Post by Dan @ 09:35am 07/06/13 | 24 Comments
The article posted on the new official Xbox news blog, as you would expect, has been masterfully spun to extol the positive benefits of the device's approach to restricting how customers are permitted to use the games that they purchase, with no mention of potential negatives.
With our modern architecture, Xbox One games will load more quickly, will be always accessible from the cloud, and there is no physical limit to the size or scope of the content provided.While the new system will now prevent users from temporarily lending a game disc to a friend, or privately selling a disc secondhand, Xbox One attempts consolation for diminishing those rights by permitting the digital rights to a game linked to your Xbox LIVE account to be transferred (once only) to another player that has been on your Xbox LIVE friends list for at least 30 days, and will be enabling a new trade-in process for disc-based games at "participating retailers", with the platform holder promising that they will not be charging a fee of their own for the privilege.
Although this latest outline doesn't mention it, a broadband connection is required to facilitate this system on the Xbox One, and previous statements from Microsoft have confirmed that the console will need to authenticate at least once every 24 hours for the games installed on it to function.
The information from this latest development does little to impact the conclusions drawn in our recent Analysis of the Xbox One DRM scheme.
It's AusGamers' position that all of these potential benefits could still be achieved with an optional Internet requirement, and that this implementation of digital rights management does not justify the erosion of consumer rights it necessitates.
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Posted 09:42am 07/6/13
So yeah, I couldn't really care much about it, I think a lot of people are going a bit crazy.
Posted 10:56am 07/6/13
When the day comes that the Xbox 360 is no longer readily available via retail methods, and the one I have s**** itself (and lets face it.. it will s*** itself) I will be able to chuck my games on ebay and move on.
I won't be able to do the same with the Xbox One.
I don't ever need to do that with my steam account because of the assurance that the games will work on the next significant upgrade I do. If a game stops working due to an OS upgrade I have the ability to use what ever workarounds that are at my disposal to get it working.. I won't be able to do that on an Xbox One.
When steam was first released a massive s*** storm brewed in the PC gamer community, Valve persisted with there plans and showed people that Steam was the future of PC games sale, they offered a product that had limitations but still allowed the typical PC world flexibility that we have always had, Along with keeping prices reasonable with the best efforts that they could provide, Valve ended up regaining the PC communities respect and trust. Whilst the system is still not perfect it certainly makes a lot of people happy (publishers* and consumers) with out too many compromises.
As a consumer I have no reason to welcome and accept this proposed DRM Policy, this seems like typical Microsoft shafting.
Posted 11:11am 07/6/13
No, but you will be able to take it to a retailer though, EB or whoever and trade them in. They haven't talked about eBay but the current method does seem to exclude them.
I don't know if there's ever an assurance Grog that your games from 10-15 years ago will continue to work through Steam on new releases of Windows.
Posted 12:40pm 07/6/13
Posted 12:44pm 07/6/13
Posted 12:59pm 07/6/13
Play games without a F*****G DISC (yay!)
Happy times.
Posted 01:21pm 07/6/13
There's no good reasons why they couldn't offer consumers a choice between buying a digital copy linked onto to their account, or purchasing one that is more freely distributable should that be what that consumer prefers.
None of the reasons given are a reasonable excuse for diminishing the rights that a consumer has to use the product that they purchased in a manner they choose to.
Posted 01:28pm 07/6/13
They've probably already run the numbers of how many 'gamers' are likely to NOT buy their product because of it, and don't care because the whingers are all talk no action.
Posted 02:03pm 07/6/13
Well ignore ebay, What if i want to sell them on gumtree or in the paper or someone I sit next to at work, it's incredibly limiting and don't have to go through this kind of bulls*** with anything else...
It sounds like its easier to transfer ownership of a car then it is to sell a xbox one game.
You know, a number of things could happen, but ultimately, if the game is still hosted on steam servers, i will be able to download it and play it . Even if it requires me to hack online auth and run it on a dos box of sorts... a feature which i know any future Xbox wont allow me to do.
True, and also they are marketing this away from gamers and more as a general box to sit under the tv.. and in that area it may be a success.. and even worth purchasing (not in australia.. or atleast till they sort out how they are going to make it work)
Posted 02:20pm 07/6/13
So this is confirmation of full cloud gaming on the new xbox? If so I like what it means for PC, simply because those console limitations mentioned won't affect PC anymore.
Posted 07:30pm 07/6/13
I've got a beach holiday house back in Melbourne with no internet connection that I used to love going down to with friends, taking the PS3 and just chilling out gaming and s***, wouldn't be able to do that with the Xbox One.
I guess you could create a mobile hotspot with your smartphone but with not much better than a s***** GPRS connection it would probably be a pain in the ass. I wonder how much data it will actually need.
Posted 07:48pm 07/6/13
No one seems to understand that you purchase the right to use the software how the publisher / developer tells you to. You don't buy the rights to the game, you buy the right to run it in the way they set out. If you don't like the rules they set then don't buy it.
That's like saying you're upset because you can't go out and run people over in your car. It's your car, you should be able to do what you want with it, right? No because there are rules that you agree to when you buy it, laws which govern your use of that car. There are rules you agree to when buying software (you won't reverse engineer it, hack it, etc) and laws that apply.
Posted 07:54pm 07/6/13
Posted 08:06pm 07/6/13
none of the pesky xk3y usb hardware adapters to delta the system software level integrity checks with the way the xbox one is engineered
Posted 08:39pm 07/6/13
S***** analogy, you can do anything you want with your car, it's the government that doesn't allow you do kill people.
If you wanted to melt your car down, grind it into dust and snort it, you can. If you want to pull it apart and copy parts of the car and use it in your OWN car, you're allowed to do it.
You actually own the car. With games, you don't. And that's f*****g stupid. It's probably the ONLY thing that we buy and yet don't own, even though we have the physical item in our hands.
Posted 08:45pm 07/6/13
Ah true, I hadn't considered that, that is a bit s*****. I've done that before with my 360 too come to think of it. But yeah, maybe if its just a simple kind of phone home ping thing to stay authorised you could just let it auth itself through your phone internet when it needs to, still a hassle though I spose.
Posted 08:55pm 07/6/13
Posted 09:10pm 07/6/13
I'd prefer having a online game library I can use with my xbox anywhere and all of the physical trading/etc s*** I'd never do so doesn't bother me at all.
Posted 10:03pm 07/6/13
When Steam first launched I remember the crazy stuff people were saying, how PC gaming was dead and I also remember how terrible it was with the various bugs and crashes. Look at what Steam is like now, a pure digital distribution store that offers solid stability and various social factors alongside gaming. I wouldn't go so far as to say it "saved" PC gaming, but it definitely helped. Is this system similar? Yeah seems so in my eyes.
I can understand when people claim that it isn't the same when you look at how Steam offers all these sales, but honestly outside of America, the prices aren't that great. During the revered Steam sales, the games on offer aren't really "that" new. They are usually products at least a year or more old, allowing the ability to mark them down so much. Walking into EB Games I could also find similar prices on year to two year old games, so the style of pricing is there outside of Steam and outside of PC.
Honestly, the changes that Microsoft, and presumably Sony (I have a feeling they will do something thanks to publisher pressure), are looking at doing to the console market seem to resemble what Valve did with Steam. Some will hate it, and I can definitely understand that hate with the inability to trade openly and sell without worry. Though I think this shift was going to happen either way, as digital is becoming even more prominent in society of today, so it will definitely be interesting to see where exactly it goes and what happens.
Also, Microsoft could have handled this way better in my opinion. The amount of mis-information is just absurd, and some of the details aren't even locked down which causes mass confusion.
Posted 07:59am 08/6/13
Also this line:
Shows you just how much influence EB-Games (Gamestop, same company) has on Microsoft. For both Microsoft and the Customer allowing the trading of games over XBox Live (gold, subscription service of course) at a minimum price of roughly $5 to whatever the two trading parties agree on, with a small fee for microsoft (5%) would be heaps better.
This allows fairly low restrictions to the customer and allows Microsoft a cut of the deals, which would likely add up to quite a substantial amount. Yet they choose the option the benefits the publisher and Gamestop the most (and microsoft get a benefit) and the customer the least.
I know that I will not be buying an Xbox One at all, I'll be getting a Wii U if was forced to choose one, however the PS4 so far is the likely winner. Unless they start doing silly things too.
Luckily we have the PC..
Posted 08:46am 08/6/13
I am however leaning towards the PS4 but waiting to see what happens, my next preference is the Wii U.
Posted 10:34am 08/6/13
Posted 04:59pm 08/6/13
While Sony has said the PS4 wont require a net connection and DRM is left up to publishers, I can see games requiring a net connection and a one time only use code on the PS4.
Posted 06:09pm 08/6/13