VG247

John Carmack, cofounder of id Software, has stated that the furore surrounding Microsoft’s unpopular Xbox One DRM policies was unjustified. Microsoft may have changed their minds, but Carmack believes that the days of physical media are coming to an end.

“I think the witch hunt was a little bit unjustified there,” Carmack said during this keynote address at QuakeCon. “I personally am extremely fond of having all of my digital purchases in a curated garden. All of my iTunes, all of my Amazon stuff, all of my Steam things. And it’s a positive thing.”

Carmack is a firm believer that digital-only is the way forward. “Yeah, you can have better and worse ways of doing that, but we are very quickly going to be past the age of having a game that you hold in your hands on optical media,” Carmack said. “It probably won’t be many years before we wind up with SKUs that just have the optical drives deleted and everybody will just be getting it through the net. The future is obvious right there and it will be good for us in general.”

He also commented on the fears that the new Kinect camera could be used to spy on users. “If you go back ten years, the idea that everyone would carry around a phone that has your GPS-located position at all times would cause the tinfoil hat crowd to go absolutely crazy.”

Carmack’s answer to these concerns? “We’ll get used to it.”

Thanks, GameSpot.

http://www.vg247.com/2013/08/02/carmack-xbox-one-witch-hunt-unjustified/

"We'll get used to it". It's very sad how we can conform that easily.

He meant it sarcastically. As in,  "There's nothing to be afraid of anyway, unless you're a tinfoil crazy."

i like carmack - he seems like a nice guy; refreshing from all the blowfish

no no no no no

None of this is inevitable, and as consumers we should reject companies forcing walled gardens upon us.

It's not unjustified. There's nothing wrong with consumers not liking something, their opinion isn't 'unjustified'. Clearly what Carmack meant, whether he realized that or not, was that he disagree with the people that didn't like the whole DRM scheme.

This news ia old, no? I think I read it here yesterday.

Edit - I think I read in some place else.

He likes iTunes. That speaks volumes. Entrusting my music to iTunes was a horrible mistake. I still haven't converted everything over yet.

Anyway, something important that he neglected to mention is that part of the reason for the "witch hunt" was simply that Microsoft seriously bungled the reveal. Had they handled it better, I think the backlash wouldn't have been nearly as bad.

I also wonder if these people ever stop to think that much of the rest of the world might not have an internet connection robust enough to go all-digital. It really seems that such a thing never enters their mind. That, or they're simply discounting such people as unimportant in the grand scheme of making money.

wasnt Rage like 21 Gb? and he wants to switch to all digital.
that would take me like a week to download.
it took me 2 days to download Crysis 3 and thats only 5.5 Gb. I hate crappy Barracks wifi!!!

I hate his games but I think he's one of the most interesting guys of this stupid industry.