• 24May 13

  Xbox One: All Your Property Now Belongs to Us

  JFK once said that technology can be used for good or evil, and that we should use it for good before it can be used for evil. I whole-heartedly agree. I believe that technology has the potential to improve life for all of humanity, and in many ways, it does every day.

  Unfortunately, technology can also be used by the corrupt and greedy for profit, manipulation and control. There are many cases of this, and when technology is used against our better interests, we must speak out loudly, before it is too late. We must over react, and we must be unreasonable, or through our own indifference, things will change against us before we realize it.

  Companies like Microsoft apparently believe that technology should be used to take away things like property rights, limit competition, and force you to license goods rather than own them. During a time when people are struggling as it is, they want you to pay them more, and have no actual ownership of their products. They say they "understand" the second hand market, and they're right, they do. And they have a plan to destroy it.

  The new Xbox is an example of the future Microsoft has in mind. Whether you're a gamer or not, you should be paying attention, because today it's games, tomorrow it might be anything that uses technology, from your car to your house. They don't want you to own anything, they want you to continuously pay them to use things you purchased, or as they see it, licensed. Imagine if you had to pay both BMW and the dealer a fee to transfer your car and it's tech to a new owner after a private sale. This might seem silly, but there are corporations launching these sorts of things now.

  With Microsoft's new business model for Xbox One, you can not own the games you buy, and you cannot sell them to your friends. You can only license them, and if you want to "sell" them, you can only trade in your license to Microsoft. You also cannot buy a "used" game, because used no longer exists. You must pay full price for a new license. Buying or selling, they force a price on you, they drastically limit competition to those who play by their rules, and they decide to kill the market when it's no longer profitable for them, leaving you with things you can never sell. On top of that, you must have an internet connection to use anything you've licensed. As soon as they pull the servers, everything you've purchased is dead and will never work again.

  You may have no interest in games, but I encourage you to speak up and say no. This is happening with software programs as well, and will continue to be pushed out into any consumer products that have a technological component. Don't buy these products, and instead opt for products from competitors that put customers' rights before extreme greed. I'm not against companies making profits, but I am against them doing everything they can to minimize my value while maximizing their own. As a customer, that is doing me a disservice.

  The fact that the gaming industry thinks they deserve to profit from private second hand sales boggles my mind. No other industry I can think of does that. But if gaming gets away with it, you can be sure other industries will follow, and anything with technology will require a subscription designed to maximize profit and limit competition, while taking away your ownership and control.

  IMHO

  If you agree, please SHARE until Microsoft hears us!

  • Posted May 24, 2013 11:13 am GMT
  • Category: Opinion
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