Microsoft Chief Reveals DRM Rollback Stress and Responds to Resolutiongate

Xbox One, the upcoming next-generation gaming console from Microsoft, had received negative responses when it was revealed during the E3, as the device was required to be constantly connected to the internet. But after the huge backlash from gamers, Microsoft reversed its DRM policies, providing some credence to the Xbox One vs. PlayStation 4 competition. 

Phil Spenser, vice president of Microsoft Studios, explained the difficult times where he had to sit with the engineering team to make the necessary DRM changes.

In an interview to Polygon, he said, "Sitting around the table in June, July, those [DRM rollbacks] weren't easy changes, because we were late in the development cycle. Making those changes late has an impact on the engineering team. You're balancing a lot of things. But it was a good learning experience. I will take away from that a desire for us to make sure that we're telling the complete story. You can always learn. We definitely did."

The development team had to go through a lot of stress in the events running up to the reversal of the DRM policies.

Play the Games, not the Resolution

Spenser in another interview to ShackNews explained how the Xbox Box resolution and frame rate will not matter when compared with the gameplay experience on the new console. He underplayed reports claiming some games run at a lower resolution on Xbox One when compared with PlayStation 4.

"Go look at the games," Spencer added. "Go play the games and tell us what you think about what they look. Right now, gamers don't have the games to go play. They can't walk into their local store and play the games.

"So, it doesn't really surprise me that they're going to focus on the specs that they can. I don't criticise anyone for doing that. In the end, we play the games, not the resolution."

"In absence of me getting my own Xbox One or PS4 games, I'm going to focus on the meme of the day, which happens to be resolutiongate. But I think it'll blow over as people get to play the games."

Spenser was confident that Xbox One will do well and said it has a launch line-up of more than 20 games.

Release Date

Xbox One will release on 22 November.