Following up on news earlier in the week regarding the next Xbox Live update locking out unauthorized storage devices, Datel, a manufacturer of such devices, has responded.
A Datel spokesperson told CVG that such a lockout would prevent “customers from exercising their freedom of choice.” It appears that Datel has no more information on the proceedings than anyone else who read Major Nelson’s blog, as they stated “If the Major Nelson blog is to be taken at face value then we're disappointed...”
The Datel mouthpiece added:
We are following this issue and awaiting the outcome like everyone else. Everyone is looking for ways to make their cash go further at the moment and we believe that Max Memory offers a good value, high capacity, alternative to the official Memory Unit.
Comments
Re: Datel Responds to 360 Lock Out
The link referring to last week's story is busted. The colon after http is missing.
Re: Datel Responds to 360 Lock Out
The way MS rapes everyone on peripherals is almost enough to make me switch to PS3. Notice you can't buy non-MS wireless controllers? And X-Arcade is not allowed to have an Xbox 360 adapter? And wireless arcade sticks are really rare? And you can only get MS wireless headsets? And don't even get me started on the wireless adapters.
Come next gen, I will be giving serious consideration to the competitors.
Re: Datel Responds to 360 Lock Out
This is only to block UNAUTHORIZED 3rd party devices. Any company with the brains enough to get the microsoft approved stamp will find their memory cards working just fine. This doesn't "Ban any non-microsoft cards", just the "microsoft never approved of this card".
http://support.xbox.com/support/en/us/xbox360/xboxlive/getconnected/xboxlivecompatiblelogo/xboxlivecompatiblelogo.aspx
It is nothing about getting money into microsoft's pocket, it's about stopping the crap bootlegs that are easy to hack from being used, but still letting the clean 3rd party cards be used.
Re: Datel Responds to 360 Lock Out
If that is the case, then why punish customers who may have already, unknowingly, paid for goods that were not authorized by Microsoft and put them into a position where they have to pay extra, and even then, will probably be unable to get the contents of their old drive back? Not everyone is computer savvy, and a lot of people will have seen 'XB360 Memory Card' on the packet and assumed that it must official.
If MS wanted to punish the companies involved, then there are plenty of legal frameworks to go through, there's a reason MS pay a fortune in Trademark fees every year, but this isn't about punishing the companies alone, it's about forcing people who already have the hardware to go out and buy 'official' stuff.
Now, I'm not commenting on the legality of unofficial drives, I'll admit they are a problem, but to say this is not money based when the possibility of leaving an unwitting customer with an expensive doorstop for no other crime than not understanding the Hardware market as deeply as those who deal with it regularly doesn't sound customer oriented in the slightest, and does ring unhealthily of trying to attack the people who bought it, rather than the people who made it.
Re: Datel Responds to 360 Lock Out
I agree that it sucks for people who already forked out 5-10$ for those 4th party peripherals, but it also sucks that so many people think this article means "you can only buy microsoft brand". Perhaps a good option would have been to allow memory cards that already had xbox data on them, and block ones that did not have a save file or profile on them?
Re: Datel Responds to 360 Lock Out
At the very least a traditional 'annoying pop-up' message when using unauthorized hardware would be more customer-centric, we all know MS are good at annoying pop-ups ;)
I think it would be fair to make people aware that they are using unauthorised hardware, and that any problems caused by said hardware will not be covered by the warranty, but I think closing the door on people entirely is going to cause far more problems for MS than it solves, because all they are going to do is anger their customer base, the company that produced it have their money, and the chances are high that a sufficiently savvy designer could get around the lock-out for future versions of the memory, so, in the long term, I think the only people who will suffer from this idea are people who own 360s and have, knowingly or not, bought unofficial memory cards.
Better in the long term to go for the companies producing, otherwise MS are just going to have to lock out a new generation of cards every 6-12 months, and that kind of behaviour is going to do more damage to their own market than anyone else's.
I suppose the annoying thing for me is that the corporate legal system is in place to stop companies from taking the law into their own hands, and yet MS feel justified in defining themselves as Judge, Jury and Executioner, not on the producers of the goods, but on the buyers of it, apparently, MS are above the law, and we are all out of A-Team :(
Re: Datel Responds to 360 Lock Out
Thank you for understanding the core of this issue, I have spent the last 10+ hours reading nearly 700 comments about this subject and speaking in IRC rooms, typing a petition and posting it in comments. Microsoft has yet to even give a reason beyond Unauthorized=Bad and they didn't even do that their Mascot did and he possibly spoke out of turn. They have not responded, they are acting like a bully. And the scenario you mentioned is definitely going to be one of many results. Anyways I'm tired, please please read my petition it was written in a fit of rage but I believe it came out much more level headed than I am. Please sign if you agree, but even if you don't try to recognize the importance and tell people about it, share on twitter whatever. Customers should know, this is a major misstep on Microsoft's part. I made a couple good points as to why and what they should do instead of this terrible idea. Mostly even I doubt the usefullness of signing a petition but it is an action, not just talking about it to people that already know most of the points. I'm glad I found gamepolitics.com it seems like a much more action oriented community. I am just a game enthusiast not industry participant, but that should not dictate my responsibilities to the industry and to fellow enthusiasts who I feel should be more concerned. In spite of little support I will continue to be active, hopefully I can find more supporters here.
Petition
http://bit.ly/2pVtXq
/Tired probably lotta grammar mistakes sorry ya'll I'm not proofing another of my comments
Re: Datel Responds to 360 Lock Out
Like the nintendo seal of quality all that stamp means is the vendor is putting out a product that doesn't compete with microsoft, and they've paid various fees to microsoft.
Re: Datel Responds to 360 Lock Out
heh, and nce it happens, I guarantee only devices manufactured by Microsoft itself will be approved.
Honestly, once it doesh appen, if nothing else works, I say sue Microsoft for violating anti trust laws.
Re: Datel Responds to 360 Lock Out
Saying that you can only use their addons with their console does nothing to make Microsoft a trust. Plus, there are already several other manufacturers authorized.
Re: Datel Responds to 360 Lock Out
Knowing the history of patching, particularly in the case of consoles, I wouldn't be surprised if the patch caused far, far more problems than it solved, start mucking around with hardware compatibillity selectively, and they are opening a whole Pandoras' box of potential problems.
It would be amusing, from a spectators point of view, if they screwed up the patch entirely, and it started locking out unrelated stuff, purely for the enjoyment of watching Microsoft dive for cover from yet another hardware related shitstorm of their own making ;)
Re: Datel Responds to 360 Lock Out
what does microsoft intend to achieve? its only a matter of time before these companies figure a way around it right?.
if you cant compete F***K everyone else over
too greedy to make their own S**T cheaper still what do you expect from microsoft a company so cheap the shoddy workmanship on their consoles fails more than half the time. (litterally a 54% failure rate)
by the way I do own a 360 and I prefer it to my ps3 (mostly for the games and not having to load stuff into the hard drive to play games)
Re: Datel Responds to 360 Lock Out
Typical of M$. Whoops someone found out that our crazily overpriced HDD is just an off the shelf disc in a special case?
Well time to break anything else that might be used.
Re: Datel Responds to 360 Lock Out
MS uses enterpise class drives I belive thats part of the price, but they are still 30-50% or so more than they should be.
Until lobbying is a hanging offense I choose anarchy! Stop supporting big media and furthering the criminalization of consumers!! http://zippydsmlee.wordpress.com/
I have a dream, break the chains of copy right oppression! http://zippydsmlee.wordpress.com/2011/12/31/what-is-cigital-disobedience/
Re: Datel Responds to 360 Lock Out
I think you're right but still, the numbers they charge are ridiculous. Plus they were very disinegenous about the whole thing. I remember they talked about "special" and "proprietary" hard drives as the reason they were so expensive. Someone cracked open their 360, open the case the HDD was in and found out it was an off the shelf model that you could get from newegg for about $50 less than it MS was selling it for. So ultimately you were paying $50 for a plastic case and an adapter to let it connect to the 360 I think.
I love MS's marketing. "The 360 gives you CHOICE and you only pay for what you want."
Yeah, assuming you want to pay 50-60 more than those products SHOULD cost.
Re: Datel Responds to 360 Lock Out
Most of the price is so wrong, it dose cost 38$ ish to make and sell a 20GB HDD, so 20-40$ of that price tag is hardcore price gougeing.
The larger HDD is about as over priced by the same 30-40$
And whats worse they wont offer real flash altertives, a 30-40$ 8GB mem card would be fairly priced, its double the usb price due to extra hardware and a lil extra profit.
Until lobbying is a hanging offense I choose anarchy! Stop supporting big media and furthering the criminalization of consumers!! http://zippydsmlee.wordpress.com/
I have a dream, break the chains of copy right oppression! http://zippydsmlee.wordpress.com/2011/12/31/what-is-cigital-disobedience/
Re: Datel Responds to 360 Lock Out
I know Microsoft charges $100 for a damn network adapter what does it do get you laid?
Never underestimate the power of idiots in large amounts.