Curious how Microsoft's now available Xbox Live DRM tool works, but don't want to futz through it on your own? Well, we've got two solutions: first, sift through our gallery of the service's various screens by clicking on the above image; second, have the affable Major Nelson hold your hand through the entire thing, in video format after the break. Two great tastes that taste great (or at least show you how to fix DRM-isses on a video game console) together.

Maybe it was our constant pestering, week after week, month after month, asking everyone at Microsoft what was going on with the DRM situation on Xbox Live – read: some consoles which had been repaired or replaced had lost the ability to play certain XBLA games or view some Xbox Live video content without being signed into Xbox Live – but sometime after announcing the pending release of the DRM tool, we were given the opportunity to speak with Microsoft's Marc Whitten, general manager of Xbox Live, about some of the outstanding questions we had. Anything we missed? Leave your own questions in the comments and we'll try and get the best ones answered.


Joystiq: What took so long? And how long has Microsoft been cognizant of the problem and did the RRoD situation exacerbate this situation?
Marc Whitten: This update is in response to the requests for this from our community. Xbox LIVE members have been asking for an easier way to transfer licenses, and we've been working hard behind the scenes to make this happen. We know the license transfer process has been difficult... I experienced it first hand when I upgraded to an Xbox 360 Elite, but we think this new DRM tool will be great and worth the wait.

How does the tool work? Can we reauthorize content from console to console, or enable on multiple consoles (ala PS3)? If so, how many consoles?
The process is really easy. The Xbox.com DRM tool lets you consolidate all of your downloaded content licenses to one console. So let's say you downloaded UNO from Xbox LIVE Marketplace and an episode of South Park from the Video Store on your Xbox 360, and then upgraded to an Elite down the line and downloaded more games and videos on the new console. In this scenario your content would be licensed to two consoles, and by using the DRM tool you could then download your older content licenses to your new console. With this tool you can transfer licenses from multiple consoles to a single console.

In lieu of your regularly scheduled "Spring" Dashboard update, Microsoft promised to release a DRM tool that would "allow you to better consolidate your licenses for downloaded content to a single Xbox and allow you the freedom to be able to play your content both online and offline." In other words, this is for the sad saps whose Xbox 360 red-ringed, only to have it returned with Xbox Live Arcade titles that required you to be signed into Live to play. Now instead of jumping through a series of customer-service related hoops, this new tool – available immediately at Xbox.com – will allow you to quickly manage that content.

If you're looking for some more info on how the DRM tool works, check out our exclusive Q&A with Microsoft's Marc Whitten, general manager of Xbox Live.

When we first reported on EA's reworked DRM scheme for Mass Effect PC – one that removed the onerous 10-day re-validation process but now only allows a maximum of three activations – we teased that we were ready to "pick up our torches and pitchforks and join the mob outside."

Now, a little over a month later, that mob has grown to some considerable size, spurred on by a forum thread on BioWare's site being referenced on consumer-advocacy blog The Consumerist. The problem: some confusion over whether or not uninstalling the game reinstates one of your three activations. After some wrangling (you know how support centers can be) EA confirmed that "unfortunately, you will not gain an activation by uninstalling the game." So, be stingy with those installs, gamers.


[Via Consumerist; thanks, Eric]

Each week Jeff Engel and Geoff Brooks contribute Counting Rupees, a column on the business behind gaming:
When EA announced that Spore and Mass Effect (PC) would have a DRM program that did performed online verification every 10 days, it generated a massive backlash amongst the gaming community. Many people, who were originally excited about Spore and Mass Effect, now claimed that they would not purchase the games, solely because of the DRM. To be honest, I'm no fan of DRM either. It basically treats all legal customers as potential criminals, and seems futile anyway, as anyone with an internet connection can typically find ways around the DRM. The only people it probably deters are those with little technical savvy and who just want to share a game they bought with their friends and family. The amount of actual sales that would be lost to this is probably pretty limited. With all that said, I'm glad that EA has backed off this new DRM and scaled it back to just an initial online verification. Given the current state of PC gaming as well as the traditionally more "accepted" versions of DRM (like the initial online verification), however, I didn't find this new DRM to be all THAT much worse, particularly with some slight improvements to it, such as allowing a manual verification and extending the timeframe for re-verification slightly (say, to 30-60 days instead of every 10).

The reason for this has a lot to do with what's been going on with PC gaming in the last few years. While the "death" of PC gaming has been talked about for years, it isn't quite here. The landscape is just shifting. While the total NPD sales for each year has been decreasing, other avenues of making money have been developed. For instance, subscription-based games (mostly MMOs, but also games available on GameTap), cheaper more casual downloadable games (eg, PopCap Games), and even free, ad- or feature-driven games (eg, Dungeon Runners, Battlefield Heroes, Quake Zero) make up an ever increasing portion of PC-based revenue. Thus, the actual retail sales are taken up mostly by a few casual games, MMO starter kits or expansions, and maybe the occasional shooter or RTS game. Take, for example, the most recent NPD PC numbers for the week of May 4-10:

After literally years of skirting around the problem, Microsoft is finally ready to properly address the DRM-issues that have plagued their Xbox Live Arcade service since 2005, and were only exacerbated by the RROD epidemic. In a jam-packed interview with Next-Gen, Microsoft's Marc Whitten says that, while there won't be a traditional "Spring" Dashboard update, "the team will be releasing a new digital rights management (DRM) tool next month that will allow you to better consolidate your licenses for downloaded content to a single Xbox and allow you the freedom to be able to play your content both online and offline." Well, that's all well and good, but what's that mean for Joe Gamer?

If you've had your Xbox 360 replaced, or if you've upgraded to an Elite and used the inelegant Xbox 360 Hard Drive Transfer Kit, you may have found yourself with a handful of XBLA games that were tied solely to your gamertag and not to your console. That meant you couldn't play them offline or on another account tied to your system. This new tool purportedly solves this dilemma by giving consumers much finer control over the content they've purchased (go figure!).

After stirring up a hornets' nest of gamer contempt last week by announcing that the forthcoming PC flavor of Mass Effect would require re-validation every 10 days, BioWare community manager Jay Watamaniuk has come forward as the voice of reason on the game's official forums, stating that the developer has now removed the "feature" from the game.

Instead of employing the previously revealed DRM madness, Watamaniuk explained that Mass Effect will include just a one time online authentication, allowing players to play the game once validated without the disc in the drive at all. That said, if any new content is downloaded, the game will again have to bite the disc to make sure it's real. The caveat to all of this, however, is that each Mass Effect purchase will only be able to be installed a maximum of three times, news that has again incited us to pick up our torches and pitchforks and join the mob outside.

BioWare technical producer Derek French lit up the Mass Effect forums this past week announcing that both their game and (on page 2) fellow Electronic Arts title Spore come with SecuROM, a DRM system that requires activation the first time you play the game and then a re-check every ten days, with the first check on the fifth day.

French explained that there is no external program installed and the check will be run through MassEffect.exe (or Spore.exe, presumably), the data transfered will be the CD key and a "unique machine identifier of some type" and that he has been told, "there will be clear labeling on the package."

Despite all these reassurances, an unfortunate scenario brought up by one poster -- of ignoring the game 11 days and then trying to play with no internet -- was proven true, as French confirmed you wouldn't be able to play the game under that situation. Of course, it's not like you're gonna put any of these games down for ten days, right? Right? Eh, we hate DRM.

(Note: We do understand the irony of making a Samara/The Ring joke when -- spoiler -- her primary goal was to have people make as many copies as possible.)

[Via Shacknews]

There's always been a catch when sharing downloadable PSN games: If it's an online multiplayer title, only one PSN account can use a particular license at any one time, though the license can be shared with any number of accounts across five consoles (so, you purchase and download the game, and then four of your friends can download the game for free onto their consoles using your account, but play using their own accounts). With nothing said leading up to its release, no one expected the rule to be changed for Warhawk, but it has been.

It's not that Sony has lifted the limitation, but rather, Sony has reinforced it further. Each Warhawk license is tethered to one PSN account, the purchaser, and while the game can be installed on up to five consoles using that account (and only that account for playing), a single Warhawk license cannot be used on more than one console within a single day.

As promised, Elite owners looking to peel the data from their old, antiquated Xboxen and stick it onto their shiny new Elites will be able to order a free HDD Transfer Kit through Xbox.com. An important part of that task includes having a page to order it from! Unfortunately, there's no easy-breezy "webpage" to place the order through, instead, you'll need to download a PDF, print it out, fill it out with all sorts of serial numbers, and mail it to Zionsville, Indiana where a team of futuristic, underground refugees will decide if you qualify for the Transfer Kit ...

... which we might add "is a limited time offer, subject to product availability, and subject to change without notice." Well, at least it's free.

[Via X3F]

PDF - Microsoft Xbox 360 Data Migration Kit Order Form

We've posted before on how the Vista brand will change the PC gaming market. But how will the OS affect the gameplay experience itself? An in-depth analysis of the operating system's draconian digital rights management features suggests gamers might not be too happy with some of the system's unintended performance effects.

The write-up itself is long and rather technical, but the main section of interest to gamers deals with unnecessary CPU resource consumption. Apparently, Vista does a sweep of all computer hardware over 30 times every second to make sure no one is trying to leech a digital video signal through a modification. Besides taking up valuable computing cycles, this method also makes it harder for the computer to perform video decompression, especially in low-end graphics chips.

While it remains to be seen how these "features" will actually impact Vista games, the fact that it's even an issue is enough to make us question Microsoft's devotion to Vista gaming. As the analysis' author puts it, "I wonder how [the gaming] market segment will react to knowing that their top-of-the-line hardware is being hamstrung by all of the content-protection "features" that Vista hogties it with?"

[Update: Fixed typo in headline]

[Via Boing Boing]

Games bought through the PlayStation Store will be able to run on five-or-fewer systems. Of course, if you own more than five systems, you can probably afford to pay for the game again on the sixth. (Hah, we kid; you didn't get so rich by wasting money on a game you already bought.) The important application for the five-or-less rule is that you can log in to the PlayStation Store at a friend's house and re-download a game for free.

When you leave your friend's house, Sony says that you can leave the game there. If the title is an online multiplayer game, only one of you can use it at a time. But if it's an offline game, we were told that the multiple systems can continue to play it.

Sounds like you and your four best friends may be splitting PS3 game downloads.

See also: Share XBLA games on two Xbox 360s... legally

Sony is working on a media store, combining its vast movie and music empire with its Trojan horse PS3 system. Late at night, James Bond movies and Beyoncé music will sneak out of the PS3 to take over your living room.

It's easy to anticipate the PS3-as-media-store angle; corporations love that synergy. John Smedley, President of Sony Online Entertainment gave us a few general notes about the plan. While he said Sony had "no announcement yet," about these media sales, he said that the ready-for-launch PlayStation Store, is "set up to offer any DRM type of content," including "movies, music, and TV [shows]." (Sony had already announced that the store will offer game downloads and add-ons.) Smedley went as far as saying that Sony is working with content providers, so while unofficial, the media store seems inevitable to us.

Here's hoping that Sony maintains the HD attitude and sells HD movies online. Or what if we could rent those titles on the cheap? That sounds like another way for the PS3 to attract a broad audience.

JapanChronicles.com has the scoop on Sony's Portable TV service (P-TV), which is currently available to PSP users in Japan. Despite offering valuable content (downloadable PSP-formatted videos), the P-TV service is flawed. All of the videos are DRM-protected and only accessible for a limited amount of time (ranging from 5–30 days) — each video must be bought separately (some videos are free).

If Sony wants to stay competitive with services like iTunes, the company will have to give downloaders full ownership of downloaded video or move to a fixed low-cost subscription fee. That is, either sell users videos to download and keep, or charge them a monthly fee that will grant access to all (or part) of the video library, giving users a limited time to watch a downloaded video, but also permitting them unlimited monthly downloads. Given the Memory Sticks' limited storage capacity, users should also be given the opportunity to archive content on a PC.

It looks like the PS3 press conference is just getting started.

IGN reports Ken Kutaragi's opening statement as follows: "It is my aim to clear things up about the PlayStation 3 today. The PS2, the PS3, the network, and Future Cell Network, this will all be addressed."

More as we get it... Update 16--the wrap-up: The PS3 will launch "in early November 2006 in Japan, North America and Europe simultaneously." Incorporating the final specifications of the Blu-ray format will enable "playback of BD software at a high bit rate," with "a maximum storage capacity of 50 GB (dual layer) and robust security." The PS3 will be compatible with all kinds of TVs and a high-speed broadband connection. Update 19 (via 1UP's updated page): DRM was what delayed the launch, but the system will come with a 60GB HDD preinstalled before 11/11/06.

[Thanks, bv; pics used to create new montage from Watch Impress]