9. Microsoft Planning For Future Extortion?
The cynic in me can't help but wonder what Microsoft are going to do when the Xbox One inevitably outlives its usefulness, and the next Xbox console is released. Surely, be it 10, 20 or 50 years from now, these 300,000 Xbox servers will eventually be shut down, and does this mean that we will no longer be able to play our games due to the invasive connection provision demanded by Microsoft? While one would like to think that Microsoft would simply release a patch that "unlocks" your console, I have a sneaking suspicion that they will have something a whole lot more sinister up their sleeves... Why unlock the console for free and let us play the games that we, you know,
paid for, when they can upload them to the Xbox Two's online store and charge us for them all over again? Given how tone-deaf Microsoft have been with regard to player relations so far, it would not surprise me at all. This used to be exactly why I preferred physical discs over digital content - it gives the user control over the media - yet even that is now seemingly being stripped away from us.