Albert Penello has returned anew to NeoGAF to address concerns of the Xbox One’s DRM policies, explaining he does not see the policies ever coming back to the console.
Of course, Penello needed to do some tiptoeing here to keep Microsoft from looking bad, while not defending their earlier policies, or initial response to fan outcry.
And so, his spin is that the DRM was initially put in place since the Xbox One discs were being made without that kind of security in the disk. The intention was for all licensing to be done online, and of course, the system they setup would have made their games vulnerable to piracy if they didn’t have that DRM. Now, he claims they have gone back to putting security on the disc, so DRM would no longer be needed.
Penello puts forward his theory that people are worried DRM is coming back because of the outcry to bring back features like family sharing. Penello again reaffirms idea that bringing back family sharing might necessitate bringing back some of the earlier requirements needed to put it in place. He understands how fans would react if that scenario came true, and DRM and DRM-free versions of Xbox One consoles came to market.
So, based on this logic, Penello argues that Microsoft would not retroactively put back their earlier DRM policies.
I don’t particularly enjoy being so hard on Microsoft staff when they have to make these statements. However, I would point out that Penello has now admitted that physical Xbox One games will have DRM on the disc, which they have had to return so that Xbox One can reverse their earlier policies. This allows Xbox One to remain a closed platform, so this isn’t really that big a deal, but it’s a statement that’s worth taking note of.
Source: NeoGAF
