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Clarification on Xbox DRM

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DRM

Earlier this week, people were unable to play their digitally purchased copies of Far Cry 4 on Xbox One after a glitch on the Xbox One store. This led to discussions about DRM, the future of digital distribution and plenty of tinfoil hats. Now Microsoft has clarified the matter.

Speaking to Video Gamer, a Microsoft representative explained that this isn’t the sign of any new policies, but was simply a glitch that has since been fixed.

If customers own the rights to a game, they can visit their download history and initiate a re-download whenever they please – even if the game has been delisted from Xbox Store and is no longer available for purchase.

This is the same system that existed on the Xbox 360 whereby players could download and play games digitally purchased, even if they were removed from the Xbox Live Marketplace. Even if licenses expire, players can still download games from their library.

We still don’t have any clarification on what caused the problem earlier this week. Perhaps there was just some sort of bug or glitch – Ubisoft pointed the finger solely at Xbox, so it’s hard for us to blame them or Uplay for the problem.

I’m glad this policy has been clarified as such, but I’ll still keep my tinfoil hat on for a bit longer. As much as I love my digital collections of games, I simply don’t trust the cloud systems to provide me with the services promised yet. Until they can prove that their stable and reliable (and preferably hacked less often), I’ll continue to primarily buy my console games at retail.

Last Updated: January 9, 2015

11 Comments

  1. Ryanza

    January 9, 2015 at 17:13

    • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

      January 9, 2015 at 20:53

      Ryanza has already said what I was going to say. No to DRM!

      Reply

  2. FoxOneZA

    January 9, 2015 at 18:31

    Meh… Thought they were implementing DRM check-ins again 😛

    Reply

  3. The Writing's on the wall

    January 9, 2015 at 23:43

    You can never justify DRM. Remember how Xbox tried to at the E3 reveal? We never forget.

    Same ‘ol Microtoss tactics. Reading inbetween the lines, if they were legit why so late on the reply? The whole reply of “Perhaps there was some bug or glitch” seems like such a blazay comment, like “Rabble, Rabble, Rabble… Oh look! something shiny!”

    DRM will never be a good idea. All it takes is your rights. Why would people openly support that.

    Reply

    • The Writing's on the wall

      January 10, 2015 at 00:02

      I will emphasis.

      “Perhaps there was a glitch or something”

      How could they not know? It’s like, “Oh, it just stopped working one day, then magicaly just started again, I know! don’t ask me how it just started again, Fuck me right?”

      At Best This just shows the incompetence of Microtoss

      At Worst They are testing the water to see reactions on DRM (% to people who complained to the % of people complacent, cause as soon as the % of people complacent outweighs the % of people complain they will push DRM.)

      I will say again.

      All DRM does is take away your rights. Why would people support that?

      Reply

      • RustedFaith

        January 10, 2015 at 09:27

        Cause they are fucking idiots 😛

        The one thing the Internet showed me over the years is that there are allot more idiots in this world than initially thought.

        Reply

  4. DrKiller

    January 10, 2015 at 02:06

    I had the problem the other day where I couldn’t download Worms Battleground on the 14 day Gold trial I’ve received… Chatted to some Microsoft agent and forced them to give me a month’s Gold 😀

    Reply

  5. Ghost In The Rift

    January 12, 2015 at 07:30

    Well im not gonna say anything:/

    Reply

    • Ryanza

      January 12, 2015 at 08:15

      I can think of something you can say, Don’t Support DRM?

      Reply

    • HairyEwok

      January 12, 2015 at 08:16

      Simple comment of support right here.

      Reply

  6. Ozzh3D

    January 12, 2015 at 11:37

    Why is Steam not enough? I have 5 hours extra game time logged on Dark Souls mainly due to failures to be unable to log into GFWL.
    DRM need not be draconian. Why do the pirates get an easier experience?
    Lets hope The Witcher 3 becomes a runaway success with CD Projekt Red’s great anti-DRM approach.

    Reply

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