markwhitten
Latest
Sonos product head Marc Whitten has left the company
Sonos announced a round of layoffs earlier this month, and now a turbulent March continues. The company has confirmed that chief product officer Marc Whitten has departed the company after a two-year stint. During his time at Sonos, Whitten oversaw two of the company's most important product launches in its history: the excellent new Play:5 speaker and the speaker-tuning TruePlay software. A company spokesperson gave us the following statement: "Marc Whitten has decided to leave Sonos, and his last day was Friday, March 25. We thank Marc for this hard work and meaningful contributions over the past two years."
Xbox One DRM rollback cuts family sharing features, digital mirroring of retail games out
In the aftermath of Microsoft's stunning reversal of its Xbox One game licensing plans, we talked to Xbox chief product officer Marc Whitten to find out exactly what will change about Redmond's next game box this November. Whitten thankfully assuaged our primary concern right off the bat: the company's (new) used game policy extends to third-party publishers as well as Microsoft first-party games. Though gamers won't have to put up with requirements for an internet check-in every 24 hours, some lauded features we'd heard about will not be available as a result -- at least at launch. That includes the sharing between up to ten family members, and playing disc-based games without having the disc in the One. It also means new consoles will need a patch at launch to enable this future / past scenario of disc-based console gaming. "There are some things -- the family sharing stuff is an example -- where as we move to this system, that functionality goes away," Whitten told us. Another such piece of functionality the console's losing: digitally accessible versions of disc-based games. "You're gonna see your online content but you won't see your physical discs," he said. Should you choose to purchase those games digitally, of course, they'll show up as part of your online persona.
