XBox One, PS4, DRM, and You

The problem now is we'll be waiting 8-10 years to see it. I really despise having to insert game disks.
On X1 I'll just buy everything digitally, so I guess I can live with it.

 

Well they should add all this feature to the DD to give people a reason to get the DD version.

A lot smarter than just forcing everyone into a system. The plan should be to get everyone on the DD version...

 

Doesn't PS4 have the same option? I could have sworn they said publishers can put out digital copies day 1 as well.

It sounds to me like you can pretty much go digital/always-on on both consoles if you choose to.

 

In some ways we're returning to the stone age -I posted a pic of some dinosaurs in another post of mine as an irony-.

I can live with physical games though, especially the disc of my 5-10 favourite games every generation that bring back nostalgic feelings.

Additionally, to render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's and unto God that which is God's I must admit Sony did a better job!

I feel now like this person who is stable after watching this chaos all around me. Now Microsoft have to lick their wounds.

 

Digital is day and date n PS4 I believe, but it doesn't work for me on PS4, because I get a lot of titles free on disk.
I know that doesn't make people sympathetic to my cause

 

SIR!

I plan on doing the exact same thing. No more discs! Gamestop can suck it.

 

I've answered this before, I'm sure.

Steam is a store, that sells games with many types of DRM. It is not tied to a single piece of hardware that requires daily reactivation to operate. It is not even tied to a single OS, or even a single OS vendor. Some of my purchases through steam do not require online access to be maintined, and the ones that do do not need it on a daily basis. There are even some games that can be re-installed and reactivated without any further interaction with Steam. There are even some games on Steam that use old fashioned keys that don't even require Steam or an internet connection to continue being used indefinitely on any computer I wish to use them on. There is no single point of failure for all of the things I've bought through Steam. Additionally, I can usually "buy" games through Steam for rental prices through the abundant of sales - any game with restrictive DRM I treat as a rental. In practical terms, I can also work around almost any DRM I don't agree with, if I should ever choose to do so. That said, I do not like the fact that I cannot freely give my games away or lend them to my friends or sell them.

On the other hand ...

Xbox One is a single hardware and software platform, running a single DRM system, where all games were going to be dependant on the platform phoning home once a day, and where all of my games could be taken off me at any point, just because, and where I would have no legal or practical way to get them back.

Comparisons between "Steam" and the totality of Xbox One are reductive and mostly unhelpful.

But PSN hasn't tried to take away my right to run game disks without their daily check ins. Why would I be angry at PSN for that? I don't like restrictions on "digital purchases" but this is the status quo for most games (though not all games on PC thankfully), while MS's move to strip important rights from owners of disk based games was a new and immediate and encroaching threat so it gets freshly targeted anger, and quite deservedly.

I think if MS had handled this better (and earlier) they could have kept some DRM based digital sharing from day one, but it's starting to look like their system isn't ready to do that. No contingency I guess, just an awful lot of misplaced and undeserved confidence in their ability to force the customer to do what they didn't want.

MS provided mechanisms for publishers to block used games, and placed restrictions on used games being given, and blocked private sale of used games, and blocked lending of used games. I can forgive anyone that mistakenly saw this as MS "banning used games", as depending on publisher specifics and depending on what used games meant to you (e.g. private sales or lending) MS may well have seemed to do just that.

My goodness, MS have really really screwed this up. The wrong DRM system, an inflexible DRM system, misjudging their customers to a staggering degree, alienating their core market, completely cutting off some parts of the market unnecessarily, mishandling a difficult message, then making it worse by talking a lot and saying nothing, then making it worse by refusing to clarify, then going silent, then finally doing a huge U turn where they had to drop one of the few truly positive things about the system.

Yeah, that's a mess alright.

 

This makes it sound like there is some clear linear progression going on. The different ownership, service, delivery method and pricing structures are business models. Just because new technology allows certain business models to become technically feasible, does not automatically mean they are better than the old ones. The preference over different deals will vary with individuals, and MS is turning back because the individual choices seem to be against their new proposal.

It's about individual preferences. B3D visionaries apparently want to tell people what they SHOULD want.

 

I get a nostalgic thrill from opening and closing my Mega CD disk tray.

Changing disks is ace. Changing carts is even better. Hunting old disks and carts down in one of a number of crates hidden away around the house is not quite so much fun.

 

I'm just lazy, when I play a new game I take the existing disk out and put it into the case I'm taking the new game out of, that makes finding a disk to play a second time so incredibly painful I rarely bother.
Yes it's all my fault, but it is what it is.

 

So obviously uoi should send me those games on disk and buy digital.

I know someone was going to say it....

I believe they already have it on some but not all titles on PS3 as well and all on vita.

 

Man, Microsoft, what they hell is going on over at Redmond.

With Windows 8, and now XBone, twice in 6mths, they've ignored consumers needs completely, made massive missteps, then retreated in the face of criticism. Basically, just thrashing their own brand and customer satisfaction levels, for absolutely no point at all...

How they could fail so miserably at explaining the basic features of their plan?

It was 3 days after reveal, until I finally saw some legit confirmation that 2 people can play a shared game at once. That changed everything for me...

This is a shame, the tradeoffs they were pitching were well worth the hassle, but they're so fuckin clueless.... all they had to do is say:
1. Buy a game, share it on a second xbox for FREE!
2. Never swap discs again!
3. Oh, btw, you have to be online for this to work, but who cares, check out 1 & 2!

Even better, they could've shown some modicum of foresight, and prevented it with a simple elegant policy, like:
1. Buy a game disc, it's a normal disc. No problems, no hassles. At any point you can "Transform it to the Cloud" and get all the benefits of digital consumption, at that point the disc becomes useless for resale purposes and the content can not be resold.

Then the consumer totally chooses for themselves, and of course 95% would choose the "Cloud". No bullshit with Gamestop point of retail-ubrer-complex-system, super clear message, no consumer backlash. Really a simpler, and better system all around.

 

I can tell you that Gamestop shares will rise tomorrow though.

I wonder if The Witcher 3 developers had also something to do with Microsoft's decision and the fact that EA -the former champions of DRM- turned their backs to them, whether out of betrayal or good will, that remains to be seen.

I wanted the transition to the new generation to be smooth and perfect, and everything should be perfect to me. To no avail.

That being said, part of growing up is recognizing and coming to terms with the more.... vulgar or crude aspects of life that simply cannot be changed.

At some point you just have to be okay with giving up control and letting the world do as the world sees fit.

 

Well the second round is starting now, just saw the Xbone called the Xbox 180... Hopefully MS are actually prepared this time, maybe they've eaten a little humble pie...

 

It wasn't consumer backlash. In reality it was effective digital trolling by so called journalists who only use MacBooks, write their articles on Google docs to avoid MS Office suite costs, and use iPhones.

Both outcries were manufactured for the most part.

But it is what it is. I will buy both consoles eventually... but I felt that this time around XB1 offered a lot more in their package than their competitors.

 

Really? Really?

Just check out the xbox one facebook page... And those real people using real names....

 

Yup, that feature is a game changer which Steam (among others) is copying right now and trying to implement soon.

The Xbox One reveal was dull and boring. A few days after the reveal they confirmed their DRM policies without focusing on the positives and failing to explain the benefits clearly to the public and the rest is history.

In addition to this, the E3 was really good, probably the best E3 event -if it wasn't, it was certainly close to be-. But again, they mentioned something interesting like a partnership with Twitch, but didn't focus on the Library Sharing feature.

 

All of this could have been avoided by using online DRM for discless play, and disc-as-key for offline play. The only price to pay would be that someone could theorically play offline with the disc at the same time. This would be a very minor issue considering PS3 already allows 2 persons to play the same DD game at the same time.

I'm sorry, I actually believed both groups could have what they wanted. Now my group is being blamed for voicing our opinion, while the other group was silent and didn't care either way. Who's to blame again?

If you guys believed so much in your "we love DRM" opinion, maybe you should have said it when the time was right, instead of trying to convince the other group that it will happen whether we like it or not. Microsoft was so helpful to bring back disc ownership it's not even funny. The problem was executive incompetence, and you can't blame that on a group of passionate gamers on the internet, specially since our tweets were targeted directly at Sony's executives.

We got what we wanted because we communicated it clearly. The future is what we make of it and you didn't do anything. Now I guess you deal with it.

 

Certainly. But mostly because the verge, Gizmodo, engadget, Cnet, and whoever else made it their duty to yell at the top of their lungs about how BAD XB 1 was. Now they have articles lamenting the about face.

Once the damage is done mea culpas don't matter.

 

Can't wait till next generation when sony and ms both go Digital download only. The complete 180 people like you will do will make it well worth it in entertainment value alone