How the new xbox may collapse under the weight of its own policies.

Let me paint you a somewhat likely scenario. Let’s assume that the Xbox One does sell out all its pre orders and that Microsoft does not reverse its stance on DRM. History tells us that major game launches that involve DRM tend to be a bit messy. Consider the recent examples of Diablo 3 and SimCity, both had major problems for weeks on end. Now consider an entire console built around the idea of having DRM in every single game. Can you imagine what is going to happen every time there is a major release on such a console? The network could be down for weeks on end, especially since every console HAS to check in every 24 hours. Not just 24 hours either, they will probably have the console set up to try to check in each time it is booted. A developer may even choose to have the check in between every multiplayer match, who knows? That will all eat up infrastructure.

I can guess what many are thinking now. You're thinking, ‘Well MS said that there are going to be plenty of servers dedicated for their cloud’. That may well be the case but the problems with Diablo 3 and SimCity both happened to very large companies with massive numbers of dedicated servers. Also, like any company, I expect Microsoft to invest in the least number of servers to get by at the time. They didn't really give us a solid time frame as to when all the servers would be turned on anyway. At launch there may not be enough infrastructure in place. Also without some beta system in place that tests the entire system, there will very likely be a number of bugs to iron out. Bugs that will not just stop you from playing online, but will stop you from playing ANY game on the Xbox One.

I’d like to raise one final point before closing. Given that Microsoft is trying to lead in a new era of monetization and restrictions what kind of blowback will they get from Hacktivists? The Kinect camera could potentially be used to spy on your every move and sound I would think that alone would catch the attention of certain groups. Given that you have to check in every 24 hours a simple DDOS attack could take down everyone’s ability to play games. This could make the ps3 down time look like a vacation in comparison.

In writing this blog I wanted to open eyes to potential problems on the horizon for Microsoft’s new console. It is really going to be an uphill battle for them to maintain their market share in the upcoming generation. Hopefully there will be enough backlash to make them reverse some of their policies, but if not then perhaps once they start losing money and market share that will be incentive.