So I was all set to review Before Midnight before finding out that Microsoft has flip-flopped on their decision to enforce DRM and allow used games on the XBone. As I mentioned in my previous post, I was one of the few *proponents* of the system in its (now-outdated) iteration, so I’m a little disappointed here.
In short, rather than the brave new digital realm – complete with sharing games with friends all over the world (which was the best part of the ‘old model’ of the X-Bone that Microsoft just could never manage to properly explain to the public at large – a case of their marketing machine failing them) we see a victory of the ‘old guard’ of video games. Digital downloads cannot be ‘shared’. The idea of a game library that travels where you do requires a really large suitcase instead of a simple internet connection. Discs will be required to be in the system tray in order to play. In essence, it’ll be ‘business as usual’.
While I suppose it’s admirable that Microsoft listened to their customers (who almost universally lambasted the old model – justifiably or not), ultimately I liken this to the old explorers who were told if they sailed too far, they’d fall off the edge of the Earth … only unlike those explorers, Microsoft actually listened, turned around and sailed back to port.
Sure, nobody died of scurvy, but we didn’t find a Northwest Passage, either, right?
What I’m Reading: Batman & Robin (Peter Tomasi), Green Lantern (Geoff Johns)
What I’m Playing: The Last of Us on PS3 (It is seriously *amazing*. Believe the hype.)
