Geekisms!

Seems like all the negative feedback about the forthcoming Xbox One has finally gotten to Microsoft. In a post on the official Xbox website, Don Mattrick, Head of Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft announced changes to the new entertainment console that include no more 24 connection to the internet, no restrictions on who can borrow, lend or resell a game disk, and no more region locked consoles. In other words, they've reversed the main issues that people had with the Xbox One when it was announced. 

Hurray? Maybe. I guess Microsoft saw how things were shaping up with the internet all up in arms about its 'new features' and Sony making the most of the negative backlash to tell everyone that they weren't trying to restrict your gaming in any way. Reversing their early decisions does put them on near even ground with Sony in the next-gen console race. 

I personally feel that some of the features might have been some advantages to be had with the new features but because the whole world is not on the same level in terms of internet access and financial strength, it didn't come across that way. Microsoft also didn't make a good enough effort to pass the message across in a convincing way, they could have made the always online thing an optional feature with more advantages, instead of forcing everyone to comply. 

Whatever the case, those features are no more, for now. I strongly suspect that they will find their way back to the the Xbox One sometime in the future. Afterall, the Xbox 360 lasted 8 years and got many more features during its lifetime, the same will definitely happen to the Xbox One. Hopefully, by then internet access will be more readily available to all and affordable enough that the news won't cause as much fuss as it did now.