Digital marketplaces like Steam and iOS have become more and more popular over the years, and Microsoft was hoping to take a slice of that digital pie with Xbox One. Unfortunately, the vocal community of gamers online weren't to happy about the DRM required to make it a reality.
Speaking to Rev3Games, Albert Penello from Microsoft explained the company's initial plan, admitting he was shocked to find such a massive surge of negativity toward their Steam-inspired model.
People got in their minds that what we were trying to do was evil or anti-customer when, in fact, we were looking at what Steam does, we were looking at what iOS is going, we were looking where the customers were going and saying 'I think we can actually give you a better all-digital experience.
So was I surprised that people had a reaction to it? No. I mean, we knew it was going to be a controversial decision. Was I surprised how negative the reaction was going to be? Yes.
We were surprised at how vocal it was, we were surprised at the reaction and the assumptions that people had about what we were trying to do. So we did the famous '180'.
Call me crazy, but I'm kind of disappointed Microsoft folded under the pressure. If they hadn't communicated their vision for the platform so poorly, perhaps we'd have a feature-rich Steam competitor this holiday instead of a console that more closely mimics the PS4. Ah well.
