Peter Molyneux on Xbox One DRM Policy: “There’s an Inevitability of Online”

Lionhead founder and industry legend comes out in defense of Microsoft's nixed DRM strategy.


Lionhead Studios founder and 22 Cans creative Peter Molyneux has come out in defense of Microsoft’s Xbox One DRM strategy.

Speaking to TechRadar, Molyneux stated that, “I know Microsoft, I know they were only doing things because they thought they were long-reaching and long-thinking. But the world we live in now is that we have to realize, especially if you’re a big corporation, if you make one step wrong, the world will leap on you, and unfairly, very unfairly, they will judge you.”

The Xbox One formerly required 24 hour authentication, limited used game sales and sharing, and was region locked. This prompted an enormous outcry from consumers who took to skewering Microsoft for weeks until the latter reversed its policies.

“Whether as consumers we like it or not, just like every form of technology interaction, there’s an inevitability of online. We know that online is so much a part of our existence now that we’re going to be in a world very soon where we have to be online all the time. A mobile device is more and more non functional without a connection to the internet, and why should that be any different for consoles?”

Molyneux was a part of Microsoft when the publisher acquired Lionhead in 2006 and worked there until 2012.

22 CansDRMLionHead StudiosMicrosoftmobilePeter MolyneuxXbox One