Poll Shows DRM Policy Could Hurt Xbox One Sales

GamePolitics conducted a poll last week during E3 2013 regarding Microsoft's plans for DRM on the Xbox One. The site was reportedly surprised by the reader reaction, stating that they responded in "droves", thus making this specific poll the most voted in the site's history of conducting polls. It's certainly a good indication that potential consumers are heated up over the fact that Microsoft's new console could prevent them from selling and playing used Xbox One games.

According to the poll, sixty percent of the votes, or 1,247 of them, considers the Xbox One "Dead as a Dreamcast". The failure of Sega's sixth-generation console entry had nothing to do with DRM – the Dreamcast lost its footing thanks to the PlayStation 2. Sega just didn't have the resources to compete with Sony, so the company bailed out of hardware and decided to focus on software instead.

The poll went on to show that twenty-five percent of the votes, or 516 votes, consists of the average consumer who really doesn't care about the Xbox One's DRM restrictions. A mere eleven percent of the voters, accounting for only 231 votes, think that Microsoft will eventually abandon its used games policy. The other two choices were jokes, with two percent (49 votes) choosing to purchase the Xbox One due to its DRM and one percent (29 votes) not even knowing what DRM is.

For now, Microsoft is leaving it up to third-party publishers to determine DRM policies for their games, which means they can prevent their games from being traded, rented or given away. However Microsoft is allowing customers to trade-in first-party games at stores or give them to friends, but this comes with a few restrictions including each game can only be given once, they can only be given to people who have been on the user's friends list for at least 30 days, and they can be "gifted" not borrowed.

"Some gamers choose to sell their old disc-based games back for cash and credit," the company states. "We designed Xbox One so game publishers can enable you to trade in your games at participating retailers.  Microsoft does not charge a platform fee to retailers, publishers, or consumers for enabling transfer of these games."

Again, for non-Microsoft Xbox One games, it's up to the third-party publishers whether their titles will be explicitly blocked from resale. So far they haven't stated whether not they are or are not against blocking the sale of used games for Xbox One. Several publishers like Bethesda and CD Project Red simply haven't had the time to evaluate the policy since Microsoft revealed the DRM scheme weeks ago.

Perhaps polls like the one provided by GamePolitics will help publishers steer their games in the right direction. If boxes aren't selling because of strict DRM policies, no one will be making money.

  • ern88
    It doesn't take Rocket Appliance to know that DRM is going to cripple crapbox one!!!!
    Reply
  • Larry Bob
    Duh.
    Reply
  • Spooderman
    You don't say?
    Reply
  • bucknutty
    It does not matter what MS does at this point. They can tell the customers that it will steal thier credit cards and give all the money to Ballmer and they will still sell out of them. People can't wait to get thier hands on the new CoD.
    Reply
  • bak0n
    There are so many fanboi's of product lines DRM will have minimal impact. That is not to say they aren't going to take a hit from those of use who can't stand the always on DRM's.
    Reply
  • nevilence
    I beg to differ, there are a great amount of smart people that will want nothing to do with it, then there will be greater numbers of stupid people and fan boys (much the same thing really) which will get it regardless and then there will be the few smart people that will begrudgingly get it coz they want to play some game that appeals to them. Yes they will slay their sales figures, no this wont kill them, I mean windows 8 is still trashing around on the ground isnt it?
    Reply
  • godfather666
    Obviously, nobody wants DRM. But as a PC gamer, this is kind of the norm, so it's not a deal breaker for me. Xbox One will be about as restrictive as Steam. Maybe even less so, considering you can share games with 10 people...

    That said, I won't be buying. There just aren't any exclusives I'm interested in. I have a PS3, but I'm probably skipping this console generation.
    Reply
  • mman74
    At some point in time Microsoft will likely backtrack on this decision to get the sales numbers it needs. The question you have to ask yourself is, since the infrastructure to do this is already inherent in the Xbox One machine, whether you trust them not to reverse that decision. The other question is whether you as a consumer are going to let this one 'slide' or do you want to send out a strong and powerful message to any manufacturer that is looking to pull this kind of stunt on it's loyal paying customers aren't going to get your custom. As a matter of principle I cannot and will not buy the Xbox One. If you are a publisher working on an exclusive IP for the Xbox One no matter how good it is, and how many 10/10s you get - read my lips, "I CANNOT BUY YOUR GAME!".
    Reply
  • BoredErica
    'Poll Shows DRM Policy Could Hurt Xbox One Sales'
    In other news, the sky is blue...
    Reply
  • wl589
    Microsoft, oh Microsoft.....
    Reply