If you’re one of the 16% percent of XBOX 360 owners who have had to replace their console due failure you would understand my frustration where all of the content (map packs, arcade titles) I had bought from the XBOX Live Marketplace became unplayable when not connected to the internet and signed into XBOX Live.
The reason for this is due to Microsoft’s crippling DRM (Digital Rights Management) and not taking into account that a significant amount of their users have had to replace (Microsoft call it upgrading) their console.
Now I can understand why DRM exists however the majority of companies either take DRM to ridiculous levels or don’t manage it properly, which is the case with Microsoft.
It’s taken a couple of years but now Microsoft has released an online tool to transfer the content licenses from one XBOX to another. It is a rather simple method and can be done online in a matter of minutes (make sure you are sitting next to your console) but the kicker is that you must re-download all of the content that was downloaded on the previous console. BUT you are not really downloading it again just re-downloading the license which is OK as you’re not going to use up lots of data but if you’re like myself I had to re-download 171 items one by fucking one.
That method both sucks and took up a large amount of my time. Why couldn’t the licenses be re-activated the next time I used that content? i.e. I start to play UNO and it contacts XBOX Live and sees that UNO is in fact licensed to my new console and it authorizes it and away I go.
No matter how frustrating this is it is good to see Microsoft address this issue and as you can only do this once every 12 months Microsoft appear to be rather confident that your new XBOX won’t be breaking anytime soon…
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/systemuse/xbox360/licensemigration/
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