Xbox One's downsides outweigh its benefits

Good luck to us both! To begin, my argument will rest on four main points, each of which is a major issue that the Xbox One (which I will call the 'Xbone' to save space) has: required online connection, digital rights management (DRM), always-on Kinect, and price. The first issue, required online access, is a major downside for the Xbone. As we all know at this point, the Xbone requires you to check in online at least once every 24 hours. If you do not do that, you will not be able to even play offline, single-player games. This online connection is required to be broadband, with a preferred minimum rate of 1.5 Mbps. According to TechNewsDaily, 1.5 Mbps is twice the speed that most broadband users receive. They also note that "Interestingly, although not checking in will prevent you from gaming, it will not cut off your Blu-ray or TV access, which should give you some idea of the Xbox One’s priorities. ". [1] Further, broadband itself is actually not as common as you might think - 119 million Americans do not have broadband access, according to the FCC. [2] Further, there are also major issues with the always online aspect from Microsoft's end - let's say a hacker breaks into the Xbone servers. When this happened to Sony, they had to shut online off for 24 days - with the Xbone, you would not be able to play any games for nearly a month! Or, when Microsoft releases a new system in 7-8 years, they could force you to switch by shutting off the Xbone servers. Simply put, this is unacceptable. The second issue, digital rights management (DRM), is even worse than the first. Microsoft wants to control where, when, and how you play your games. Because the discs become worthless after installation, you cannot exercise your right to lend, trade, or sell your game. This pre-empts the doctorine of first sale, a long-standing copyright rule that establishes that when you buy a copyrighted work, you own it. You have the right to do keep it for yourself, lend it, or sell that copy to someone else, at which point you have no more right to that copy. On the other hand, your right to that work only extends to that copy, and you can’t make copies of the book and sell them to other people. To give an example, if you go to the store and buy a new book, it is your book. You can do what you want with it - you can keep it for as long as you want, lend it to a friend, or sell it. The publishing company cannot tell you when you can read it, where you can read it, or who you can sell it to. That sounds pretty fair, and it is very fair - both sides are protected. Unfortunately, that just isn’t good enough for publishing companies, who want to get paid whenever anyone buys a game, new or used, as opposed to when someone buys it new. This is a violation of your rights as a consumer, and a distortion of copyright law, because the point of copyright law is encourage production of new, quality works, not to make publishing companies as much money as possible. The third issue is Kinect. Aside from my disdain for 'video games' with no controllers, Kinect is always on. Although Microsoft says that the Kinect is only listening for the phrase 'Xbox On', Microsoft has been a member of PRISM (the NSA surveillance program) since 2007, when they were the first major internet company to join it. [4] Additionally, Microsoft has filed patents to limit the usage of apps to a certain number of people, meaning if you bring your extended family over to your house to watch a movie on Netflix, Kinect could theoretically pull the plug for having too many people in the room. [5] This is just more evidence of how Xbone is designed to harm the consumer and their rights. The final issue I will raise is price. Xbone costs $499 US dollars, a full $100 above the Sony Playstation 4 and $150 more than Nintendo's Wii U. To warrant that price, Xbone needs to be far-and-above better than the competition - unfortunately, it is not. None of the other consoles have always-online, DRM, or spying cameras. Wii U offers graphics that are equal or better than those of the Xbox 360 (a fantastic console), and PS4's graphical capacity actually beats Xbone! [6] Further, PS4 does not require you to purchase their online package in order to access online apps like Netflix or Hulu or streaming services, and PS4 is region-free - Xbone requires you to purchase their online to access apps and streaming, and is region-locked. [7] Quite simply, why would I want to pay more for a product that violates my rightsand is infererior to the competition? To sum up - Xbone has very major concerns on all fronts, and is also the most expensive console out there. It's graphical capacity is inferior to PS4, and its DRM and online requirements are very restrictive. These are major downsides, and cannot be made up by any upside. References:1. . http://www.technewsdaily.com...2. . http://arstechnica.com...3. . http://en.wikipedia.org...4. . http://www.usatoday.com...5. . http://kotaku.com...6. . http://www.christiantoday.com...7. . http://www.cinemablend.com...