XBOX One: Microsoft Changes their mind on Console Restrictions

Straight from the horse's mouth:

posted June 19, 2013 - http://news.xbox.com/2013/06/update

 

The damage is already done. They just had to be radical and introduce restrictive DRM after Windows 8, huh?

 

Microsoft is making a lot of daring moves lately and quite frankly, I think it's dangerous for Microsoft to do.

But, what do I know...I'm just a consumer

 

I'm glad to see them come to their senses, but I'm sticking with the PC as my gaming platform of choice.

 

Good that there is competition, or else the consumer would just have to take with the abuse. Microsoft treats their clients (and potential clients) with arrogance and disrespect

 

I guess too many closed minded people couldn't see the future. As a PC gamer this is normal and there's nothing bad about it other than the usual loud mouths whining. Used games should just die and all this whining has done is delayed the inevitable.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/...ails-to-sell-the-future-retreats-to-the-past/

Funny thing is now Valve (makers of Steam) have said they are looking into introducing a family sharing feature. As always the PC gaming ecosystem is years ahead of the console ecosystem, and thanks to the loudmouths, will continue to be so for the foreseeable future. Microsoft were simply trying to follow in Valves brilliantly successful footsteps, this whole U-turn is a shame for console users.

 

@ elapsed

Here is what MS saw:

"rental -> this game sucks, maybe ill but it used eventually"
"this game sucks, do you want to have it/want to trade?"
"these games suck, I think ill sell a few and buy a new one"
"I only buy used games because I want real reviews on post patched games before I pull the trigger"

MS had two choices, eliminate or charge for everything above or ensure that games are good enough that people will want to rent and then buy and then refuse to give them up because they like the game so much.

Eliminating try before you buy, used games and game trading gives license to the industry to produce terrible and buggy games.

When MS came out with their next gen policies Sony had two choice, collude or compete. They made the right call.


Entertainment media as a whole is heading towards a place where you own nothing, have no rights and are guilty until proven innocent. You can fight this or hand everything over to them little by little.


Moving or changing ISPs will stop all of your games, movies and music from working until you prove you are not a pirate.
Having too many people in the room will prevent you from watching a movie or a major sporting event.
Non analog DRM speakers will be the only thing you can connect to your new hardware.

These things will come to pass if we keep taking baby steps towards them.

 

I'd honestly rather be closed minded instead of being treated like a prisoner to a gaming console. MS is learning a lesson here as well, upset anyone but the gaming crowd. They're all too happy to light your pyre and take turns squirting lighter fluid on you. I too think the damage is done. Yes, they backtracked, but they'll be remembered for trying a stunt like this to begin with.

 

Agree
Though I read that Kinect connected to the XBOX One is still mandatory so scenario's like having too many people in the room to watch something may not be so far away..
Plus, your local intelligence agency has a direct link to your living room through PRISM and similar incentives

 

The damage is already done as far as I'm concerned Microsoft have showed their true intentions so I'll be going with Sony.

 

To quote a brilliant post from Ars:

 

Hahaha, what utter nonsense. You think the ability to resell games teaches studios not to make "terrible and buggy games". All I can ask is "How!?!". You've already gave them your money, so is this some form of punishment to them? How exactly are they going to know you're punishing them?

Errr, no. I do not pay a monthly subscription to access my games. I have MY account with games I own. You can realize that this is the digital future or you can cry a river about it.

Lolwhat? Did you pull this out of thin air? Nonsense.

One of the amazingly brilliant things about digital distribution is it frees developers from the wrath of publishers. Just look at the amazing uptake in indie games on Steam. Small development studios are bypassing publishers completely.

 

If 15 years ago someone told me that games will stop working for no other reason than their check in server was taken down I would have said the same thing.

Where did I say punish exactly? They can tell by the amount of business that used game stores do. People do not sell the games that they love as often as the games that they hate. If people have the option to save 25%-75% off the day one price on a game that likely is not all that great they will take it. One way to force more sales at retail price is to prevent resale. The other way of course is to produce more games that people wont want to sell/trade.

Think of it this way. I know a lot of people that have extensive game libraries for the older systems but now I really don't know anyone that does this for the current systems. I also know that I see my kids playing more virtual console games than I do current gen games. This is the trend due to games as a whole going down hill.

 

I guess we see things differently. The internet is everywhere and it's here to stay, same as water, gas, electricity.

It was a logical guess considering you hadn't explained anything yet.

So you're telling me that game shops check in with companies and tell they "Hey, your game is getting traded in a lot, maybe it sucks?". I highly doubt this, you're looking for excuses.

You got this statistic from... where? Last I looked in a game store there were a lot of highly popular single player games being resold. I would hardly call them rubbish games, the chances are the purchaser bought the game, completed it, and felt no use in keeping it around.

Would you have killed the internet to justify people keeping their own personal book libraries around also? It's time to move on. My entire collection is digital in Steam, I have many old games that work and will continue to do so for a very long time. Infact just recently a whole truckload of classic SEGA games were added.

Just FYI I have my own personal collection of old console games, they are in the attic gathering dust being pointless. A few of them I re-purchased on Steam just for some nostalgia, now it's permanently there in my collection whenever I want to play it, a mouse click away. Much easier than going up to the attic that's for sure, unless you reckon we should build physical game libraries in our houses to store them all (like the 'good old days' with books).

 

@elapsed: Tell me another system that implements these checks on offline games after you downloaded them.

 

Just talking to my friends. A lot of them feel disappointed with their recent purchases and opt to buy used unless a game really has legit killer reviews. Logically if they had no option to buy used they would be more likely to buy new.

Thanks but if I think it ill say it.

Clearly you don't mind putting complete trust in a system that can wipe out your ability to game due to nothing more than a network glitch but you must admit that your opinion is not the common one.

Personally I like the idea of maintaining the ability to play a game when servers crash or a game console is no longer popular and so do most gamers.

You have eluded to progress a few times but I think we define it differently. I define progress as games that are so good that people want to buy them and keep playing them.

Don't get me wrong, I think games that simulate a huge world requiring people to be connected to the cloud are awesome. I just think that disconnected player Vs CPU mode is something that should never go away.

 

I guess Maddox's article and video worked.
Mrk