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Posted on: Jan 02, 2008
Six Resolutions for Microsoft in 2008
WORDS BY: OXM Staff
With the Xbox 360, Microsoft has done a lot of things right. It’s made smart choices about the future of high-def, delivered a strong development kit to keep game creators happy, and of course, birthed Xbox Live — which did so much right from the beginning, five years ago, that the competition still hasn’t been able catch up. But there’s always room for improvement. As the new year rolls around, we humbly submit a half-dozen action items for Microsoft:
1. Fix the DRM glitch
There’s this secret problem — anyone who has it hates it, and the rest of the world is in danger of it happening to them. When you buy, say, an Xbox Live Arcade game, the digital-rights management ties that purchase to both your Gamertag and your console itself, on a hardware level. It’s to stop people from copying games to friends’ hard drives, and we understand the need to prevent piracy before it starts. But the problem is that red ring of death. If your console breaks — or if you simply decide to upgrade your console to an Elite or the Halo 3 Special Edition — the digital-rights management (a.k.a. DRM, a.k.a. anti-piracy encoding) doesn’t detach from the old hardware, and it doesn’t know how to mate with the new machine. The only way to play the XBLA games you’ve bought, then, is to be logged in. That’s a problem for any users who don’t have a home network, who find themselves stuck with trial versions of the games they “own” until Mom’s done surfing the internet on the PC and surrenders the Ethernet cable.
It’s also a pain in the ass for two-gamertag households. Consider this very common scenario: Gamer A and Gamer B live together. (They might even be married — the ultimate multiplayer experience!) Gamer A bought Puzzle Quest, knowing Gamer B would love it — and she did. So they each played independently, until the three red lights showed up. After the console came back from Microsoft’s repair lab, suddenly, Gamer B couldn’t play Puzzle Quest — or any of the games Gamer A bought on his account. Part of the “fix” was to (accidentally? intentionally?) lock out anyone but the purchaser. Welcome to the direct-download future: You can borrow your spouse’s Halo 3 disc, but you can’t play their XBLA games.
Microsoft knows about this DRM problem. When the Elite came out and consumers faced a hardware swap by choice instead of by malfunction, Albert Penello told us on episode 58 of the OXM Podcast that Microsoft was aware of the issue but didn’t have a fix yet. “We don’t have a solution for that right now; we are working on something,” he said. That was March 2007. What’s up?
2. Let’s See Some XNA Stuff Already
The XNA program launched in August 2006, but we’ve seen very little in the way of fully realized, user-created Xbox Live games. But don’t get us wrong — we’re so behind XNA that we can’t see over it. But after the “four teams make four games in one week” challenge back at the 2007 Game Developers Conference and seeing so many indie games, well, we’re wondering why we’re getting Xbox Live Arcade advergames like Yaris instead of more stunners like Aegis Wing. This is the single most dream-enabling, user-empowering part of Xbox culture right now — we want to see it take center stage in the commercial arena, and not just as a theoretical test bench. If some of the garage and hobby programmers need a little help getting to the finish line, we’d like to see Microsoft take a proactive role, then reap the rewards.
3. Clean Up Behavior on Xbox Live
The biggest threat to Xbox Live is the user base itself. We know a secret police force patrols the Live beat, but ask any gamer about online play and they’ll inevitably tell you about the time they were called a rude name with two g’s in the middle. Why are these jerks the most vivid multiplayer memory most of us have?
The Rep and complaint system is easy to use, but more consumer education wouldn’t hurt — a lot of people don’t realize what kind of power is at their fingertips. Plus, there’s more to bad behavior than you can currently catalog: with only 13 complaint categories, there’s a lot of room for creative new ways to ruin other people’s fun — does “sang Top 40 hits in my ear the entire match” count as “threatening,” “hateful,” or just freakin’ annoying? It’s not as morally offensive as hate speech, but it does make us not want to play with strangers. Two years after launch, it’s worth updating the user-feedback system for more specific violations.
How do people know the real-world police are at work? The existence of jails. We don’t expect (or want) anyone’s privacy to be violated, but it’s worth crowing about the digital dimwits and cyberracists who have been slapped down, to send a message to those who think there are no penalties for bad behavior on Live.
Sat, 08/23/2008 - 15:30
Posted by NecroAngel
I'd like to make a quick comment on updating the Rep and Complaint system.. I'm a hardcore live user, and that's definatly one HUGE downfall for live gaming.. Between children playing adult games,(where r the parents?)and ppl using the word "ni**er" every other word really takes the fun out of gaming online.. Also the ppl that insist on annoying the hell out of everyone with singing, playing music so loud the whole room can here it. Or whatever else ppl like too do too irratate everyone. I really think something needs too be done about the Complain and Rep system. I think it really needs changing so something more can be done. Or well, if parents insist on buying their "children" adult games. COD4 and what not. They should be in the room while the kid is playing it so they can do something about the language that comes out of the kids mouth when he/she is under 17+ and playing the game. Like what's the point of the ESRB content rating if no one uses it for the right reason's??? would u let ur child goto a R rated movie?? sure the parent might, but the kid won't get past the usher..
Thu, 02/07/2008 - 01:46
Posted by glimmerung
Just got my fourth repair back (so my fifth 360 in total). This one seems to work, except for the inability to use downloaded content offline (this includes games, themes etc). And, as mentioned in the article, my partner can't access this content at all, despite having her own gold account. This makes her account all but useless as she only ever played downloaded content.
This has been going on for me since June/July 07 and I'm sick of it. I've been told on three separate occasions that the problem would be sorted out in 30 days; I've been told I would be called back on about seven separate occasions,, but only ever got two callbacks, both of which resolved nothing whatsoever; I was told in December that this problem would be fixed globally in January (yep that happened, didn't it?); and now, well now I'm waiting on another callback. Anyone want to take bets on that one, given that they were supposed to call back within seventy two hours and it's already been seven days (or 168 hours if you prefer).
Do MS really think so little of their customers?
Sat, 01/12/2008 - 18:45
Posted by GallmannP
I am currently sending in my 6th 360 for repairs. Nobody at the call center has any answers or solutions. I just keep sending them in hope not to get THE RED RING OF DEATH. If it keeps happening to you just buy a new and put the junk one in the box, and take it back. REMEMBER ALL THE PROBLEMS OF THE 360 AND NOT TO BUY MICROSOFT'S NEXT GEN CONSOLE!
Thu, 01/10/2008 - 03:55
Posted by Eviltattoo
Quality control is a MAJOR issue for Microsoft, as well as their pricing strategies. The Xbox 360 stuck with the standard DVD format for several reasons...to keep costs down, to wait until a standard Hi-Def format was established, and finally, to REDUCE the likelihood of hardware failure by using a proven, standard format of DVD.
So, all of this has proven pointless...the Xbox 360 has had a MUCH worse failure rate than the PS3, and the difference in cost is not much, about $100, but we get NO Hi-Def format, AND a smaller hard-drive!
My Xbox 360, after almost 2 years of service finally gave out on me, but with my luck, it was not the Red-Ring-o'Death which would have been covered under the new warranty strategy. Instead, my audio/video port simply stopped working, so now I have to send my console in for repair, which will take up to 4 weeks to have returned, AND it will cost me $100.
So, now I have a 360 at the cost of a PS3.
Great job MS. Thank you.
The new warranty extension should cover EVERY hardware issue for 3 years...it just wasn't good enough.
Sat, 01/05/2008 - 22:02
Posted by raybut
Three more resolutions Xbox should have. 1 Let you keep your HD rental for a month with unlimited views. 2 They give you a free game of your choice when you get the RROD. Not the little $7 gold membership. 3 Live gold free for everyone.
Sat, 01/05/2008 - 14:43
Posted by Tripor
I've had my xbox replaced three times and had to go through the DRM hell twice now. The first time was 12/06 and in 1/07 I had to call in to get the redemption codes but they did have them and my problems were resolved and I was happy. I had my console replaced for the red lights in 05/07, again. I didn't get it back until the end of July. Since then I've made at least 9 calls to customer support. They've been telling me for over 3 months that since this was a multiple replacement on my account that my files been sent to a "special" Microsoft team for reveiw. This "Special" team has no official name and there is no way of getting a hold of them. I've been told I would be getting a call back from them 5 times, twice during specific 2 hour windows, and have never recieved a call back. I've even checked my caller id. If you want to wait an hour on hold you can eventually get to a supervisor but they can only tell you wait for the call back. There is no way of going above a superviser's head and there are no repercussions for them lying to us to get us off their phones. Personally, I'm fed up. I want them to either get me my codes or give me a refund for all the premium content that I can't access. I've got a law firm checking on the feasability of a class-action lawsuit, so stay tuned. BTW- most of the representatives and supervisors I've talked to are telling me that they think the service I've gotten is ridiculous... still they give me no way to make a complaint.
Thu, 01/03/2008 - 12:06
Posted by NEONKNIGHT
Here I go again!! After three phone calls to xbox support I've managed to get them to upgraded my DRM problem so a 'Supervisor' will phone me. This will mean (judging by previous times this has happend) me having to take a digital photo of my receipt for the new xbox360 and sending it to them as proof and then the tedious inputting of microsoft points codes for the 34 Aracde games I have (yes you're right, is there 34 arcade games worth having!!!?!) and redownloading the full games again to a specialy created silver account on my console. 'Digital Rights' are a pain in the xbox !
Thu, 01/03/2008 - 10:47
Posted by Dan OXM
Unfortunately, simply redownloading the game to your drive doesn't allow you to play that game offline, unless something has changed with the fall update, since this story was first written...?
Thu, 01/03/2008 - 06:35
Posted by Te1vanni Guard
Um... I think I may have a solution to the DRM glitch. Please tell me if I'm wrong though. Delete the game from your harddrive, then redownload it. The game -should- still have the checkmark telling you that you won't be repaying for something you've already bought. That's tied to your gamertag.
I can't remember if this works, but I remember downloading Lumines long before my console took a dive into red ring villa. And being able to have my friend play it on their own account afterwards.
Wed, 01/02/2008 - 22:18
Posted by Erkimer
Yeah, DRM has to be fixed. Take it from someone on their fourth console, it's a pain in the a$$. There has got to be another way to do this stuff.