The name calling really needs to be left out of these threads. If people want to have an open discussion, then they should approach it with respect for other people and their viewpoints. I get it, both sides have valid points. The used games market offers flexibility and value, but also has an effect on the broader industy, namely publishers. That being said, there is not a concensus that DRM via the MS-style policies are the answer. DLC, lower price point entry for software (as the F2P model addresses), and microtransactions are the way the industry has been moving. This isn't inherrently good or bad. MS's policies revolved around charging gamers $60 games, $60 a year for a connected service, locking the used game market value to gamers out of the equation, and charging for DLC while pushing episodic and microtransaction models. There was very little balance. It should be a give-and-take relationship between the game producers and the gamers. Taking away everything on the gamer's side and not offering anything on the other side is not a healthy move for the industry. It is difficult to compare the app store for iOS or android to XBL of PSN marketplaces. As long as they (MS and Sony) are shipping devices with optical media drives, then they will be tied to consumer expectations of traditional optical media business models. If MS and Sony want a different model, then they need to build that model from the ground up that benefits consumers. Companies should show to consumers why they should want to embrace the new model, and not make consumers feel that they are being exploited by a mega-corp. MS clearly did not get this when they introduced the Xbox One.

Sharing presumes people actually will own the same console as you.  They don't own it, it is out of luck.  And, as someone has posted on this website, it is very possible that, in the midst of consumer backlash, developers and publishers were also screaming they didn't like it either.  So, what Microsoft had offeres as a compromise was rejected outright.

In regards to this sharing, anyone recall when exactly this sharing was brought up?  It looks like it came up later as a compromise, unless I am missing something.

You say that MS would never adopt low prices as fact, but no publisher will keep their prices high if it isn't selling at that level, which is why COD is still $60. Somehow the laws of supply and demand don't work normally on the Xbox marketplace?

And frankly, BenV is not an impartial party to all this, being gamestop makes its money being the middleman in an industry that already had its pc market obliterated when steam came out. Clearly they are interested in the status quo, progress be damned.

I'm not sure if you are serious, but you just have to log on Xbox live and see those games on demand prices. Then compare those to PSN and steam.

Of course, games that released in the last 2 months will all be full price, but check for example a Halo 3 or Halo 4 or Halo reach. They hardly drop the prices on any games. Many 5 year old games still have their old launch prices.

They should've fixed the price first before they caved on the DRM if they wanted to fix that. This only made things better for the Xbox Loyalists, not the multiplat gamers.

Why?

Clearly someone is paying those prices in enough volume to justify keeping it there. If nobody bought those games, they would go down in price like everything else. That just tells me people tend to be more affluent or spend more on Xbox marketplace, probably not an unreasonable assumption.

I think it was a pretty large majority of people who made microsoft change their views, your actually in the minority here for defending them

Also, what's with all the Sony fans who would never buy s Microsoft product stirring up the crap as usual.

Why is it that you perceive all this as some kind of "war"?

melbye's post above this says it all really, in that one sentence I reading spite and bitterness over a games console, Why exactly is his supposition "hilarious"?

Why can't everyone just get on and discuss like you know the 20-something most of you are?

I can't see anyone defending them. :/ ???