Microsofts biggest problem isn't too many restrictions, its too many options.

[CDiablo]

wilco said:

CDiablo said:

Someone who just got a new laptop goes into a store and sees this new fangled Bioshock, Battlefield(I know origin), Skyrim.....ect game everyone is talking about and decides to give it a shot. I think that is a general customer.

Itunes can succede because people will continue to buy tablets, pcs, laptops and ect through retail/online channels and they have good profit margins. Game consoles have low profit margins to the point that no one would sell them or the consoles would have to take a $20-50 hike(in order to give to the retailer). So in the end the only place you could probably buy an all digital XBone would be from MS themselves without raising its current price that would flop harder than any idea.

Apple doesn't need walmart or best buy to sell millions of iphones. They subsidize through AT&T. Partnering up and subsidizing is what would also be best for microsoft.

Itunes is not nearly about Iphones, and the phones certainly make up less than half the market of devices using Itunes seeing that almost every other computer device out there can use it. Your arguement was that the retail model can be broken by a digital force and make it obsolete. People "need" personal phones now a days. People need a computer/laptop/tablet and phones for many more reasons than Itunes. These items all have good profit margins for ATT, Bestbuy, ect. It is in their interest to sell them. The only reason to own a bone is games, if you give stores low profit margin items with nothing in return they wont stock you. You may be right about subsidizing assuming you charged $300+$10(or more) over 2 years and kickback to the seller. You would still make the end price higher than what the bone costs now. So you would have just as bad of an internet meltdown as it currently is "(greater than)$500, I cant resell my games, I cant loan, if my account gets banned I lose my games" vs $400. The internet market backlash would be just as bad.