of what I’m hearing. I spent all of last year without internet due to the pricing in my area, and do not like the thought of having to have internet to load up a game and play.
I have systems from the Atari VCS to the PS2 that I like connecting every now and then for a true “retro” experience. None of those systems require internet, though the Dreamcast actually served as my internet browser when I was a broke Private. The console manufacturers have been working towards this misguided online-only deal for a while and it is sure to lose those of us already barely keeping up with the last generation’s “latest and greatest”.
Oh I am totally lucky this deployment. Total deskjob. I get to work on gear and check the internet all my little black heart desires. I am GOLD for this one. It’s a great way to finish up a multiple deployment career!
This is exactly why I have been a Mac user. I saw the light on my last deployment in 2010. My PC kept crashing, and I got a REFURBISHED MacBook Pro. It worked better than my CHU mates brand new PC.
To those who are saying “just a few military gamers, not a concern in strategic sales planning of the MS corp…”
There are other militaries other than the US you know. If you would close down bases like kandahar, mazar e sharif, or camp bastion right now, you’ll propably end up needing more logistic space for all those consoles and entertainment devices than for small firearns and corresponding ammo. Almost every enlisted soldier / nco / lower rank cos owns and operates a console while on deployment. For various uses (gaming, movies, chat, email etc)
Gaming has become one of the most important spare time activities while on deployment and a perfect and rather cheap opportunity to blow off steam. You can check up on figures from “non dry” nations on how their accounts of alcohol abuse went down significantly after electric power in individual shelters on base or fob/op for their consoles and movies was established.
So we’re not talking minor figures for MS worldwide. This easily becomes 6 to 7 digits. And pissing those off will have a even more widespreading effect on their PR, cause so many others will sympathize with military folks.
I owned and used just a few devices over time (classic game boy, wii for the family) but also got a ps3 for deployment and hell yeah did it pay off. Also hooked it up with a game 4 screen device (kinda like asuitcase with a built in screen and space for the ps) and made a external battery pack that can power it for about 4h. Yes its heavy and bulky but good to go on vehicles or on plane. So everytime I fired it up everyones mood eased out… Priceless
Microsoft just wanted to build a hardware version around Blizzards rules for Starcraft 2…
sorry, a little late on this.
Microsoft will back step on the always connected requirement. The number of console owners far outnumber the number of owners who have an xbox live subscription. Just like any other electronic device, if you do not connect to the internet, you do not get the updates.
So…if I don’t connect, I don’t have the latest and greatest patches, etc.
This is nothing new. 3 trips to Iraq w/ an xbox and never once did I have an internet connection. It just meant that I had 4 hours of updates waiting when I got home.
Yeah got an email back from Don Mattrick. He seems pissed by people asking him question. Now he has a generalized statement it seems “Please know that we do care about customers and that we are in the process of reviewing what would be an appropriate response to address concerns…”
Microsoft’s new slogan: BOHICA, troops, you should be used to it by now!