Considering the events of today, I have a few things to say. First of all is, thank you Microsoft. A lot of people are saying things like "saying sorry isn't good enough" or "they should never have messed up so bad in the first place." Well, news flash, no one is perfect, and that goes for people who work for corporations. Mistakes are made, constantly, by companies like Microsoft, Sony, and yes, even (or especially) Nintendo. Rarely are their mistakes as big as the ones Microsoft was pulling with the Xbox One, but you know what's even more rare than the size of those mistakes? A company that can recognize the fact that it goofed up, apologize, and fix the problem. For the ability to take a humility pill and say "Sorry, we messed up," I want to thank Microsoft. That takes some serious guts for anyone, let alone a big bad corporation. Well done.
Second, I would like to voice my hopes that this is the first step in a recovery of the entire video game industry. For years now we have been trending in the direction that everyone got upset at Microsoft for embracing. If you think about it, what MS was proposing with the Xbox One was nothing worse than what many, many gamers (probably many of you reading this) have already accepted as "normal" (or worse "acceptable") on the PC platform, and more especially with Steam. In fact it was a better system than that which Steam offers, since it was going to allow you to share your games with friends or even give them away. What I hope happens now is that Valve, EA, Activision Blizzard, and other such companies follow Microsoft's lead and realize that what they've been doing to their industry is exactly the opposite of what their consumers want.
So, EA, how about it? Release a patch and make SimCity playable solo? What about you, Blizzard? Diablo III offline mode?
Hey, a guy can dream...
I would have like to have been able to share my account with 10 family members.
ReplyDeleteIt's all about perspective. If you think you own games on steam you are mistaken. It's a games rental service. And it offers games at prices that you don't really get anywhere else.
ReplyDeleteDon't get me wrong. I vastly prefer my games off steam, but I also don't think there's anything wrong with the model, if you accept it for what it is.
I am like 10,000% behind you on backing MS up, though. It takes a lot of guts to go back and fix things like this. They knew the backlash would come and did it anyway. So good on 'em.
Mathew, I agree, getting rid of the GOOD changes they were making was silly, since that would still put them ahead of the competition, but at least they got rid of all the bad. It's hard to complain about losing out on some good to get rid of a bunch of bad, but I do agree and understand where you are coming from.
ReplyDeleteMy hope on this is that Steam will start allowing sharing of licenses, and since MS already thought of that, they'll follow suit soon after.
pcnerdy, I know that's what Steam is, but I don't think it is what it should be. Giving customers more options and better service is never a bad thing. It just brings in more customers.