Correction: Most people don't want to buy digital games when they can purchase physical games for equal or lesser cost. Further, console manufacturers are too scared embrace digital only games due to consumer backlash. However, consumer backlash is more geared toward the ridiculous DRM policies console manufacturers/game publishers want to enforce than for digital gaming.
They didn't turn away anything. The X1 isn't selling pre-orders that well. They cut out store sales to imply a unit shortage exists to generate more interest. People who (for some strange reason) feel compelled to buy the X1 at release will go on-line and buy, fearing a (faked) shortage.
Don't burger flippers at McDonald's deserve more recognition too? I mean they put in a serious amount of hard work (constantly getting grease burns) and dealing with crabby tight-wad bosses, all to bring you your $1 hamburgers. Pineapples in Bikini Bottom don't come on the cheap anymore, you know!!!
MS actually beat Nintendo? Really?!?! I heard alot of positive things about Nintendo's games. The only really positive thing I heard from the MS camp was Titanfall.
MS really screwed the X1 up, by trying to embrace the future of digital distribution, while keeping physical sales. The $500 price point wouldn't matter if X1 games were considerably cheaper than Sonys (yet still making a bit more profit than Sony). Why bother at all creating software to manage used games? Why bother with a daily digital check-in? MS, should've knocked prices of game sales to $35 and gone all digital. Digital games can maintain their list price indefinately because they don't incur an inventory expense. The X1 doesn't need to be sold at Walmart/Target. Amazon will sell anything. MS could sell the system via XBox Live as well.
The Kinect 2 does nothing as well. It's an unnecessary expense. Third party publishers are no more likely to build games for the K2 because it's there. They build games to perform on multiple platforms. The K2 would need to be available on Sony, Nintendo and PC to really interest 3rd party publishers. I expect the K2 will be dropped when/if the X1 system gets a new model.
Not digitially purchased product, disc based DRM. Sony patented a protocol for implementing disc based DRM. Sony has not talked much about this protocol and has instead focused on what Sony will do. At the PS3 unvieling they mentioned this protocol and said they'd leave it up to the publishers. Sony does need to address this issue.
Sony has stated previously that they have no DRM, but they have a protocol in place that leaves DRM implementation up to the discretion of the publishers. Sony has not really elaborated on that point. The big publishers are obviously in favor of and pushing for DRM from the console manufacturers.
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