Xbox Business Update Podcast | Xbox Everywhere Direction Discussion

[rntongo]

Every game/platform has to have its account and link it (via table) to other accounts. So you might have an EA account, and under that have registered XB, PS and Steam accounts so you can support cross-progression etc. Every service has its own protocols too, so connecting between PS and XB for chat and whatnot adds complication. It's no longer difficult per se, but it still is a requirement to have an overarching account to handle other accounts.

The only solution is a Gaming Passport; an open protocol agreed by everyone. I expect there's too much legacy baggage, plus no incentive (locking people to your account helps lock them to your ecosystem), plus different requirements, for that to ever happen.

Aaah I see, so its actually quite complicated. I'm more old school where I mainly play offline. Unfortunately when I play online I have had to set up an EA account, etc, but I strictly do not sign up if they require me to play a game mode which is offline and doesnt intrinsically require the internet to be played.

 

[iroboto]

Its part of a strategy to change the rules of the game

Let's worry about this when law makers allow it, or worry about it when MS starts putting a forward a case in law that they should be allowed into their stores. Until then, it doesn't make a lot of sense to discuss. It's like saying something will inevitably happen, given a long enough time frame, everything will happen. There's no indication this will happen in the next 5 years, so I think for the most part you can let this one go.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

What's even more laughable is some of the platform holders, mentioning no names (*cough* Sony *cough*) have a terrible backend, using the sign up account name as the Primary Key and then having to fudge name changes. Thus the game needs to query the account name which isn't necessarily the identifier. This resulted in some games not supporting account name changes. They ballsed up a college-level database setup principle and now they are saddled with it forever more. Okay, they could create a new DB and migrate their data...

 

[QPlayer]

I expect they will merge Xbox with PC and have a game version, basically PC games. The difference will be that you will only be able to play games and use the multimedia services on your dedicated XboxPC console as you do now. The question may legitimately arise, why would people still buy such XboxPCs when they can buy a traditional PC that is not only limited to games. The answer is, on the one hand, the pricing, that is, MS can offer these XboxPCs at a lower price like the current console model, with a minimal profit. Two or three personal configurations from the entry level or handheld to the professional high-end level hardver. Another advantage is the simple console handling of the form factor and the user interface, which is opposed to the complexity of PCs. Furthermore, there would be other great points, for example, games would run significantly faster on these consoled PCs, since the current Windows would run 100% only the game, avoiding the slowing down processes running in the background. The entire Gamepass service would be unified to this model by connecting different levels.

With this future-proof strategy, they can practically risk-free transform their traditional console stagnant model into a more successful potentially continuously expanding model.

 

[Caayn]

That's the downside for cross-platform multiplayer. All these different backends need to be sync'd, so you need another account to do that, meaning accounts with every publisher and even for different games, completely reversing the move of Xbox Live to consolidate everything into one login. Progress. Yay!

You don't necessarily need an account with a separate login for that. Just use the XBL, PSN, etc. as the login and allow people to link those similar to what Bungie does. Basically an oauth-esque flow.

I see no technical reason why each publisher should demand their own credentials to provide cross-play or basic multi-/singleplayer functionality. Only business reasons.

 

[rntongo]

Let's worry about this when law makers allow it, or worry about it when MS starts putting a forward a case in law that they should be allowed into their stores. Until then, it doesn't make a lot of sense to discuss. It's like saying something will inevitably happen, given a long enough time frame, everything will happen. There's no indication this will happen in the next 5 years, so I think for the most part you can let this one go.

Okay fair enough.

 

[iroboto]

Okay fair enough.

We will cross that bridge when it gets there. Believe me, I don’t have an issue supporting you if MS starts trying to do that. For now let’s just wait until that happens.