You would think that MSFT could ease the Digital Rights Management a little bit. From ArmyTimes:
New Xbox 'a sin against all service members'
Navy Lt. Scott Metcalf was eagerly awaiting the arrival of the new Xbox One. Now he's not even sure if he'll buy one.
Indeed, for many in the military, the next-gen Xbox console may offer more endemic frustration than grand epic gaming, particularly for those deployed downrange, aboard ships and stationed overseas.
Xbox One, Microsoft's much-anticipated new console, got its big reveal at the Electronic Entertainment Expo gamers convention in Los Angeles. Company honchos are confident it will come to dominate living rooms over the next decade not only as the gaming delivery vehicle of choice, but also with a barrage of other content, including a suite of apps, streaming video and music.
There's one big but, however: To get all this entertainment awesomeness, the console will have to check in online with the Microsoft mothership at least once a day.
"With Xbox One you can game offline for up to 24 hours on your primary console, or one hour if you are logged on to a separate console accessing your library. Offline gaming is not possible after these prescribed times until you re-establish a connection," an Xbox spokesperson tell Military Times.
That just plain sucks -- there are a lot of people in rural areas without broadband and this will affect them too. A bit more:
And it gets worse for on-the-go troops. The Xbox One:
■ Can play only in Xbox One-friendly countries. Even if you're lucky enough to have a regular, reliable Internet connection while overseas, you'll have to be in one of 21 countries included in Microsoft�s server network. So, if you're stationed in, say, Germany, Italy or Great Britain, you're good to go. But if you're based in Japan, Kuwait or Afghanistan, you're out of luck.
■ Will have region-locked games. Games bought in the U.S. can be activated only in the U.S. That means no more ripping open the latest title that just arrived in a care package from home while you're deployed. And forget about buying games locally when overseas - if your Xbox Live account isn't tied to the region when you activate a game, it won't play.
■ Serious security concerns. Even when the Xbox One is in sleep mode, its built-in microphone can always listen in. It's a feature developers say will provide quick voice-command access to games and apps - but that could spook commanders who might worry the always-connected device could also capture more than just idle chit-chat among troops.
"Microsoft has single handedly alienated the entire military. And not just the U.S. military - the militaries of the entire world," says naval aviator Jay Johnson.
The Internet connection requirement is "the single greatest sin Microsoft has committed against all service members," he writes in a post on the game developers site Gamasutra.
But don't worry -- some of the higher-ups at MSFT have a work-around:
Not to fear, says Xbox exec Don Mattrick, president of the Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment division. The company has a solution for those in the military: Just use the old Xbox 360 instead.
"Fortunately we have a product for people who aren't able to get some form of connectivity, it's called Xbox 360. If you have zero access to the Internet, that is an offline device," Mattrick told Game Trailer at E3 in an interview posted online.
Morons... I bet Sony is very very happy right now - their new PlayStation 4 is due out this Fall and it looks really nice.
$100 cheaper, no DRM, full HDMI graphics, bigger graphics processor, faster RAM speeds -- looks to be a much better deal than the XBox and probably a sure hit for our military...
