Backdoor Corporate Deals and the Loss of Gamer Autonomy

Today MCV posted an article detailing how exactly the pre-owned games market will operate on the Xbone. Amongst the noteworthy tidbits:

" Retail sources have told MCV that Microsoft has this week briefed key retail partners on how it intends to take ownership of the pre-owned market."

"A gamer walks into a retailer and hands over the game they wish to sell. This will only be possible at retailers who have agreed to Microsoft’s T&Cs and more importantly integrated Microsoft’s cloud-based Azure pre-owned system into its own.
The game is then registered as having been traded-in on Microsoft’s system. The consumer who handed it over will subsequently see the game wiped from their account – hence the until now ambiguous claim from Phil Harrison that the Xbox One would have to ‘check in’ to Microsoft’s servers every 24 hours."

"These same unconfirmed reports also suggest that the activation cost for consumers buying or borrowing pre-owned software will be £35."

 It is worth noting that often the way the games industry prices things between Europe and America is simply to switch the currency notatins and leave the numbers intact, regardless of currency exchange rates. Thus a European retail price of £35 will translate directly to $35.

So there you have it folks, if this system of corporate control does come to pass on the Xbone the gaming audience faces a fee of more than half the original retail price of a game to have Microsoft's permission to activate the mandatory install. Only those who have enough corporate power to be accepted as part of Microsoft's Azure cloud-based ecosystem get to have any part in selling pre-owned software. This is the stereotypical worst of modern corporate backdoor handjob dealmaking, as it serves nobody but the pititful mega-publishers, Microsoft and a few select retail chains while shitting all over the end-consumer and small businesses. This is how oligopolies form and more of the type of crap that has led so many in the tech sector to hate the Microsoft corporation for decades now.

The worst part though is that this practice, as outlined in the quoted article, already has defenders amongst the gaming population. On one popular gaming forum the following quotes could be read in response:

 " Seems fair."

Fair to the corporate entities maybe. Name me one other consumer product that bars me from private reselling, and why it should be acceptable in this instance.

" Publishers Win Retailers Win
This is something both sides of the equation can support... what, therefore is the big deal if you can still go to a major retailer and trade in your stuff?"

Yes, let's gladly let "major retailers" and Microsoft have complete control over how we resell the things we have paid our own money for, so long as the mismanaged AAA Gaemz Industree™ and select corporate resellers win. Oligopy Super-Winning Power....Activate!

"Makes sense."

I seriously hope you mean it "makes sense" in that it follows the trend of American corporations freely enacting measures to control the end consumer like rats in a maze, and not that it "makes sense" in a fashion of being a good idea.

"Sounds good."

Sluuuurrrrp....sluuuurrrrpppp..."Oh Master Ballmer, shoot it all over my face, get it all over my face!"

"Sounds good, but will places like gamespot just increase the price of used games to cover what they will lose and pass the cost on to us? Also, how will renting work?"

This retard just confused Gamespot with Gamestop, speculates that the prices of used games will increase, asks how rentals could ever work under this system (they likely can't, genius), and starts their post with "Sounds good". Can people really be this fucking stupid?

"So what? Who lends £40 discs to get scratched to fuck anyway?"

Redbox, Gamefly, local mom and pop stores, people with active social circles of friends and family who enjoy the same hobby and may lend a game out to those whom they associate with. You know, people who have a LIFE and don't play videogames exclusively in their gamer basements.

"All it does is prevent loaning games to a freind and I havent done that in a while"

This reminds me of the modern Libertarian/Objectivist view of economic disparity: "I got mine, fuck the rest of you!"

To be fair, this is just a small subset of the larger discussion at the site I pulled these quotes from and doesn't represent the majority of opinion and discussion. I just wanted to highlight these selected responses because it perfectly showcases one of the major problems we as game consumers face. So often we're willing to give up our expected consumer rights and freedoms to corporations which don't deserve our respect or money, but who have an uncanny ability to garner such support even after screwing us over through sheer power of PR hype machines.

While I hope the gaming audience on the whole continues to respond to this anti-consumer garbage with such negative force that it becomes mandatory for Microsoft to abandon their plans in order to keep their gaming business alive, I fear many will simply just sadly come to terms with it and still buy the damned box once they get "hyped" after the inevitable E3 trailer with Master Chief's helmet.