Microsoft lockert DRM bei XBox One

Nach­dem Micro­soft ein PR-Desas­ter nach dem ande­ren abge­lie­fert hat­te, muss irgend jemand den Ent­schei­dungs­trä­gern in Sachen XBox One die Dro­gen zumin­dest so lan­ge abge­nom­men haben, bis es zu ein paar kla­ren Gedan­ken kam. In einer Pres­se­mit­tei­lung wird ange­ge­ben, dass man auf etli­che der ange­kün­dig­ten DRM-Maß­nah­men ver­zich­ten will. Unter ande­rem wird gesagt:

An inter­net con­nec­tion will not be requi­red to play off­line Xbox One games – After a one-time sys­tem set-up with a new Xbox One, you can play any disc based game wit­hout ever con­nec­ting online again. The­re is no 24 hour con­nec­tion requi­re­ment and you can take your Xbox One any­whe­re you want and play your games, just like on Xbox 360.
Trade-in, lend, resell, gift, and rent disc based games just like you do today – The­re will be no limi­ta­ti­ons to using and sha­ring games, it will work just as it does today on Xbox 360.
In addi­ti­on to buy­ing a disc from a retail­er, you can also down­load games from Xbox Live on day of release. If you choo­se to down­load your games, you will be able to play them off­line just like you do today. Xbox One games will be playa­ble on any Xbox One con­so­le – the­re will be no regio­nal rest­ric­tions.

Es ist deut­lich, dass die gigan­ti­schen Spie­ler­pro­tes­te offen­bar doch bei Micro­soft ange­kom­men sind. Man soll­te aller­dings nicht über­se­hen: die Kinect 2 ist wei­ter­hin »always on« und über­wacht jede Bewe­gung des Spie­lers, wenn er sich im Erfas­sungs­be­reich des Sen­sors befin­det (und gibt die Daten ver­mut­lich sofort an die NSA wei­ter, die dann unter­schei­den muss, ob man ein Ter­ro­rist ist, oder nur METAL GEAR SOLID spielt). Lädt man Games her­un­ter, statt sie auf Disc zu erwer­ben, kann man die­se nicht wei­ter ver­kau­fen, das steht in kla­rem Gegen­satz zu einem Urteil des EuGH. Zudem: die Kon­so­le selbst muss sich nicht mehr alle 24 Stun­den mit dem Netz ver­bin­den, um wei­ter zu funk­tio­nie­ren. Offen bleibt aller­dings, ob sie sich viel­leicht statt­des­sen ein­mal im Monat an den Micro­soft-Ser­vern authen­ti­fi­zie­ren muss …

Man soll­te sich dar­über im Kla­ren sein, mit wem man es hier zu tun hat. Auf den ers­ten Blick klingt das Zurück­ru­dern gut, aber es ist nicht aus­ge­schlos­sen, dass Micro­soft die unge­lieb­ten DRM-Maß­nah­men ein­fach wie­der ein­führt, wenn man erst ein­mal ein paar Mil­lio­nen Ein­hei­ten des Geräts ver­kauft hat. Was ange­sichts des völ­lig über­zo­ge­nen Prei­ses aller­dings etwas dau­ern dürf­te …

Hier die voll­stän­di­ge Pres­se­er­klä­rung:

State­ment from Don Mat­trick, Pre­si­dent, Inter­ac­ti­ve Enter­tain­ment Busi­ness:

Last week at E3, the exci­te­ment, crea­ti­vi­ty and future of our indus­try was on dis­play for a glo­bal audi­ence.

For us, the future comes in the form of Xbox One, a sys­tem desi­gned to be the best place to play games this year and for many years to come. As is our heri­ta­ge with Xbox, we desi­gned a sys­tem that could take full advan­ta­ge of advan­ces in tech­no­lo­gy in order to deli­ver a breakth­rough in game play and enter­tain­ment. We ima­gi­ned a new set of bene­fits such as easier roa­ming, fami­ly sha­ring, and new ways to try and buy games. We belie­ve in the bene­fits of a con­nec­ted, digi­tal future.

Sin­ce unvei­ling our plans for Xbox One, my team and I have heard direct­ly from many of you, read your comm­ents and lis­ten­ed to your feed­back. I would like to take the oppor­tu­ni­ty today to thank you for your assis­tance in hel­ping us to res­ha­pe the future of Xbox One.

You told us how much you loved the fle­xi­bi­li­ty you have today with games deli­ver­ed on disc. The abili­ty to lend, share, and resell the­se games at your dis­cre­ti­on is of incre­di­ble importance to you. Also important to you is the free­dom to play off­line, for any length of time, any­whe­re in the world.

So, today I am announ­cing the fol­lo­wing chan­ges to Xbox One and how you can play, share, lend, and resell your games exact­ly as you do today on Xbox 360. Here is what that means:

An inter­net con­nec­tion will not be requi­red to play off­line Xbox One games – After a one-time sys­tem set-up with a new Xbox One, you can play any disc based game wit­hout ever con­nec­ting online again. The­re is no 24 hour con­nec­tion requi­re­ment and you can take your Xbox One any­whe­re you want and play your games, just like on Xbox 360.

Trade-in, lend, resell, gift, and rent disc based games just like you do today – The­re will be no limi­ta­ti­ons to using and sha­ring games, it will work just as it does today on Xbox 360.

In addi­ti­on to buy­ing a disc from a retail­er, you can also down­load games from Xbox Live on day of release. If you choo­se to down­load your games, you will be able to play them off­line just like you do today. Xbox One games will be playa­ble on any Xbox One con­so­le – the­re will be no regio­nal rest­ric­tions.

The­se chan­ges will impact some of the sce­na­ri­os we pre­vious­ly announ­ced for Xbox One. The sha­ring of games will work as it does today, you will sim­ply share the disc. Down­loa­ded titles can­not be shared or resold. Also, simi­lar to today, play­ing disc based games will requi­re that the disc be in the tray.

We app­re­cia­te your pas­si­on, sup­port and wil­ling­ness to chall­enge the assump­ti­ons of digi­tal licen­sing and con­nec­ti­vi­ty. While we belie­ve that the majo­ri­ty of peo­p­le will play games online and access the cloud for both games and enter­tain­ment, we will give con­su­mers the choice of both phy­si­cal and digi­tal con­tent. We have lis­ten­ed and we have heard loud and clear from your feed­back that you want the best of both worlds.

Thank you again for your can­did feed­back. Our team remains com­mit­ted to lis­tening, taking feed­back and deli­ve­ring a gre­at pro­duct for you later this year.

Pro­mo­fo­to XBox One Copy­right Micro­soft