Carmack: Xbox One "witch hunt" unjustified

John Carmack, cofounder of id Software, has stated that the furore surrounding Microsoft's unpopular Xbox One DRM policies was unjustified. Microsoft may have changed their minds, but Carmack believes that the days of physical media are coming to an end.

"I think the witch hunt was a little bit unjustified there," Carmack said during this keynote address at QuakeCon. "I personally am extremely fond of having all of my digital purchases in a curated garden. All of my iTunes, all of my Amazon stuff, all of my Steam things. And it's a positive thing."

Carmack is a firm believer that digital-only is the way forward. "Yeah, you can have better and worse ways of doing that, but we are very quickly going to be past the age of having a game that you hold in your hands on optical media," Carmack said. "It probably won't be many years before we wind up with SKUs that just have the optical drives deleted and everybody will just be getting it through the net. The future is obvious right there and it will be good for us in general."

He also commented on the fears that the new Kinect camera could be used to spy on users. "If you go back ten years, the idea that everyone would carry around a phone that has your GPS-located position at all times would cause the tinfoil hat crowd to go absolutely crazy."

Carmack's answer to these concerns? "We'll get used to it."

Thanks, GameSpot.