Next Xbox To Go Ubisoft Route: It’s To Employ Always-On DRM [Rumor]
We’ve talked about in the past here on GamerFront about the different rumors surrounding the next Xbox system. Mostly, they’ve dealt with how the content will be protected, such as how the next Xbox will apparently not play used copies of games, and how it also might be going in a more digital direction in general. Well, according to rumors by Develop, it looks like Microsoft is really trying its best to alienate the customer base. The rumor is, the next Xbox is going to require an always-on internet connection, to “safeguard it from piracy”.
Wow. Don’t get me wrong, companies that want to employ some sort of anti-piracy devices in their products are not in the wrong here, but if this is true, Microsoft is going to alienate a large part of its customer base with this move. While many of us will connect our systems to the internet, there still lies a large chunk of the population who for one reason or another do not connect their Xbox’s to the internet. What’s going to happen when people read that they need to be connected to the internet at all times just to play a single player game?
This use of always-on DRM is just the kind of thing that Ubisoft has done in the past, and it’s only given them nothing but headaches, from dealing with angry customers who are kicked out of their single player games for a failed internet connection, and from the pirates who take the challenge, and crack the game anyway. Consoles don’t need DRM like this. My guess is that it’s much harder to hack and crack the console than it is a game for the PC. By highlighting the always-on system, Microsoft is just begging for pirates to come and crack the system, all in an effort to stick it to the man, so to speak.
