Microsoft had a horrible start to the year with the Xbox One reveal event, with what was probably one of the worst receptions for a Microsoft-built gaming console in the company’s history. Most of the criticism that came Microsoft’s way was due the introductory DRM policies related to the new console that didn’t go over well with anyone wanting to pre-order the device. Microsoft, thankfully, made changes to those policies later on.
While Microsoft went on to feature a number of nifty capabilities like voice commands, fast task switching, and more for the Xbox One, alongside some other small information on how the Windows kernel and Xbox operating system have been put together to create a different product, Microsoft forgot to mention why all those large descriptions and definitions actually need to fit our living rooms on release.
One of the biggest issues that came with the Xbox One reveal was Microsoft’s decision at the time to introduce an always online-console. With an always-online console came issues related to user privacy.
We all know that the Xbox One will be packaged with the next-generation Kinect 2.0, with the Kinect technology being more flexible and true than the original this time around, measuring players' facial expressions and ever listening for voice commands.
However, the problem was that even though the Kinect is not by any means a peripheral gadget - if the console is on, so is Kinect, with the device being the sole proof anything we talk about in our living rooms or anything we do. This sounded like a serious breach of privacy and raised a lot of concerns.
Previously, German news and information site, Spiegel, managed to talk to their own Ferderal Data Protection Commissioner, Peter Schaar about the Kinect issue. Schaar is the man in charge of protecting consumer privacy from digital, physical or unapproved data intrusion.
“Under the heading, game device 'Microsoft pushes a monitoring device in the market," ... "The Xbox continuously records all sorts of personal information about me. Reaction rates, my learning or emotional states. [They] are then processed on an external server, and possibly even passed on to third parties. Whether they will ever deleted, the person can not influence," Schaar stated. “The fact that Microsoft now spying on my living room is merely a twisted nightmare.”
However, Microsoft vice president Phil Harrison later confirmed to Eurogamer: “Microsoft has very, very good policies around privacy. We’re a leader in the world of privacy, I think you’ll find. We take it very seriously. We aren’t using Kinect to snoop on anybody at all. We listen for the word ‘Xbox on’ and then switch on the machine, but we don’t transmit personal data in any way, shape or form that could be personally identifiable to you, unless you explicitly opt into that.”
Then there was the problem of running used games on the Xbox One. The idea was that if you want to lend a game to a friend they would need to either log into your personal account to play it for free, or pay the full retail price for the game if they want to play it on their own Xbox Live account.
This meant that the physical game disc was now just a delivery system, and the codes on the disc were no longer as important as the code downloaded to the console’s hard drive. The problem is that while Microsoft was taking a leap into the new age, we as gamers are still old fashioned people who believed in helping out our not-so-financially-fortunate friends, who asked for the game once we are done with it. While we all feel that this doesn’t concern neither Microsoft nor other third-party devs, Microsoft, at least as an act of goodwill, could have kept the option alive at that time. No wonder, the week following the reveal, I came across a number of people telling me that they had changed their minds and were now bent on pre-ordering the PlayStation 4. Who’s to blame them?
Finally, while we all had held the idea at launch that a primary job a gaming console, and you guessed it right, is to play games, it never seemed like Microsoft is actually introducing a gaming console. While we saw a lot of features of the One related TV and the entertainment ecosystem the company was hoping to provide in the coming months, very little about the games themselves were shown. And it is to be noted here that the ones that were actually present at the event, were cross-platformers.
As for any gaming console, Microsoft, at that time, needed to focus more on the video games that will define their system. But we all came to know later that the company had other ideas about how to carry out the introductory reveal.
Later, down the line, Microsoft did alter a few of those policies to appease the fans, but it felt like the damage had already been done with a number of fans actually making their minds up in the first week to scrap the Xbox One in favor of PlayStation 4. So did Microsoft ruin its own gaming console in the first week of reveal? Only time will tell.