Id Software Cofounder Defends Xbox One DRM Policies

John Carmack on DRM and the future of gaming

Posted By | On 02nd, Aug. 2013

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The cofounder of Id Software, John Carmack, has spoken out against those who are lamenting Microsoft over the company’s controversial digital rights management policies. Id Software is the name behind such popular franchises as Doom and Wolfenstein.

Carmack took his role as the keynote speaker at Quake Con 2013 to let his thoughts be heard on the subject:

“I think the witch hunt was a little bit unjustified there. I personally am extremely fond of having all of my digital purchases in a curated garden. All of my iTunes, all of my Amazon stuff, all of my Steam things. And it’s a positive thing.

Carmack is a firm believer that sooner than later, all things gaming will have gone digital. “Yeah, you can have better and worse ways of doing that, but we are very quickly going to be past the age of having a game that you hold in your hands on optical media,” Carmack said. “It probably won’t be many years before we wind up with SKUs that just have the optical drives deleted and everybody will just be getting it through the net. The future is obvious right there and it will be good for us in general.”

In response to the outcry against the always-on Kinect sensor, Carmack said, “If you go back ten years, the idea that everyone would carry around a phone that has your GPS-located position at all times would cause the tinfoil hat crowd to go absolutely crazy. We’ll get used to it.”

What do you think? Is gaming going full digital? Would you get used to being monitored 24/7?

Via: Gamespot


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