When Microsoft rolled back its DRM and online check-in policies, the majority of the gaming community cheered. The general consensus was that the Xbox One would end up being a restricted, unfriendly piece of hardware that some consumers wouldn’t even be able to access. However, one noted member of the industry feels that Microsoft made a mistake in not going through with the original plan, as physical media has no place in our current climate.
Speaking with Game Industry International, Codemasters founder David Darling expressed his unique opinions on the how the Xbox One marketing has been handled.
"It was interesting how the market did pull back with Microsoft," he said. "I don't think Microsoft sold it in the right way – they weren't strong enough. I don't think they should have had a physical drive on Xbox One – it's like having a dead body handcuffed to you. It's dragging along this dead body and it's going to slow them down. They've let the market pull them back but I think that was a mistake."
With digital distribution growing in popularity by the day, Darling went as far as to say that the Xbox One shouldn’t even support physical discs, as there’s no real point in this type of media existing anymore.
"The industry will definitely move in that [digital] direction and I think it will move very quickly,” he continued. “It's a bit like flipping a coin – at some stage it will just flip. It will change in six months and everybody will wonder why it never changed before. There's no point in distributing physical media when the internet exists."
Is the world ready for this type of shift? If the response to Microsoft’s Xbox One reveal is any indication, we’re not quite there. However, that opinion could change at any time, and when it does happen, there will be at least one industry veteran throwing the old “I told you so” in a few faces.
