XBox One, PS4, DRM, and You

[Rangers]

It sounds like if you buy digital, take your library anywhere is already in, and 10 person sharing may be back later

"There’s a few things we won’t be able to deliver as a result of this change," Marc Whitten, v.p. of Xbox Live told Kotaku, "One of the things we were very exicted about was 'wherever we go my games are always with me.' Now, of course your physical games won’t show up that way. The games you bought digitally will. You’ll have to bring your discs with you to have your games with you. Similarly, the sharing library [is something] we won’t be able to deliver at launch."

better, i guess.

 

[3dilettante]

Make no mistake this is a horrible decision for consumers. you are giving up a lot by losing the digital access controls for things of no value in the future state - i.e. used sales and disc-based sharing.

I can't stand this dirty bathwater.
But the baby's still in the tub.
Oh well, out with them both.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Forza must have an offline mode then. Or Cloudatar is an optional thing.

Has all sense and reason disappeared for a moment? Requiring online activation is completely independent from any individual title requiring an internet connection.

 

[Deleted member 7537]

Now Gabe Newell comes out, announces SteamBox and the possibilty of reselling and sharing digital games. The forum explodes.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

Few of us are privy to Sony's backroom negotiations, and without that, it's pure guesswork based on personal bias.

Common sense makes me certain. It's enough for me.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Don't tell me you don't get how this is a move to shift blame from Sony to the publisher.

Of course it is, but it's the smart thing to do. Refusing to encumber your device with unpopular DRM but not stand in the way publishers puts those who want it in the spotlight and let's them take the flack.

Why should Sony or Microsoft take flack if they genuinely don't care.

 

[blakjedi]

I believe you are underestimating the level and nature of the consumer reaction. When the Navy Times is publishing stories about how XBox One will not be usable by deployed military personnel, the problem isn't online fanboys.

How do you share your digital library if you are offline? You dont.

Now because the Navy which has to deal with a lot of hardships much greater than not having access to a video game console of all things, the other good, forward looking aspects of the console get removed too?

The only change MS should have made should have been by removing the disabling of offline use of games. Thats it.

The alternative which i wish they would have looked at was an opt in solution rather than a blanket solution. If you opt in to sharing, you require a daily check in. If you opt out you cant share.

If you opt in and dont check in, your library becomes unshared and you have to keep the disc in the drive after the first 24 hours have elapsed.

 

[MfA]

I don't see how you can offer digital sharing without some form of phoning home to prevent abuse.

You could have a scheme where one console is considered special, it would be the only one which can play the game offline and it would need to be online to allow sharing.

 

[Strange]

Sigh, I really wished that they had just manned up and gone all digital. Obviously, short term this is will help with their PR problems, but it is a terrible strategic decision. One way to possible save this is to have the ability to opt-in for the old system and get the benefits from it.

Problem is manning up will most likely destroy their brand entirely, or at least that's what the general gaming consensus has made them believe.

And I say they're correct. If they wanted to let the Xbox brand to end in this generation they should have manned up.

 

[Jwm]

Now Gabe Newell comes out, announces SteamBox and the possibilty of reselling and sharing digital games. The forum explodes.

Thought the sharing thing was a real rumor based on latest steam beta.

Anyway good news if DD on X1 is what Marc Whitten is stating.

 

[3dilettante]

Common sense makes me certain. It's enough for me.

There's some serious lack of due dilligence if Sony managed to dupe the entire gaming industry. If they didn't get it in writing, even more so.

I'm not trusting my console's kill switch to Gilligan.

 

[Rangers]

Now Gabe Newell comes out, announces SteamBox and the possibilty of reselling and sharing digital games. The forum explodes.

so the same things xb1 already had before a giant backlash from you removed them? i'm not sure where you were going with this...

except "yay, we forced MS to do something bad for themselves"?

 

[brasnial]

dammit so much for my dream of a digital future and digital sharing and digital rentals .... complaining about old fashioned discs ruined the dream.

Total agree digital game sharing had me sold I have two nieces and two nephews ......buying games for there parents is a big out lay
I have the disposerable income to buy every thrible A game released plus the most interesting and fun kinect games they could have all used my games under the system Microsoft were looking to bring in.

Now my nieces and nephews will have to wait until ether there parents can afford the game or I've finished with it .......then I have the problem of showing favoritism if I give one without the other .

Hope the fan boys are happy because at least 50 percent of the problem with Microsoft's policies down to platform favoritism in my opinion .....just look at any other forum at the comments about Microsoft's turn around the excuse for not buying now is the price ....where once it was the 24 hour check and DRM .

 

[joker454]

Welp, you can share with 11 or more people with the disc version. Hooray. Their old DRM scheme was too limited compared to the disc version. That's why your fellow Xboxers complained.

Yeah it's lots of fun to mail discs to friends and family, ugh talk about stone age. It's awesome to have my brother in law wait 5 days to play a game from a disc in the mail, hoping the post office doesn't lose it. Why would I want to deal with discs in a digital age? Do you still mail letters to people or do you use email? In 2013 physical discs are meant to be a one time delivery mechanism and nothing more, unless we are rewinding the clock.

Why not phone home for shared titles?

Because anything that requires phoning home apparently is the equivalent of slapping someone's mother in the face. Once phoning home was killed, it killed digital flexibility along with it. Anyways it's like I said if Steam sticks to 2013 then I won't care if the consoles remain in 2005. I just hope Valve sees the opportunity here and jumps on it.

 

[Nesh]

Totally agree. The people clamoring for this with petitions etc... were NEVER going to buy it anyway. Even with this capitulation... they still wont buy it because:

1) It MS
2) its overpriced
3) its underspecced
4) it has mandatory Kinect
5) See 1

ugh I'm aggravated now.

You are wrong. You make this assumption probably because you were biased in favor of the XBOX. I assure you that my friends who are sole 360 owners and were waiting for the next XBOX were pissed with the DRM. Points 2 to 5 could be just additional reasons for them

 

[3dilettante]

Because anything that requires phoning home apparently is the equivalent of slapping someone's mother in the face. Once phoning home was killed, it killed digital flexibility along with it.

Then Xbox One's system was built like a house of cards, and we were spared some epic global meltdown when the night janitor unplugged the authentication server's power strip so he could plug in the Dyson.

 

[jonabbey]

So I guess the presumption here has to be that the publishers actually did want the profit-sharing on used game sales and that getting that was a requirement for them to allow the family sharing plan (e.g., two users out of ten playing a given game simultaneously)? Otherwise the linkage people are making here doesn't make sense.

I know Sony allowed game sharing for online purchases this gen, and that online purchases are not resellable like used discs, so that's consistent, at least.

 

[Rangers]

Problem is manning up will most likely destroy their brand entirely, or at least that's what the general gaming consensus has made them believe.

And I say they're correct. If they wanted to let the Xbox brand to end in this generation they should have manned up.

doubt all that.

499 was a bigger impediment by far to sales than drm, i stand by that. 499 is still here...

it's still super super early days anyway. you're basing this off of, rumors of preorders.

drop to 399 and i think xb1 would have sold like hotcakes with or without drm. similarly i dont know that this drm removal will stimulate sales greatly in the short term.

 

[Xenus]

PS3's game sharing was far too limited and primitive, it's not at all what the XB1 was offering, or should I say formerly offering.


I don't see how you can offer digital sharing without some form of phoning home to prevent abuse. No phoning home means no digital sharing, simple.
.

It's rather simple in fact. Just a minor tweak to the PS3 model at the beginning of the gen would do fine. Digital titles allow you to activate on mulitple devices. In Sony's case it was 3-5. The you just need to allow gifting of those activations. hell if you want you can add a call home on boot that it's not in use by another userother then the original purchaser on on game start and we are done. Simple effective no muss no fuss.

If a user doesn't wan't to use it anymore a simple deletion of the game diactives that use from the original users account.

 

[Strange]

I think people are still forgetting that you CAN share accounts with digital downloads when they talk about sharing games being the holy grail.