Rumor: XBoxOne to abandon DRM and Used Games policies

[Reaperman]

I think the important lesson in this is that there *is* actually a limit to how far gamers can be pushed in the wrong direction. Previously I had thought that gamers would just keep buying anything but, at least when there is an alternative, that doesn't seem to be the case. (insert FPS or ports gamer joke here) I'm sure the whole industry has been paying attention to this, and I think that's a good thing.

 

Mind that this 'limit' is still way farther over the line than I believe it should be. Any time Sony can go from being the industry's demon overfiend, to the hero of the everyman just by saying that they probably wouldn't screw us over any more than last time is pretty goddamn sad.

Edited June 20, 2013 by Reaperman

[sh3-rg]

Any time Sony can go from being the industry's demon overfiend, to the hero of the everyman just by saying that they probably wouldn't screw us over any more than last time is pretty goddamn sad.

 

Not as sad as those rushing off to pre-order an xbone now

with their arseholes still dripping with lube as ms pulled out just before they shot their DRM load...

 

I don't think ps+ subscribers have seen Sony as a demon overfiend for quite some time, more like a crazy gaming Santa who insists on visiting every bloody week!

[cimerians]

Xbots

 

lol

[Necron99]

I never really planned on getting one anyways, for me, the big issue was the used games model and how I felt it would have basically poisoned the market of gaming in general. A big fear was that if MS succeeded with that model, then Sony would follow and eventually Nintendo would too. The other issues are all functional problems with the console. I still think that MS needs to support a replacable HDD though.

[Reaperman]

I don't think ps+ subscribers have seen Sony as a demon overfiend for quite some time, more like a crazy gaming Santa who insists on visiting every bloody week!

I don't think that the PS+ subscribers ever thought of Sony as a japanese tentacle-demon--or they probably wouldn't be subscribers. PS+ hit about the same time as 'teh evil.' I've actually considered it, but because of my buying habits, Crazy Santa's really only got fruitcake for me. Next gen, I'm not looking forward to having to sign up *if* I go for a ps4 (probably ~2015 if it happens).

Edited June 20, 2013 by Reaperman

[godslabrat]

I think the important lesson in this is that there *is* actually a limit to how far gamers can be pushed in the wrong direction. Previously I had thought that gamers would just keep buying anything but, at least when there is an alternative, that doesn't seem to be the case. (insert FPS or ports gamer joke here) I'm sure the whole industry has been paying attention to this, and I think that's a good thing.

 

Mind that this 'limit' is still way farther over the line than I believe it should be. Any time Sony can go from being the industry's demon overfiend, to the hero of the everyman just by saying that they probably wouldn't screw us over any more than last time is pretty goddamn sad.

 

Indeed. And while it's relieving that Microsoft's plan was nipped in the bud, and it's commendable that they listen to their customers... the fact that they thought this would fly AT ALL is a big frickin' deal. Honestly, I hope this incident taints their brand for this generation, and results in them being a distant third. A screwup this pronounced should have consequences.

[Christophero Sly]

I agree this was inevitable but disagree on why.

Actually, it sounds to me as if we are in almost complete agreement on these points.

 

Why? It appears everyone forgets what Sony has done. Or Nintendo. Or Apple. Face it, people have very short term memory with this stuff. A few killer exclusives, and people will cave. We've all done it. You already seemed to have forgotten how much superior and more powerful the cell technology was is the PS3. That worked out well. But it's all in the games and hopefully no red rings or the like this time around.

Why what? I don't understand. Are you suggesting that Sony's past blunders somehow prohibit me from objecting to Microsoft's present misdeeds?

 

No one is ignorant of Sony's past missteps, least of all Sony. The approach they've taken with the PS4 demonstrates a keen awareness of their past slip-ups. Sony wouldn't have fallen from the dominate position in this industry to an also-ran if gamers hadn't been judging their policies and products accordingly. I expect the same fate to befall Microsoft.

 

Nontheless, now that MS has removed its draconian impediments to consumer freedom, I suspect that many people will be willing to purchase an Xbone. However, I don't see how that could be considered "caving". Quite the opposite, actually, because isn't in MS that has "caved" here?

 

It's better to admit failure than to try to excuse it.

I agree, but it seems to me that the underlying principal loses quite a bit of its luster when you finally do the former only after having spent a month vigorously attempting the later.

 

...they did not blame it on how you were holding the device, promise better things that never happen, or completely ignore the problem and hope everyone forgets (which it's easy to see so many people already have).

The fact that they haven't passed the buck or stuck their head in the sand in no way ameliorates MS's transgressions.

 

They are also doing away with the few positive proposals, such as the cloud sharing.

Cloud sharing was simply that, a proposal. It was never going to happen. It was a disengenous PR-fantasy. The 10-pak "family" share plan was a pipe-dream that publishers were never going to support. Microsoft would have had to kill that feature independent of the DRM and used game controversies. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that a recognition of this fact is what ultimately triggered the decision to reverse course. Faced with the reality that all the major players in publishing were going to opt-out of the only Xbone feature that could be touted as a positive, MS was left with no more room to maneuver.

Edited June 20, 2013 by Christophero Sly

[JamesD]

lol.....it was the most embarrassing thing in the history of gaming.

 

Not to mention the biggest backtracking ever.

 

Update: Xbox 180

No... it's the XBOX ONE EIGHTY!

[Master Phruby]

Well here are some articles about how the internet just f-uped the XBox with it's outcry on DRM.

 

http://gizmodo.com/the-xbox-one-just-got-way-worse-and-its-our-fault-514411905

 

http://microsoft-news.com/a-vocal-minority-of-idiots-journalists-ruin-innovations-on-the-xbox-one/

[godslabrat]

http://gizmodo.com/t...fault-514411905

 

http://microsoft-new...n-the-xbox-one/

 

Hoooooollly crap! I can't believe this... the only thing more painful than listening to Microsoft try to dick over gamers is listening to the butthurt Microsoft fans not getting their PureDigitalNoMoreDiscsEver nirvanna. I can't believe the comments I'm reading in these articles and on Facebook. "You people ruined everything!! You had to ruin my parade just because you actually want to own the content you buy! I can't believe you're so STUPID as to think paying more and getting less isn't the best deal EVER!! CLOUD CLOUD CLOUD!! FUTURE FUTURE FUTURE!!"

 

You can practically hear these people calling up Microsoft and apologizing on our behalf, begging to be let back into their vision of DRM and Doritos. They can't stand to be stuck with us plebians, those among us who don't feel the need to have our consoles tattle on us every day.

 

I'm astonished, I really am. I'm not surprised that many people were okay with Microsoft's original vision. I AM surprised that so many people are angry at seasoned gamers, who wanted nothing more than to maintain the consumer rights we've had since the first Pong unit rolled off the assembly line.

[Impaler_26]

Well here are some articles about how the internet just f-uped the XBox with it's outcry on DRM.

 

http://gizmodo.com/t...fault-514411905

 

http://microsoft-new...n-the-xbox-one/

 

Hoooooollly crap! I can't believe this...

 

Same here. But at least i got a few good laughs out of it, some of those MS-Fanboy posts made me .

[cimerians]

It's pathetic but that's how corporations do things to make people beleive it's product is good for them.

 

[Master Phruby]

Microsoft is screwed either way. Why doesn't Apple have these problems?

[Necron99]

I was looking forward to being able to share games easily with people on my friends list. But based on the responses here and pretty much everywhere else I was in the minority. This reversal doesn't change my intentions to purchase a Xbox One, I had already pre ordered one.

http://www.heyuguysg...s-rip-must-read

apparently the "awesome sharing feature" was only a demo 15-45 minutes long (Depending on publisher) and then you are prompted to buy the game.....LOL. you aren't missing much.

 

That was easily the best feature of the console and the didn't tell the whole truth about it?

 

Anyone who you deem to be family had access to these games regardless of where they are in the world. There was never any catch to that, they didn’t have to share the same billing address or physical address it could be anyone. When your family member accesses any of your games, they’re placed into a special demo mode. This demo mode in most cases would be the full game with a 15-45 minute timer and in some cases an hour. This allowed the person to play the game, get familiar with it then make a purchase if they wanted to. When the time limit was up they would automatically be prompted to the Marketplace so that they may order it if liked the game.

bwahahahahahaha

Edited June 20, 2013 by Necron99

[+Random Terrain]

Woohoo! Gamer power rules! Microsoft have now decided not to make Xbone internet only and scrapped their DRM policy. Now for the price.

 

Be careful. Jubilation can cause drowsiness and the wolf is hiding in the shadows, waiting for you to fall asleep.

[godslabrat]

 

"And I would have gotten away with it... if it weren't for you DARN GAMING JOURNALISTS and your STUPID DOG!"

[Christophero Sly]

Well here are some articles...

 

http://gizmodo.com/the-xbox-one-just-got-way-worse-and-its-our-fault-514411905

 

Every game you bought, physical or digital, would be tied to your account. This would eliminate current-gen problems like buying a disc, and then being unable to store it or download it from the cloud.

This is a problem!? I don't even see it as an inconvenience. What a blatantly fallacious line of reasoning.

Because every single game, physical or digital, would be tied to an account, publishers could create a hub to sell and resell the games digitally. Let's refer to these as "licenses" from here, even though it's a loaded term.

Yes, I'm certain a publisher-controlled hub would have been an infinitely superior alternative to the unfettered free-markets we are currently stuck with.

Because reselling games would now work through a hub, publishers could make money on resold games.

Of course they could(read: would). That's the whole point of this scheme, isn't it--to steal the trade-in value of new games from consumers and keep it for themselves? I get that part. Now explain to me and my wallet why we should be sad that this isn't happening.

Here is how this makes sense for YOU: New games could then be cheaper. Why? Publishers KNOW that they will not make money on resold games, so they charge more to you, the first buyer. You are paying for others' rights to use your game in the future. If the old system had gone into place, you would likely have seen game prices drop. Or, at the very least, it could have staved off price increases.

So why is it that publishers are, at this very minute, charging me the same price for a digital copy of a game as they do for a physical one? Maybe what you're suggesting will only come to pass when physical media has been completely eliminated and publishers have secured a complete monopoly on digital distribution? Obviously, then, without any competition, publishers will finally have an incentive to treat customers in the benevolent manner you suggest. After all, history is littered with examples of corporations practicing such benevolence when in possession of total monopolies.

You also would have started getting a better return on your "used" games—because a license does not have to be resold at a diminished rate.

In other words, the difference between the price of a used game and a new game would be negligible, ultimately causing one or the other to disappear(guess which one). And please explain to me exactly how a digital license becomes "used". I mean, what is the nature of that transformation such that it alters the product into something tangibly "used"? When it comes to a digital product, can you even draw a distinction between "new" and "used" in any way that is not simply semantic hogwash?

Sharing games would have worked either by activating your Live account on someone else's Xbox One, or by including them in your 10-person share plan, which would not have been limited to "family.". Details on that had been scarse, but even the strictest limitations (one other person playing any of the shared games from your account) would have been a HUGE improvement over the none that we have now. We don't get that now.

I hate to disappoint you, son, but we were never going to get a "10-person share plan" in the first place. Pure snake oil. Your beloved publishers would have never allowed it.

The 24-hour check-in would have been necessary for the X1's store, which it is not for Steam, because the physical product (game discs) would still be available. This check-in, literally bytes of data exchanged, would confirm that the games installed were not gaming the system in a convoluted install-here-and-then-go-offline-and-I'll-go-home-and-check-in-and-go-offline-too-and-we'll-both-use-the-game methods.

Yeah, because why would anyone hassle with such a convoluted work-around when the "10-person share plan" makes it so much easier for us to "game" the system? Amirite? Edited June 20, 2013 by Christophero Sly

[Christophero Sly]

 

http://www.heyuguysg...s-rip-must-read

apparently the "awesome sharing feature" was only a demo 15-45 minutes long (Depending on publisher) and then you are prompted to buy the game.....LOL. you aren't missing much.

 

That was easily the best feature of the console and the didn't tell the whole truth about it?

Wow! What a revelation! And here I thought the publishers had balked over this issue. Turns out that the "10-person share plan" was just a stupid marketing ploy. Thanks, but I can download my own demos, guys. Truly pathetic that Microsoft never articulated, to the point of obfuscation, the true nature of this feature.

Edited June 20, 2013 by Christophero Sly

[godslabrat]

Wow! What a revelation! And here I thought the publishers had balked over this issue. Turns out that the "10-person share plan" was just a stupid marketing ploy. Thanks, but I can download my own demos, guys. Truly pathetic that Microsoft never articulated, to the point of obfuscation, the true nature of this feature.

 

...but don't forget, we're supposed to be weeping now that it won't happen!!

[Christophero Sly]

I'm afraid we may have jumped the gun. The source for that information appears to be an anonymous pastebin.

[Cobra Kai]

Well here are some articles about how the internet just f-uped the XBox with it's outcry on DRM.

 

http://gizmodo.com/t...fault-514411905

 

http://microsoft-new...n-the-xbox-one/

I haven't seen rabid fanboyism like that since....ever!! Those people act like owning something tangible is this awful prehistoric caveman way of living. Do they eat real food, or is it virtual? What about bathroom habits, is it imaginary digital toilet paper they wipe their asses with? They just can't wait to throw away everything that's real in life, so they can acquire their digital versions that they will forfeit all rights to some giant corporation...fuck yeah!!!!

[cybercylon]

I'm not interested in either of these consoles until I am sure they aren't just going to flip some switch and put all of that crap back in a year later. To use a famous quote, either or both could wind up being "a bag of hurt".

[Emehr]

Today I learned that Kyle Wagner talks out of his ass and is either ( a ) paid by Microsoft, ( b ) so deluded that he believes what he writes, or ( c ) is trolling.

 

Were people really that excited about sharing games? We can do that already. I believe Sony demonstrated it in a recent video.

Edited June 20, 2013 by Emehr

[godslabrat]

Were people really that excited about sharing games? We can do that already. I believe Sony demonstrated it in a recent video.

 

That's the thing I can't get across to people: everything about XBO's original strategy was designed to re-invent how the console does things that consoles are already able to do. The difference is, under the XBO method, there are benefits (read: revenue) to the publisher. There are no benefits to the consumer. Microsoft was asking us to uproot the entire industry in exchange for nothing. None of these "features" were new at all... just a different way of doing things.

[Emehr]

Microsoft is screwed either way. Why doesn't Apple have these problems?

 

Apple doesn't have a console.