I have a real beef with Xbox and Microsoft.

My goal for 2015 was quality over quantity. The most common request I get from the facilities is sports games. I use this explanation often, but the kids want to play as Lebron in Cleveland not Lebron in Miami. I made the decision that it’s more impactful to donate 5 brand new sports games as opposed to 8 or 10 Wii sports games. I even donated a brand new Xbox One to Hemby Children’s Hospital for Giving Tuesday last year. That’s when I came across a problem: Xbox One and Playstation 4s both require internet access.

This may not sound like that big of an issue, but the hospitals require you to accept the terms and conditions before you’re able to access the network. On top of that some Xbox games require you to ALWAYS be connected, even if you’re just playing locally. There are a ton of complaints about this online. Unfortunately the only explanation from Microsoft vp Phil Harrison is that "There are many devices in your life that require the Internet to function,". Basically a “Sorry I’m not sorry”.

I was able to get most of the games to play for the Xbox One after downloading the required day one updates at my apartment, but there are still some games that are unplayable. I’ve offered to speak with the IT departments at the facilities to see what we can do to get these devices connected, but as you can imagine they’re super busy and this isn’t a huge priority. I chose to do Playstation 4s this year for my Giving Tuesday goal instead of Xbox One because they’re less restrictive on this, but it’s still a big issue.

One of my biggest pet peeves is when something that should be simple isn’t, and that’s the case here. What am I missing here? Am I missing some easy work around?