Microsoft Explains Digital Game Sharing On Xbox One

[Earnest Cavalli]

Microsoft Explains Digital Game Sharing On Xbox One

One of the most anticipated features of the upcoming Xbox One is its ability to "share" digital games between consoles. Here's a look at how that works.

"Everyone in your home can share digital games with each other," begins Microsoft's official explanation of the Xbox One's digital game sharing functionality.

"Your Xbox One can become your virtual game library filled with digital games that different people in the home bought. Anyone can pick any digital game on your Xbox One, sign in with their own gamertag and play - even if the owner is not signed in."

Neat, right? According to Microsoft, this functionality also allows players to "take their games with them." Once a title has been associated with your Xbox Live Gold account - and yes, you'll need a Gold subscription for almost everything mentioned here - you can visit a friend's house, fire up his or her Xbox One, and resume your game from wherever you last left it on your own console, even if your friend doesn't own the game in question.

On the topic of Xbox Live Gold, this digital sharing strategy also includes the ability to lend certain features of an Xbox Live Gold subscription to those gamers who might not want to shell out cash for Microsoft's premium service. To wit:

Here's how Xbox Live Gold members can extend Gold benefits including multiplayer gaming, Game DVR, SmartMatch and access to entertainment apps and experiences, including The NFL on Xbox, Skype, Internet Explorer:

At home: You can set up your console at home so that anyone who uses that console will enjoy multiplayer gaming and access to entertainment apps - even if you are not home or logged in.

On the go: You can log in at a friend's house and everyone there can enjoy multiplayer gaming and access to entertainment apps while you are logged in.

Though new functionality is always welcome, it seems odd that the Gold benefit-sharing system would require the subscriber to be present wherever the features are used. Why can't we share Gold features by simply sending a message over Xbox Live? Obviously it's to prevent people from enjoying stuff they haven't paid for, but it feels like this deal could be so much more enticing if only Microsoft's prime directive wasn't "stamp out piracy at all costs."

As usual, when it comes to fighting piracy, the only ones who really suffer are the legitimate users.

Source: Xbox Wire [http://news.xbox.com/2013/08/xbox-one-digital-games-and-live-gold]

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[Altorin]

This is information that would have saved microsoft a ton of headaches a few months ago.

 

[Falterfire]

So... Basically how XBLA titles work now?

 

[Lightknight]

Wait, I thought this was how things already work. If you buy something digital from your account, everyone on the console you've installed it on can play it. That's how it works on the ps3 too.

It sounds like the difference is the ability to easily peruse another user's library and install it while they're not around.

 

[shirkbot]

"Your Xbox One can become your virtual game library filled with digital games that different people in the home bought. Anyone can pick any digital game on your Xbox One, sign in with their own gamertag and play - even if the owner is not signed in."

Wait... Isn't this exactly how a physical game library works anyway? The only difference is that everything in on the HDD instead of on a shelf. It's convenient, but for console gamers it just adds an extra step to what they could do anyway.

Thought I do like this bit:

At home: You can set up your console at home so that anyone who uses that console will enjoy multiplayer gaming and access to entertainment apps - even if you are not home or logged in.

On the go: You can log in at a friend's house and everyone there can enjoy multiplayer gaming and access to entertainment apps while you are logged in.

Gold is usually a pretty bum deal, but this might help make it more palatable.

 

[Tranquility]

Current gen consoles already do this.

Blow more smoke and mirrors Microsoft, the mental midgets love it.

 

[Falterfire]

So game library sharing with friends and family is back in? I thought Microsoft had taken that ball and went home.

No. Not exactly. Maybe. I don't know. From how it sounds, your games can be active in a maximum of two places: Your 'home' console, and a 'roaming' console. You can play multi with two XBones and only one Gold account and digital copy of the game, but one of the XBones always has to be the same 'home' console, but the roaming one can change.

That's how I read the article at least, based on "At home: You can set up your console at home so that anyone who uses that console will enjoy multiplayer gaming and access to entertainment apps - even if you are not home or logged in." and "On the go: You can log in at a friend's house and everyone there can enjoy multiplayer gaming and access to entertainment apps while you are logged in."

 

[PBMcNair]

So... Basically how XBLA titles work now?

I was wondering that, I been playing PSN titles bought on my brothers profile, while signed into my own.
Is it the same on 360 ?
And the "take your games with you" is just cloud saves, a nice feature but one that's pretty much obligatory given how much they were trying to sell the "power of the cloud" angle, and it isn't exactly some new concept. And you'll still have to download/stream the games data.
Internet speed dependant, carrying a physical copy with you might be more convenient.

I have to admit that the Gold-sharing thing is nice though.

Though new functionality is always welcome, it seems odd that the Gold benefit-sharing system would require the subscriber to be present wherever the features are used. Why can't we share Gold features by simply sending a message over Xbox Live? Obviously it's to prevent people from enjoying stuff they haven't paid for, but it feels like this deal could be so much more enticing if only Microsoft's prime directive wasn't "stamp out piracy at all costs."

Does it say you have to be there ? I assume you could just give out your login, if you trusted the person enough. Unless signing into Live on a 180 has some kind of trick to it.

 

[Roxas1359]

So...basically it's what the PS3 lets you do now then? Okay, nothing special really then.

Wait, I thought this was how things already work. If you buy something digital from your account, everyone on the console you've installed it on can play it. That's how it works on the ps3 too.

It sounds like the difference is the ability to easily peruse another user's library and install it while they're not around.

For the XBLA titles you had to be signed into your account in order for the other person to play it, and if your account gets disconnected then they put a time limit, I think like 10 or 15 minutes, on the top of the screen and if you don't sign back into your account that person gets booted off the game. For PS3 it's you have a limit to 2 downloads on digital products and don't have to be signed into your account in order to access it. So basically you can go to another person's house, sign into your PS3 on their console, download some games for them, and then they can play them without having to be signed into your account.

 

[rasputin0009]

Shit, you're going to have to login with Kinect's facial recognition. That's definitely going to happen. So dirty.

 

[fix-the-spade]

This is information that would have saved microsoft a ton of headaches a few months ago.

Not really, in fact I'd say this raises a further headache for them, as they're still effectively putting single player titles behind a pay wall.

On XBLA right now games are tied to accounts (mostly) as opposed to hardware, whether you have Gold or Silver you can log onto any 360 and play your download games and use whatever features you have.

Now that's Gold users only, they want you to trade $60 for cloud saves. This being Microsoft I'm willing to bet they'll try to apply this to game discs in some way as well, they just haven't told us yet. Even if they haven't I can't see 'the internet' collectively taking this well.

 

[Megacherv]

Wait, I thought this was how things already work. If you buy something digital from your account, everyone on the console you've installed it on can play it. That's how it works on the ps3 too.

It sounds like the difference is the ability to easily peruse another user's library and install it while they're not around.

And how it'll work on the PS4. And what we assumed it would be after pulling the 180.

Is it just me, or does it seem to be a slow news week? What with such headlines as "Xbox One does something everything does" and "Nintendo character confirmed for Smash Bros.", I;m...I'm just not feeling it currently...

But, like, seriously, The PS4 does this, the PS3 does this, the 360 does this, I'm guessing that the WiiU and Wii both do this (I don't fucking know) and Steam does this to an extent...why is this so special?

 

[CJ1145]

Man, even when Microsoft does marketing right, we find out it's just what their competitors have been doing for years. I still haven't forgiven them for the shitstorm they caused, and then how they blamed us as if we were the problem. I really, really want the XBone to be a failure on the level of the sinking of Atlantis. Microsoft deserves to be crushed for at least one console generation, and more importantly they need to learn the lesson that trying to fuck your consumer just fucks you.

But people are going to buy it, and it will be a success. Because we are all idiots.

 

[idarkphoenixi]

Microsoft actually explaining a feature of their product?

Hold on a sec...No, the moon definitely isn't blue, weird.

 

[hawkeye52]

So basically. We are being told to buy a feature. On a monthly basis through xbox gold. To do something that we could do already on every console before hand.

 

[croc3629]

I am pretty nonplussed at the whole "payed subscription to play the games you already own on another console" deal.

I would love an all digital future, but decisions like these make me more and more certain that our major providers of entertainment and blissful escapism will not be able to use their new-found power responsibly.

Please let me know if I have misunderstood what's going on here, because I just can't get excited about that.

 

[klaynexas3]

Man, even when Microsoft does marketing right, we find out it's just what their competitors have been doing for years. I still haven't forgiven them for the shitstorm they caused, and then how they blamed us as if we were the problem. I really, really want the XBone to be a failure on the level of the sinking of Atlantis. Microsoft deserves to be crushed for at least one console generation, and more importantly they need to learn the lesson that trying to fuck your consumer just fucks you.

But people are going to buy it, and it will be a success. Because we are all idiots.

To be fair, have you seen the sales for the original Xbox versus the PS2? Because, even though it still beat the Gamecube, with how much the PS2 did sell, I'd call it being crushed. Because it's a difference of over a hundred million sales.

And as long as the specific product isn't solely about screwing over the consumer, I don't care whether it sales well. Considering they changed the Xbone to be not a pile of shit, I'm fine with it doing well. I'll only care if they go back to playing the dick again.

 

[Roxas1359]

I'm guessing that the WiiU and Wii both do this (I don't fucking know) and Steam does this to an extent...why is this so special?

No the Wii U and Wii don't. All game purchases on their eShop are locked to the console's hardware and not the account. If for example you got a new Wii U after having the Basic edition and wanted to transfer the games, you can't since those games are locked to the account. Same thing if you wanted to play a game you bought on the Wii U on say a 3DS, assuming the game is available on both stores, you would have to rebuy the game again.

 

[Saltyk]

You know, I almost think that horrible Demo "Game Sharing" plan was better than this. At least then, I could share with people in other places. But the way this sounds, I'd have to go there, or let them use my profile to download the game. At the end of the day, this is exactly like what you can do currently with a PS3 from the sounds of it.

Color me unimpressed. And for that matter, a little annoyed that Microsoft had the balls to pretend this was the next evolution in how we share games. Pretty sure, we could do something pretty similar with the Atari. All you had to do was take your cartridge to your friend's house and play it on their system. And at the end of the day, that's all this sounds like it amounts to.

Though extending the Gold "experience" to others isn't half bad. Still annoying that services like Netflix are behind a paywall to begin with, however.

 

[Quazimofo]

So game library sharing with friends and family is back in? I thought Microsoft had taken that ball and went home.

Well look at what he is saying, specifically. The only differences between this and how games work currently are 1) it seems you don't need to log on to the account with XBL gold to use it on the same console, rather than just having people in a house share the one account and 2) you can carry saves to other Xboxes without having to carry a hard drive with you.

The old game sharing feature was more or less giving demos to people who had different accounts on an Xbone that wasn't yours. Like say a friend on the other side of the country, assuming your country isn't so small they couldn't just drive over and visit. You could have let them demo the game for a bit before they buy it, should they decide to buy it.