Digital Restrictions (DRM) and Microsoft: What Kills XBox Will Kill Windows Next
Earlier this month: DRM and Ownership
Recent hours:
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Xbox Swings Into Damage Control Mode And Calls Extended Outage That Locked Players Out Of Their Games ‘Unacceptable’
An extended Xbox outage yesterday hit every part of the service, preventing players from accessing their digital games. It was the latest bleak reminder of how little control you have over the gaming ecosystem you invest hundreds of dollars in. Microsoft has now swung into damage control mode to try to explain what happened and how it plans to improve things ahead of the full launch of Halo: Campaign Evolved today.
“Earlier today, many players began experiencing issues with sign in, enumerating their game libraries and playing games,” Xbox chief technology officer Scott Van Vliet wrote on X last night. “The team has worked hard throughout the day to fix the issue, and we’ve restored service as of 2:30 PM PDT. Nonetheless, this is an unacceptable situation, and we must do better to support you.”
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Xbox Outage Raises an Uncomfortable Question: Do You Really Own Your Games?
An Xbox outage that stopped players from launching games they had already paid for has reignited concerns about digital ownership, after Microsoft's authentication systems left parts of users' libraries inaccessible for more than 12 hours.
The disruption meant that, for many Xbox owners, titles stored on their consoles could not be played unless Microsoft's servers confirmed their licences.
Microsoft, the US technology company behind Xbox, acknowledged problems affecting sign‑ins, purchases and game launches as thousands of users checked Xbox server status pages and reported service failures.
Vista 11 is an "enhanced" version or incarnation of Vista (2006), complete with DRM, bloat, surveillance, and all the other anti-user anti-features. After XP (2001) Microsoft established a monopoly so strong (seemingly impenetrable due to rogue business tactics) that it assumed Windows would get away with anything, and that's why Vista was made. Over time Windows became more like XBox, DRM-wise. It was all about restrictions - more and more and more of them over time.
Now, 20 years later, people push back harder than ever; GNU/Linux gains at Windows' expense and XBox is dying, according to its own father. Hubris leads to this; Microsoft wrongly and very arrogantly assumed that users would tolerate everything it throws their way; when it wasn't enough it found cat's paws to attack dual-boot systems or GNU/Linux on standard PCs. █