Retailer Leaders Commend Microsoft on Xbox One DRM and Online Requirement Policy Reversals

LOS ANGELES, June 20 - Microsoft's decision to change their DRM and online requirement policies was a courageous one, Gamestop president Tony Bartel told Forbes in an interview published on Thursday. Bartel also noted as the move was in indication that the voice of gamers is an authoritative one.
“The very first thing I thought was that gamer won, yet again,” Bartel said. “We knew, but I don’t think the rest of the world knew how passionate the gamer was about the buy/sell/trade model. [Sony's E3 Press conference] was a shot heard round the world. Microsoft heard that, they listened to that, and they changed their policies. I think it took a lot courage to do what they did."

"Courage"? "Courage" is a strange descriptor for Microsoft's revision, I think what it took was a pulse and a sign of brain activity. Still, the company did not escape from the whole situation untarnished. Images like the Xbox One-Eighty (a play on the Xbox One and the backward directions in which the company was moving) quickly circulated the web in ridicule of Microsoft's vacillation. 

However, another major video game retailer in the UK doesn't share the same sentiments as the caustic internet critics, rather his perception of the company was that it is one firmly commited to its consumers.

"Microsoft have listened to the feedback of recent weeks and acted on it, putting gamers and the way they wish to access and pay for their gaming at the centre of their plans for the future," GAME CEO Martyn Gibbs said in a statement, as reported by OXM. "I am immensely impressed with both the speed and the scope of the changes - it shows a real commitment to gamers around the globe."

Commitment to gamers? You mean commitment profits, which, based on the reception the PS4 had received in comparison to the Xbox One during E3, would've been scarce. If they were committed to gamers why would they even have implemented to those god awful restrictions in the first place?

Is there some ailment that solely affects video game retail executives causing them to mix up their words? Oh wait, it's because Xbox One's success is vital to their own! Duh...  they have their own interests at stake. GameStop makes the majority of their profits from used games, I worked there for a brief period of time and that is the one thing they stressed above all else "push pre-owned titles". I am unfamiliar with GAME, but I would assume the same is applicable for them.

The biggest question is of course whether or not Microsoft averted disaster. Fickle as their Xbox One policies have been, they still have a solid lineup of exclusives and an undeniably large fan-base. Despite being $100 more expensive than the PS4, I posit the console will do as well, if not better than the PS4.

SOURCE: Forbes, OXM