As the backlash to the Xbone console rages on, MCV continues to post rumors that if true will make this device the absolutely most anti-user and unappealing home electronic contraption to ever be conceived.
The latest in the train of bad rumors came today with a story claiming insiders have confirmed that the Xbone's mandatory Kinect camera functions will act as a visual DRM measure to check how many people are in a room viewing a piece of media. Apparently this is supposed to fall in line with a patent filed by Microsoft in the recent past.
The general idea is that the copyright holder of something like a movie or TV series could decide as part of a licensing agreement just how many people are allowed to view that media and Kinect would read and detect whether you are over your licensed limit and respond by stopping playback or demanding more goddamned money via microtransactions if your viewing party is too large.
" If it is deemed that too many people are present, the user will be prompted to pay an additional fee to upgrade the licence.
Says the filing: “The users consuming the content on a display device are monitored so that if the number of user-views licensed is exceeded, remedial action may be taken.”
It should be noted too that Kinect is designed to continuously observe its roommates. It also adds that the T&Cs for any particular piece of content can be determined by the copyright holder."
Again, it must be noted that this is all rumor right now, and nothing regarding the Xbone is set in stone, but if this comes to pass as true then I can only hope this device tanks harder than the Virtual Boy, the NGage or the 3D0. This is unacceptable to force a mandatory spy camera in with a device to monitor people in their own homes in order to police how well they comply with corporate mandates. This is like something out of a George Orwell work, and what I would expect from a games console if it were designed in North Fucking Korea.
If this becomes reality in the end product then Microsoft's executives have truly gone beyond being simply out of touch with normal humanity and entered into a domain of being a comic book villain made real.
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