Microsoft’s Terrible Xbox 360 DRM

Ah, the wonderful world of electronic purchases and micro-transactions. Unfortunately, both of these are usually associated with DRM.

With the high defect rate for Xbox 360s and users actively upgrading their systems to the Elite version to get HDMI, have you ever wondered what happens to all the purchases you made on your old (and possibly dead) 360?

Let’s step back for a second and look into what happens with all the transactions you made with Xbox Live on your original Xbox when you upgraded to your 360. Oh, that’s right, you had to repurchase them all over again. Brilliant. And how were you able to transfer your game saves? That’s right, you couldn’t. Unless you used a hacked method.

Going back to the 360, this is how purchases work. All purchases made on Xbox Live are tied both to the console it was purchased on and the Xbox Live gamertag that was signed in at the time of the purchase. If your internet connection is down, you can always play the content on the system it was purchased on. Since it is tied to the gamertag, you go to your friend’s house, sign onto Xbox Live on their Xbox 360 with the gamertag you bought the game with and play your purchased Xbox Live arcade game there (if you have an internet connection).

Okay, that sounds cool. So what happens if your Xbox 360 breaks and you buy a new one or upgrade to an Elite? Guess what, you always need an internet connection and to be signed in with the gamertag you bought the content with! If your internet goes down, can’t play your favorite Xbox Live arcade game. If your brother is playing the family Xbox 360 with his own gamertag that is different from yours, he can’t use your purchased content on the new system.

DRM is just terrible and so is Microsoft for ignoring this huge flaw. If you call their support center and mention this to them, they’ll tell you there is nothing that they can do.

So how do Nintendo and Sony handle this? If a Wii is defective Nintendo will transfer virtual console games to a new console. It’s not perfectly clear if they will do this if the console is not defective, but it’s still a step better than Microsoft if a console is damaged. Sony allows up to 5 consoles to use a game purchased from the Playstation Store, so it’s really a non-issue.