MS Confirms Online Connection, Game Borrowing and Used Game Details

[Cowabungaa]

So what they said about used games needing a payed unlock equal to the price of the game bought new is poppycock?

I suppose that's something, but there's still a lot of crap left. I know I won't be getting an Xbox One any time in the future.

My favorite part of Microsoft's epitaph so far is this:

"Because every Xbox One owner has a broadband connection, developers can create massive, persistent worlds that evolve even when you?re not playing."


Ummmmm What!?

"...every Xbox One owner has a broadband connection..."

Oh no, what they're saying is true as it's a self-fulfilling prophesy. They pretty much require the Xbone to work with a broadband connection. Therefore, every Xbone owner will have a broadband connection.

Retarded isn't it?

 

[Raioken18]

I'm trying to go larger picture on this and figure out MS game plans. Because I don't think MS would implement something like this without a game plan on how to still beat Sony. There is three ways that I can figure MS doing this.

1. They think Sony is doing something similar with used games (I can't figure out what that would be since the PS4 don't require Internet). This means that either Sony is holding something back or someone pulled a fast one on MS.

2. Many of the big publishers are willing to go MS exclusive for starting to get a piece of the used games pie. I do think that is this was the case then some of those Publishers went "Holy SH*T!" with how people have reacted to this and they may try to back out of this PR nightmare.

3. Undercutting Sony's prices. This might work initially but I am thinking that there may be a major backlash on relying on this because this also relies on Joe Average just buying what is cheapest for his kid, and it just takes a few upset parents about either a camera always being on in their kids room or that they bought it and they did not notice that it required internet. Pissed of parents don't go to gamesites to complain they go to mainstream media and if this catches fire in the mainstream media then MS is effin toast.

I thought along these lines too. All I could come up with is that they are targeting the sports crowd and dude-bros playing CoD. I bet you this whole thing was based around focus groups that didn't include women, non-xbox gamers and non-casual gamers. Because that's the only way I can see someone looking at this and thinking it's a good idea.

I've just been imagining walking into the PR section of Microsoft and finding this...
http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100528185219/bleach/en/images/0/08/C168_Cover_Page.jpg

 

[Giyguy]

Used games are allowed.. as long as the publisher allows it:

so there won't ANY used games. you know how publishers are. You know EA isn't gonna let used games happen for them.

 

[SecondPrize]

Edit:

Also confirm game borrinwg policy:
"Give your games to friends: Xbox One is designed so game publishers can enable you to give your disc-based games to your friends. There are no fees charged as part of these transfers. There are two requirements: you can only give them to people who have been on your friends list for at least 30 days and each game can only be given once."

So yes you can borrow a game to a friend, but each game can only be borrowed once, and only if the person has been on your Friends list for 30 days.

No, you can't lend a game to someone and get it back. You can give it to them and never be able to play it again with your profile because it's only possible once per game and this is ONLY if the publisher grants permission to do so.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

So it seems MS has confirmed that the One will need to connect online at least once every 24 hours to play either Online or Offline.

Do you remember when PSN got hacked and it was down for a month? Well if this happens to xbone, does that mean your console is a brick because it cant do the 24 hour check in with MS?

 

[Hawk eye1466]

You know I was willing to forgive actually no I wasn't every single thing about this console is awful it's not a significant tech upgrade like I was hoping, the kinnect is bundled and it has to be on and connected for the damned console to work, it requires you to check in like your a prisoner on parole, and it won't let you let a friend who may not be able to afford a game borrow it, oh no it will but only once and only if their on your friends list, well maybe I'll just not buy your stupid thing, I can't even call it a console anymore because I'm pretty sure that was an after thought once they were done trying to make it as unappealing or insulting to as many people as possible.

 

[votemarvel]

The difference with games from Steam or Origin is that they can be 'fixed' to remove the need for the distribution service to be running. You can remove the internet requirement and not risk a ban.

Save the 'fix' on your hard drive for when you need to game offline and you're golden. Your connection comes back and you remove the 'fix' to play online.

You'll have no such flexibility with the Xbox One.

It really seems that the consoles are taking on all the negative aspects of the PC but without adding in the positives to compensate.

 

[Colt47]

I have a horrible feeling that despite it being godawful the Xbone is gonna sell like hotcakes and everyone else is gonna do what it's doing because they think they can copy it's profits by copying it's borderline illegal practices.

Yeah, the problem isn't the people who are aware of what they are losing, it's the people living in the moment who don't actually care that their freedoms are being taken away and want to see peoples reactions to them doing things for laughs. This especially rings true in and around college and university campuses. The best thing we can hope for is that there's enough people who are going to do the right thing and hopefully get the Xbox One to flop.

 

[Seracen]

Anyone want to organize a giant celebration of Microsoft's incompetence? We could all go to Best Buys on the release date and make signs and dance about how we aren't buying it. We can make popsicle stick masks of Microsoft high-ups! We might make the local news!

These policies are so anti-consumerist, it's screwing EVERYONE, including the retailers. The employees are just as likely to be right there on the picket line with you!

Never have I seen such flagrant disregard for a fanbase...maybe certain politicians with no respect for their constituency.

If you aren't upset by these policies, I applaud your optimism, but the policies are in place to screw us over. We are sacrificing legacy gameplay once the system is obsolete, inviting invasive DRM, and allowing companies to retain ownership of our products. We are also allowing ourselves no recourse against poor DLC practices.

Here's another good one...what happens if your account gets hacked? Furthermore, there is no shortage of Windows owners who've been delicensed due to that crappy "Windows Genuine Advantage Notification." Through no fault of your own, you could lose ALL your games.

And since you HAVE to verify online, you can't play games offline if your account gets banned for stupid reasons. This means that library you've spent years building up? Gone...

Think this can't happen? Ask an iPod user who's transferred their content once too many if they didn't have to pay a "licensing fee" to retain their content.

What do we do when we have to replace a broken XBONE? Remember, I can't put my gamertag on another console except as an "extended" license, not the primary. Do I have to delicense my old system serial number? What if that system is fried? I mean, it's not like XBOX 360s ever had to be replaced...right?

Oh yeah, and remember when Sony got hacked? Remember when PSN was down for weeks and weeks? ALL XBONErs ALL across the world could potentially be locked out of their games for interminable times.

 

[Adam Locking]

...So what happens if all the sudden nobody buys any games, because we are all standing up for what is holy (in your opinion)? Its not like these huge publishers are going to go away and all these small publishers are going to rise up and take their place and NOT implement something similar. It would be a wonderful world if everything was done for the "love of it" but that is just not reality...

What is this? Did I say "boycott" every developer, publisher, indie, TV content producer, musician, director, film studio and accessory manufacturer who worked on Microsoft's "console"?

If the public accepts Microsoft's new console, then that's it. Publishers will have won their war against the consumer. Do you think, with absolute control over the entire industry, that this will somehow be of benefit to you?
Cheaper games? Why? They've killed off the second hand market. They never have to compete or lower sale prices. Ever.
Better games? Why? Their wonderful new system prevents you from getting rid of them. Review embargoes prevent you from knowing it's terrible until you've bought it, and then you're stuck with it. Forever.
More games? Why? Their brand new revenue stream ensures more money from less sales - which they'll simply pocket, as has been their stated intention for the past entire console generation.

Microsoft have created a console that makes the end user irrelevant. It's a Publisher's wet dream, and a consumer's nightmare. If you buy it, you're telling them "I don't want my rights! I don't want to own anything! I want DRM! More DRM on everything!"
The problem is Microsoft and their console. Anyone who buys it, is killing the industry. If you fail to understand that, then they're clearing selling to the right crowd.

I'm mainly reposting this because it makes the best argument I've seen so far for why the xbone is a horrible machine.

I'd like to add that the machine is almost certainly not going to work on day one. Between the usual problems that ALWAYS plague day one launches, to the inevitable anon DDOS attack on their servers, there's going to be a lot of rage come release.

 

[StriderShinryu]

The difference with games from Steam or Origin is that they can be 'fixed' to remove the need for the distribution service to be running. You can remove the internet requirement and not risk a ban.

Save the 'fix' on your hard drive for when you need to game offline and you're golden. Your connection comes back and you remove the 'fix' to play online.

You'll have no such flexibility with the Xbox One.

It really seems that the consoles are taking on all the negative aspects of the PC but without adding in the positives to compensate.

To be fair to MS (hey, someone has to), we don't know for a fact that this is the case. It is possible that the need to check in with mommy and daddy every 24 hours is something that can be turned off. We don't know at what level these check ins are rquired. They can say all they want now that it's a necessary part of the gaming experience, but they also say that the conditions they've outlined to this point may change at any time.

So it seems MS has confirmed that the One will need to connect online at least once every 24 hours to play either Online or Offline.

Do you remember when PSN got hacked and it was down for a month? Well if this happens to xbone, does that mean your console is a brick because it cant do the 24 hour check in with MS?

At the moment, it sounds like yes, your One will be little more than the TV watching device MS orignally showed it off as should their authentication servers go down. I suppose there might be some sort of programming within the One that can detect specific errors and skip the check in if a certain situation like that occurs, but I doubt it as that's just asking for hackers to find a way to spoof the system and play totally offline all the time.

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

Hey, I didn't read through most of this, just the first page and this one, but I'd like something cleared up if someone would be so kind.

The Digital television transition act of 2009 made it mandatory for all tv to be digital. Meaning you have to hook up your tv to something so you can get a show. Cable for most of us. And our cable is where most of us get our net nowadays.

So... In a situation where the cable goes out... you can't play your games OR watch your TV. The Power is still there but you can't play. Is that wrong or right?

 

[KarmaTheAlligator]

The difference with games from Steam or Origin is that they can be 'fixed' to remove the need for the distribution service to be running. You can remove the internet requirement and not risk a ban.

Save the 'fix' on your hard drive for when you need to game offline and you're golden. Your connection comes back and you remove the 'fix' to play online.

You'll have no such flexibility with the Xbox One.

It really seems that the consoles are taking on all the negative aspects of the PC but without adding in the positives to compensate.

To be fair to MS (hey, someone has to), we don't know for a fact that this is the case. It is possible that the need to check in with mommy and daddy every 24 hours is something that can be turned off. We don't know at what level these check ins are rquired. They can say all they want now that it's a necessary part of the gaming experience, but they also say that the conditions they've outlined to this point may change at any time.

I really doubt you'll be able to turn it off, they would have said so. They've seen how badly the idea of always on was received from the fiasco from that one guy, and they went for a seemingly milder "once every 24 hours" to try to keep that aspect in yet also appease the consumer base, which hasn't received any more love than the always on it's trying not to be.

 

[Colt47]

Hey, I didn't read through most of this, just the first page and this one, but I'd like something cleared up if someone would be so kind.

The Digital television transition act of 2009 made it mandatory for all tv to be digital. Meaning you have to hook up your tv to something so you can get a show. Cable for most of us. And our cable is where most of us get our net nowadays.

So... In a situation where the cable goes out... you can't play your games OR watch your TV. The Power is still there but you can't play. Is that wrong or right?

This is where a lot of people get confused. The internet service and the cable TV both go through the same cable connection, but that doesn't mean they are the same service. It's completely possible to lose your net connection but still have access to your TV network if somewhere down the pipeline the internet connection gets cut before being transmitted on the cable line.

 

[Dark5tar1]

Well, I guess this is goodbye, MS. I will no longer support anything related to the Xbox console now.

OT: I really liked the Xbox 360 until the past 2 years, the shift towards entertainment and kinect really turned me off but I won't get the Xbone. Hopefully PS4 won't do this or it'll be PC/Wii U for me.

 

[zinho73]

Pretty innocuous I think but for some without a cellphone or no internet it might get annoying. Pretty much like steam really.

No, it is not.
Let me show you why:

1. The major difference is that steam is basically an online store and not a gaming platform. I can have a PC and choose not to use steam and I would still have access to a plethora of gaming goodness. I cannot have an XBOX and choose to not bow to their rules.

2. Online access: In Steam I can be offline for as long as I want - at least it has been the case with my games, unless of course I'm downloading an actual game or playing some kind of MMO or multiplayer stuff.

3- Valve promised that, after Steam closes, they will find a way for the games work without Steam. It might be an empty promise but it is better than Microsoft silence.

4- Sales. The dollars saved by not having boxes are being re-passed to the consumer. Yeah, MS can do the same but I would not hold my breath.

5- Backwards compatibility - the fact that I have Steam does not block my computer from playing everything that I had prior. Better yet, my next computer will still play most of the titles I buy there.

6- Steam does not have kinect.

7- Steam is free, you only pay for the games. You have to at least buy Xbone to have the right to be inconvenienced, and you probably will have to pay some kind of subscription to have online gaming.

And I could go on. Yes, the idea is to copy the Steam model, but the amount of control MS wants to have is ridiculous.

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

Hey, I didn't read through most of this, just the first page and this one, but I'd like something cleared up if someone would be so kind.

The Digital television transition act of 2009 made it mandatory for all tv to be digital. Meaning you have to hook up your tv to something so you can get a show. Cable for most of us. And our cable is where most of us get our net nowadays.

So... In a situation where the cable goes out... you can't play your games OR watch your TV. The Power is still there but you can't play. Is that wrong or right?

This is where a lot of people get confused. The internet service and the cable TV both go through the same cable connection, but that doesn't mean they are the same service. It's completely possible to lose your net connection but still have access to your TV network if somewhere down the pipeline the internet connection gets cut before being transmitted on the cable line.

Oh Good. That just means my cable is shit given that they both go off at the same time. Whelp, can't blame this one one Microsoft.

It's good to learn new things.

 

[Colt47]

Hey, I didn't read through most of this, just the first page and this one, but I'd like something cleared up if someone would be so kind.

The Digital television transition act of 2009 made it mandatory for all tv to be digital. Meaning you have to hook up your tv to something so you can get a show. Cable for most of us. And our cable is where most of us get our net nowadays.

So... In a situation where the cable goes out... you can't play your games OR watch your TV. The Power is still there but you can't play. Is that wrong or right?

This is where a lot of people get confused. The internet service and the cable TV both go through the same cable connection, but that doesn't mean they are the same service. It's completely possible to lose your net connection but still have access to your TV network if somewhere down the pipeline the internet connection gets cut before being transmitted on the cable line.

Oh Good. That just means my cable is shit given that they both go off at the same time. Whelp, can't blame this one one Microsoft.

It's good to learn new things.

Yeah, if both go off that means the cable line itself got cut or damaged somewhere.

 

[slyph]

Game over Microsoft.

This generation most of my time has gone into the X360, I thought it was a good console with strong games and since I do all my MP on the PC, I didn't bother paying for XBLA. The only online I really wanted off Xbox was Forza 4, but that wasnt worth the Gold subscription to me. I also championed against early Sony and their willful dishonesty, warping the truth where it didn't fit a marketing point and flat-out lying when they needed a wider base. Now that the PS3 lie-machine has fallen silent, it's actually an alright console.

To clarify, I own pretty much every console and have time in them all, I also have a Steam library that would dwarf some smaller branches of Game and the entire 16-bit generation emulated on my phone. I put time into any game system that looks worth the time and fun.

This though.... this is so obviously a product of a marketing and development team who all come from precisely the same cultural, political and economic background. Be white American, live in a four-bedroom home with a huge living room dominated by a 42-inch plasma, have an endless supply of income to smooth over the little bumps and be interested in sports, guns and television. And you know what, be right-wing. Sorry, but this is right-wing in console form.

I honestly can't think of a single one of my friends or relatives this product appeals to, it is awful. Five hardcore X360 owners I know have already sworn off it on principle, feeling pretty much like Steve Balmer will be watching them jerk off to BluRays between Halo sessions and sending strokes-per-minute information to the porn companies for profit. My mother, who bought a 360 on impulse and loved it, has refused to even talk about this new one because she buys most of her games on eBay and now she can't. My girlfriend, who accepts non-Nintendo consoles only grudgingly but came around to the 360 for indie games on XBLA is now gutted that MS are screwing the indie community and also refuses to even look at this.

Nobody wants one except little children who are just old enough to understand advertising but not much older.

Microsoft can paddle back from their announcements all they want, they can "Hear the users" and tweak numbers and boundaries all they want, what this latest news demonstrates is how poorly they respect the gamer and the gaming industry and how retrograde they've become, trying to supplant a 90s medium by tacking it onto a 60s one that they understand better.

Nope, it's Steambox for me, and PS4 IF they wise up and offer proper used game support. Otherwise, PC gaming for me.

 

[loa]

All of those "features" sound like restrictions.
They even had to put "allow everyone to play all your games on your console free of charge!!!" on that list as a "feature" which is hilarious and telling.