News Microsoft abandons Xbox One online check and game sharing restrictions

Greetings!

 

Have to agree with that, So "the whole gaming public is left much poorer as a result" how, why, DRM does not benefit gamers in any way, there are a lot of young gamers on bit-tech who might be surprised to know that us older gamers have managed perfectly well for years without DRM and it will not stop piracy any more than online activation and steam have stopped it.

 

Four pages late, but...

 

Except a Kinect which the Sony eye is nothing like and an extra controller, apparently.

Panda's are cool

 

They have to make at least a pretense of ensuring that only people who have bought the games can play the games. That is only common sense, and games publishers would be lining up to introduce one-time-use vouchers and always-on requirements if they didn't (Just look at the mess that is PC gaming these days. Everyone and their dog is using some kind of authentication system, be it Steam, Origin, StarForce, CD Keys, or anything else).

Console gaming has been (largely) free of this thanks to the extreme security measures in place, along with physical game-disc-in-drive security (Welcome to 1995-era PC gaming - Remember when you had to install games from the CD, but had to have the CD in the drive to play? See how we on the PC have moved past that?).

Microsoft were trying to create a one-scheme-fits-all system, give the gamers more than a little bonus ("Family" sharing, playing without needing discs in drive, browsing and playing from your library while away), while keeping the publishers as happy as they could. Instead of each publisher implementing their own hackneyed scheme, with different requirements and limitations, MS proposed a single, unifying scheme, to make it simple for gamers and publishers alike (And, I'm reasonably certain, enforcing it with a "This, or none at all" requirement of the publishers).

To ensure this all worked, they had to make sure people weren't gaming the system (I install on console A, then give the disc to my friend(s) who plays without buying), along with making sure that trading, loaning and playing away worked (How's the system meant to know what games you've got if it can't report in? It can't remotely wake up your console to interrogate it when you sign in elsewhere). To do this, they implemented a once-a-day checkin. No "Have to be online at all times to play" nonsense (The current de-facto method on PC), no "Your game stops if you lose connection". Just one check every 24 hours.

And what draconian things were they going to do with this checkin? See how many games you own? Oh wait, they can already do that with Achievements. See how long you play? Nope, that's published too. Or was it the restrictions on sharing? I guess finding someone in your friends list and choosing "Share game" is so much more difficult and arduous than arranging a time to meet up physically so you can hand over the game disc. And the "Supported retailer" schtick was because not every mom-and-pop pawn shop will have an XBox One and/or an internet connection set up to receive your sale when you trade in your game. At least, not initially. MS said they weren't going to charge anybody any kind of fee for sharing/trading/selling games, but they couldn't speak for other publishers (Obviously). That's exactly the same line that Sony have used with the PS4 - They're not going to charge anything for it, but publishers can (along with implementing any and/or all other draconian DRM measures).

I'm not a kid. I remember the frustration of installing a multi-CD game, and having to keep the CD in the drive (until you hit GCW or a similar site to find a NOCD crack for it), and the anguish when your CD drive broke, or the "Play Disc" got scratched (As they did fairly regularly, thanks to having to swap them into the drive repeatedly). The XBox One was going to relegate game discs to being "Dumb install media", as they always should have been, but they had to make sure you weren't lying to them - and you know as well as I do that people would take advantage of any way to defraud the system they could find.

Even with the strict security of the X360, including requiring discs in drives, there are still hacks and cracks out that enable piracy. The main barrier with them is the technical complexity involved in installing them, along with console firmware updates carrying the potential penalty of locking the console if mods are found. And even with strict security on consoles, publishers still felt it was in their best interests to implement one-time-use play vouchers (Which is an even worse scheme IMHO, and I'm glad EA reversed their decision on that - although how long that decision stays is anybody's guess, especially in light of this turnaround by MS).

The scheme was going to be the most permissive anyone's yet proposed, beating Origin and Steam hands down in versatility, the latter of which is still lauded as "DRM done right". I am sorely disappointed.

 

Neither system is ideal and this is why Microsoft had this planned even before the reveal.
Its like playing a game of football and because no one agrees the kid who owns the ball should get a free kick he does a Cartman and say S*** you guys im going home taking his football with him.

On one side we have Microsoft and the publishers who want the DRM system as was announced at E3 along with shutting down the consumers rights on library, lending, gifting, video rentals and secondary markets. On the other side is the poor consumer who wants Family sharing, playing without needing discs in drive, browsing and playing from your library while away and all the other cool stuff.

The question is if its possible for Microsoft to come up with some kind of half way house with the best from both system but without the drawbacks. But seeing as they had this all planned out a long time ago i feel there will be more changes to come.

 

I wouldn't say that's the case at all. Introduce a distinction between downloaded games and installed games. You can currently install games from the disc, but you require said disc in the tray to start playing them. Just have it so that installed games from physical media require the disc to play, whilst downloaded games can play off the bat but are linked to your account a la Steam.

How do I know this will work? It's what they do now on the 360. So using that same method, you can enable physical sharing, but you could also enable the family sharing feature for digital bought titles.

I mean quite frankly almost anybody with strong enough internet would probably prefer to download the game, it's generally far more practical than lugging discs around too.

 

PS4 has several console+game bundles that are counted separately. Funny how he forgot to mention this in this article. Source: Amazon.com

Anyway people are foolish to think Microsoft has just in a few days completely changed their mind. The family plan that people thought would be an awesome feature and wasn't heavily promoted by Microsoft appears to have been a glorified demo service where your family would have only been able to play for 60 minutes before having to buy the game. Ha.

Edit: apparently this is amazon uk he is talking about.

 

It seems there is no end to Microsoft's underhand tactics, first the pre-planned reversal on DRM and now.

http://www.polygon.com/2013/6/19/4445098/gamestop-hits-xbox-one-launch-cap-ceases-pre-orders

Seems a bit suspicious to me, earlier in the year they sell out of the Surface Pro even though they had been working on Windows 8 for over 4 years. And now they cant fulfill pre-orders on a console they have been planning for over 4 year

 

Them losing sales is now an underhand tactic?

Remember when Ps3 came out in America and they were nowhere to be seen for months on end, wheras Xbox 360 was available after a few weeks

 

I wouldn't equate a lack of allocated units as a lack of sales, but i would equate the headlines of 'high demand for XBox One' and 'get your XBox One pre-orders before they are all gone' as drumming up demand for something.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarcity_%28social_psychology%29

 

Bit all that means in economic terms is people who sell them on eBay at release get money from it, not Microsoft. Doesn't mean Microsoft can sell them higher than rrp

 

You mean like the higher cost of the XBox vs the PS4 ?
But the link i provided also mentions....

Or how about when it appeared Nintendo done the same with the Wii U after it happened by accident with the Wii ?
http://www.lazygamer.net/general-news/the-wii-u-is-already-selling-out/

And higher prices are just another way of saying a limited product is in high demand
http://womeninbusiness.about.com/od/marketingstrategiestips/a/Marketing-Tips-How-To-Create-Demand-For-Products-Services.htm

 

Is it bad that i just pre-ordered a day one XBO??

 

No. No it's not. I'm thinking of doing the same.

 

I can't believe people are saying "Wow thank you Microsoft !" and thinks of that ilk (Facebook).

Do they really think M$ did it for the fun of things? they made their intentions clear and it had "Bend over here I come dry" written all bloody over it.

And people are showing appreciation that their pre orders were cack so they had to pull a U-ey?

Madness.

 

MS - 2

Sony - ?,000,000

Hang on a bit longer and they might even lower the price?

 

http://kotaku.com/rumor-about-xbox-one-family-sharings-downsides-has-fla-534484570

If true, it seems that the family game sharing was just a glorified Time Restricted demo...

And as I've said before, there's ways of verifying you still own a game without restricting it to a 24hr check.

 

Gamers: Look up 'idiot' in the dictionary, you know what you'd find?!
Microsoft: Our logo?
Gamers: No, the definition of the word idiot, which you ****ing are!