{"id":36341,"date":"2013-06-21T06:18:06","date_gmt":"2013-06-21T10:18:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=36341"},"modified":"2013-06-21T08:11:59","modified_gmt":"2013-06-21T12:11:59","slug":"microsoft-proves-their-not-complete-idiots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=36341","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft Proves They&#8217;re Not Complete Idiots"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Earlier this week, I took Microsoft to task for <a href=\"..\/?p=36276\">screwing over military gamers<\/a> through policies planned for their new Xbox One.\u00a0 Well, it appears that Microsoft has had a change of heart.<\/p>\n<p>The fact that they\u2019ve changed their mind isn\u2019t exactly shocking.\u00a0\u00a0 But the speed with which that happened \u2013 about a week after announcing their original plans \u2013 is quite the surprise.\u00a0 Large corporations like Microsoft usually don\u2019t move anywhere near that fast to change a bad policy, if they ever change it at all.\u00a0 And the announcement today represents a nearly-complete turn-around in policy.<\/p>\n<p>Microsoft\u2019s executive in charge of Xbox One \u2013 Don Mattick &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/news.xbox.com\/2013\/06\/update\">has announced that Microsoft will<\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">not<\/span> require full-time Internet access for using a new Xbox One after initial setup (initial setup will presumably require network access)<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">will<\/span> allow owners of Xbox One games to sell\/loan\/trade them like they can today, or lock them to a single console<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Microsoft also implied \u2013 but didn\u2019t state outright \u2013 that they will not enforce region-locking of games.\u00a0 This is significant for US troops serving a PCS tour in overseas areas such as Kuwait and Japan where MicroSoft did not previously plan to allow Xbox One gaming.\u00a0 However, since this is only implied vice being stated outright, this merits watching closely.\u00a0 Problems could conceivably surface for those stationed in such areas who choose to connect their new Xbox One to the Internet.<\/p>\n<p>The \u201calways on\u201d microphone issue also wasn\u2019t addressed in Microsoft\u2019s announcement.\u00a0 While this is less of a privacy problem for those not connecting their Xbox One to the Internet, it does mean that the device might be considered a \u201crecording device\u201d.\u00a0 This could pose security problems in some environments.<\/p>\n<p>Still:\u00a0 all things considered, this is a \u201cgood thing\u201d \u2013 even if not necessarily perfect.\u00a0 Kudos to Microsoft for changing a bad policy quickly vice trying to \u201cride it out\u201d and save face.<\/p>\n<p>As I remarked elsewhere:\u00a0 I guess one of Microsoft\u2019s \u201cold hands\u201d managed to get word to their senior executives of how pissing of their user base and refusing to compromise regarding the &#8220;new model&#8221; of a successful product <a href=\"..\/?p=36276#comment-865755\">worked out for IBM with the PS\/2 and OS\/2<\/a>.\u00a0 (smile)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Earlier this week, I took Microsoft to task for screwing over military gamers through policies planned &hellip; <a title=\"Microsoft Proves They&#8217;re Not Complete Idiots\" class=\"hm-read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=36341\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Microsoft Proves They&#8217;re Not Complete Idiots<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":623,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[170],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-who-knows"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/623"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36341\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}