In two weeks’ time, we may look on this as one of the smartest PR moves of all time. But for now? It’s been a bad day for Microsoft.
Seeking perhaps to head off criticisms that it had been vague (at best) and incompetent (at worst) in its messaging of core Xbox One services at the console’s reveal last month, Microsoft today unleashed a flood of news, detailing the specifics of how the machine handles things like internet connectivity and used game sales.
The news was almost all bad.
Here’s a recap:
- The console must connect to the internet once every 24 hours in order for you to play games. For many people, from military personnel to students, that’s an inconvenience, maybe even an impossibility. Never mind what happens to everybody’s console if Microsoft’s servers ever come down.
- The Xbox One will allow the sale of used games, at “participating retailers”, but only if the publisher allows it. Publishers being the very people opposed most fiercely to used video game sales.
- There are restrictions on how you can “give” and “loan” your games away. What’s more, lending won’t be available at launch, with Microsoft still “exploring the possibilities with our partners”.
Even some of the “good” news is really just “not as bad news”. Or “an avoidance of bad news”.
- Responding to fears over privacy issues surrounding the “always on” Kinect, Microsoft says you can turn the Kinect off.
Leaving the sole piece of “oh, OK, that’s pretty cool news” to be:
- You can have up to 10 people in your Xbox One “family”, and can share all your content among them, regardless of which console they’re using.
Response to the bulk of the news, which challenges a lot of long-held norms like the lending of game discs and the ability to play a games console whenever you want, has been predictably damning, the Xbox One being labelled everything from anti-consumer to dead on arrival across gaming forums and Twitter.
Making matters worse is that while some of the information provided is vague and confusing, the company is refusing to clarify, saying the news details “everything we can share today”, and that “We look forward to sharing more details in the months ahead”. If Microsoft can’t answer now, it creates the impression it doesn’t know now.
While it’s hard to fathom why Microsoft would walk into the fire like this, only a few days out from the biggest video game trade show of the year (E3), the timing and nature of the info dump may actually be the very reason.
Could Microsoft be taking its lumps now, among the video gaming hardcore and away from the international spotlight of E3? Leaving their presentations next week to be about the things that might actually sell the console, like games? Let those have the last marketing laugh?
You’d have to hope so. Otherwise the Xbox One is going to have a very steep hill to climb to win over a market growing increasingly dismayed at its core services and “features”.
Comments
160 responses to “The Xbox One Just Had A Very Bad Day”
fuck it…
I’m out
Where are you going?
ps4 is going to be the exact same.
you already can’t swap, or return games on Steam or Origin.
there’s no used game market on smartphones.
so, where are you going?
Wii U?
Retro 😀
2003. Or 1997.
wait for meeee………………….
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/7417-Next-Gen-Buyers-Guide
I’ll just leave this here, NSFW by the way.
That was fantastic. Best thing I’ve seen on the topic.
comments at 4:33 – its all this
+10000 for ‘Fuck Off’ button.
Saw this yesterday, nothing like a good old Yahtzee rant!
DON’T
Best punchline ever!
I watched that the other day.
Kudos on leaving it here my friend!
Yes NSFW indeed people.
Outside.
Pee Cee
PC!
I’m still hoping that the PS4 won’t have the same restrictions, but if it does, I’ll be going PC. At least on Steam we pay prices consistent with the fact that your basically leasing the game.
This is key – sure, Steam has DRM, but it’s pretty much the only publisher with sane game pricing.
Except when you want those games day one like on a console?
I have Steam, this whole “But it’s cheap” is actually horseshit of the highest order. If you want thee newest games day one, you pay just as much if not MORE than you would on a console in store.
So leaving console gaming to go to PC would be just as stupid. While Microsoft and Sony don’t have digital sales to the level Steam does (although Microsoft did recently), they still have sales, and you would hope that they will enhance that more since the push is so digital this time around.
But claiming how great PC is because of price is bullshit. Steam prices are only good on OLD or “recent” games. Not new ones. No different for disc based games on consoles. I waited only 2 months and got God of War Ascension $50 off it’s original releasee price.
CD keys..
This is a load of BS. Its arguably true for some publishers (predominantly activision), but only if you stop at the Steam store front and don’t shop around at other resellers like Green Man Gaming and Oz Game Shop. This is one of the key reasons I don’t think that account based access is good on consoles: there’s a walled garden, so they can set whatever price they wish. Even in a worst case scenario a Steam title is at least 10 bucks less than the PS3 or Xbox version.
to a little place called PC island
you should come..weve got free drinks and strippers (of both genders..equality for all)
Make that free desktop strippers
you already can’t swap, or return games on Steam or Origin
??
Yes. But when you can buy a game during a Steam sale for about 20% of the price of a new Xbox game, it’s not really an issue.
Returning is hard, but you can trade games on Steam.
I don’t really care since 90% of my Steam library cost <$5 per title. I don’t think that’s going to happen on Xbone. They’ll still cling to full RRP.
mabye not but I don’t have any of the disadvantages of a console, and whats the point if consoles are losing whatever advantages they had over a PC?
[citation needed]
Indeed. Let’s not assume just yet, I really hope Sony have someone in PR and Marketing giving feedback to the devs and board of directors so Sony use it as a step up for console gamers sake.
3ds/vita gaming go!
i think you can trade games on steam
not sure of the details as i have never tried to trade a game on steam or even sell one of my console games either.
you can only trade steam games if you haven them in your inventory (as in you haven’t played it yet and you bought it as a gift)
really? i never traded any games on steam so wasnt sure on the T&Cs
thanks
so you shouldn’t be able to sell your dvds because they’re available digitally? Or your CDs? the point is games should be treated the same as other media. And there’s nothing to say ps4 will be the same.
Besides, maybe starchild was just going to the shops for milk
I was…for my nesquick which keeps me fueled for PC gaming
This comment deserves more upvotes. All these complaints about not being able to trade-in games or return games. I very much doubt that the so well informed community of Kotaku purchases a game without knowing whether they will like it.
Games don’t cost much on steam. Even the Psn is starting to charge low prices. So i can handle no trade ins etc. It’s not the same for $100 games
PS4 won’t be the same.
Won’t have a 24 hour phone home (and PCs certainly don’t).
Ok so there is no trading on steam, but there are STEAM SALES! and many many cheap titles to pickup weeks after release. I dont think consoles will be taking this sales model up anytime soon
Funny, Sony explicitly denied blocking second-hand games, and from the sounds of it EA was one of the major forces behind this sort of restriction. Sony made one but was dragging their feet above implementing it, which is why EA made a big show about providing exclusives to Xbox One.
He’s going to go back to older console generations 😀
Can you confirm with certainty about the PS4? Cause i’m sure we are all interested in these words of wisdom that you so strongly can announce http://www.timewithtom.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Wonka.jpg
He means “out completely, fuck these console shit, going to PC” i’m guessing
The thing is, Origin Steam usually have sales at stupidly low prices, we still don’t know if the Xbox on or ps4 will have those kinds of sales.
Of the closet?
Ok, I never leave my xbox/tv/anything left turned on at the powerpoint when I’m not there (it’s just what I do don’t judge me). So, I go away for the weekend, leave Friday night, come back Sunday. Then what the hell happens? My game’s don’t work? They’ve said a lot of how the console MUST connect to the server once every 24 hours, but I haven’t seen any information on what the ramifications are if it doesn’t connect.
I expect Microsoft reps in black vans would just pull in to my drive way and kick my door down.
Are you serious?
The ramifications are you can’t play your games … until you reconnect.
You’ll reconnect on Sunday and be able to play your games on Sunday. You didn’t connect on Saturday so you can’t play on Saturday (you know – when the console was off).
Ok, re-read it, thought about it, realised how stupid my comment was.
Clearly I need more coffee today.
best ever reply. I love this site because people sometimes, me included realise what we’ve done and just say fuck it, fair point and move on 🙂
Lol
The whole 24 hour thing is confusing in that it doesn’t actually mean the console must connect to the Internet once a day. The way Microsoft’s statement was worded, if the console is disconnected from the Internet, the user can play games offline for up to 24 hours. After this time, games will not be playable until the console is connected to the Internet again.
What this means is that if you unplug your console on Friday and use it again on Sunday, you’ll need to connect it online before you can play anything. Just because it didn’t connect on the Saturday, it doesn’t mean your games will no longer work.
If that’s the case that’s utterly ridiculous!
I’ve had ADSL dropouts that have lasted for over a week! Whilst I predominantly play online multiplayer, it would be nice to still be able to crunch out a campaign in the absence of online connectivity. In fact when multiplayer servers go down or my internet crashes the first thing I do is play some campaign.
I’ve been an Xbox man since the original Xbox was released, primarily because I don’t like the PS controllers, however this time I will be taking a serious look at PS4 before buying my next gen console. If need be I’ll buy an Xbox shaped controller to suit the PS.
A set of legs will extend from beneath the console and it will run back to Microsoft HQ.
Now I just want a custom paint job to make the XBone look like the AT-5000 Auto-dialer, then I can change my account name to ‘Happy Dude’
I will usually get the limited edition of a game and I hate lending my disks to friends/family. The ability to ‘loan’ a digital copy of a game will be perfect.
I’m reading it as I can loan the game to each of my friends once – which is essentially a full-game trial.
Having multiple Xbox Ones in the house just got easier too with the family share feature.
Predictably this will be largely buried under the stuff from e3.
This is AWESOME NEWS!!!!!!!
For sony.
Heeeeeelllloooo you sexy bitch PS4…
Yeap exact same reaction.
Are you kidding me? You can share your content with up to 10 people in your group that’s awesome!! imagine downloading arcade games etc and passing it around for free it almost sounds too good to be true…
also you people saying stuff like ooh the ps4 this and that, just you wait haha when they say the same shit about their console! it’s going to break your little fanboy hearts!
also this having to connect online occasionally, awesome theoretically it should kill console piracy once and for all!!!
At this point honestly, all Sony needs to do is fuck all for marketing. MS is doing it all for them.
Actually, Sony needs to make it clear that they aren’t doing this. Which might be a tad difficult if they ARE planning something like this to be announced at E3 of course.
They’ve already made it clear you don’t need a constant internet connection, which in itself is a major selling point to a lot of people and that the playstation camera doesn’t need in itself to be plugged in all the time. As far as the DRM goes, I agree with you on that.
I stand by the point that Sony just needs to let MS go on though, right now, the PR train is barreling on in flames for MS, it’s a pretty decent sized disaster at this point.
Sony have 3 hours set aside for their E3 conference.
As far as I’m concerned all they need to do is walk out on stage, say “PS4 has no DRM” and they can fill the rest of their 3 hours with some guy repeatedly playing Rebecca Black’s “Friday” on the vuvuzela and they’ll still win E3.
If they do come out with some similar kind of nonsense to what MS are peddling then my money may well end up staying in my pocket and I’ll spend another 5 years going back and trawling through the current-gen stuff that I’ve missed.
Even if they have some method of DRM, if its far less intrusive than MS’s they’ll still ‘win’ at this point. DRM still sucks no doubt but like I said, if its just very very basic, they’ll ‘win’.
But god I lol’d at the idea of Rebecca Black and a vuvuzella lol
I guess it depends what they do. They’ve said it’ll be up to the publishers, but that’s also what MS are saying. I guess the issue for me is whether it’s something built into the console and its online ecosystem or whether it’s something that will be left entirely up to the publishers themselves to implement and maintain. If it’s the former, then that’s a problem – if it’s as simple as the publisher basically flicking a switch and saying “this game has DRM”, then everybody is going to do it. If they actually have to build and maintain their own infrastructure to do it then hopefully most publishers would decide they don’t have the resources to do that, in which case it might just be the big ones like EA, Activision, etc who can afford and can be bothered to do it.
SO MANY GAMES, seriously I’ve barely scratched the surface of this gen’s +A titles, so this is a very good point.
Or I’ll just invest in a truly kickarse PC 😀
Microsoft could announce Half Life 3 as a Xbone exclusive and it would be completely overshadowed by the announcement of ROCK BAND VUVUZELA: Rebecca Black Edition – coming exclusively to PSP.
You could play it on the train!
The 10 family members thing is awesome.
Hopefully I can nominate anyone on my friends list in theory. How amny families have 10 people in the one household? This is basically MS’ way of giving people traditional ‘lending’ back in essence.
Seriously, when yo lend games to people, it’s barely more than a few of the same people that lend games between each other. Just nominate them as “family”. Problem solved. Split the cost of games.
Rumors in the industry suggesting Sony are going with DRM in some form. To police DRM will require a constant Internet connection is some way…. Just saying
Hmm.. I read that news and didn’t think it was that bad. If that’s the ‘worst’ we can come up with, then I’m cool with it.
Haha agreed!
Only viewed as bad news if you are a Sony fangirl
I have been an Xbox fanboy since day 1 but Sony wont have to do much to sway me in the next gen war. I do think Sony’s silence is telling though
Sony doesn’t need to say anything and they are favourite, its just MS digging themselves into a hole looking after publishers more then what makes them popular.. Gamers.. I mean, you really wanna piss off your customers?
Sony is clever by being silent, but it in no way makes them better in this case, until a know all is given about their console and what it does.
Maybe they’re just letting MS do their talking for them?
At some point they will have to speak.
PS4 Here I Come. Xbox One You Are DONE!
I think Sony will equally disappoint you
I am PlayStation 4 all the way….. I am a gamer… The PlayStation (and Wii U is allllll about games). XBone is a high powered TV service that needs an ‘add on’ to take advantage of it’s fabulous TV services…
Yeah, I wanna buy a new PC now.
If i can turn the Kinect off then why can’t i unplug the fucking thing, “You can turn it off” means absolutely nothing if its still plugged in.
I ‘really’ do not want to be swayed from an Xbox as I am almost always biased. But damn @weresmurf, the ps4 does sound like a second girlfriend right now 🙂
Well, you play with it by touching and rubbing it now to ‘turn it on’ lol so… draw your own conclusions LOL
Although right now it’s just kind of sitting there in sullen silence rather than actually telling you what it wants.
So another words its just like a girlfriend lol
If it was also slowly syphoning away money then yes, EXACTLY.
Xbox Live Gold? 😉
Cue the ‘overly attached Xbox kinect memes’
If 10 family members can play the game on any console, any time, how does this work? In other words, could a friend be nominated as a family member, and just play the game at his place whenever he wants?
And, no disrespect to them, but why the heck are military personnel always considered in articles about 24-hour internet checks. Are they a big part of the gaming population?
I think you’ll find a lot of people in various services posted overseas actually do a lot of gaming in their spare time, I mean it’s not like they can just go out for dinner or go meet friends when they’re in Afghanistan, for example.
I’ve known a few military personnel in MMO’s and services like PSN/XBL that play while deployed overseas somewhere, and they do so quite frequently.
If we can’t play video games, we can always go do something else. Their options are a lot more limited.
I believe video game consoles are often brought over to war areas. It let’s the soldiers relax a little bit. If they can not get an internet connection, then they can’t play the new games.
Because lots of people on Military bases play 360/PS3 games but there is usually no access to internet (not for gaming anyway).
Also it seems to be a regular talking point amongst the American media, if you do anything that even mildly inconveniences troops it means you don’t fully support them which means you’re probably a terrorist
There’s some bad stuff in there but most of it doesn’t affect me. I’m still not getting one of these things at release because they’re sticking with the “pay to play online” thing.
Sharing your game library with family is a cool feature, I look forward to seeing how that’s implemented.
They need to release a lot more information about the “giving games to friends” thing, it’s pretty ambiguous as is.
Just focus on the games. It’ll take a year or so before Microsoft realise that only gamers are buying the Xbone and not people wanting to plug their cable TV box into the Xbone to watch cable TV and then they’ll pull the focus back on games again. Sony realised that the ‘entertainment centre’ thing didn’t really work with the PS3. People watch blu-rays and put music on there, sure, but not much else, and it seems like the features Microsoft want to introduce simply won’t be used.
Where will this leave developers though. I’ve no doubt the Xbone will sell well, but will the PS4 take off a lot quicker and will that leave people wanting to sign up for exclusives with Sony? All there has been is bad press for Microsoft (warranted or not), and people on the internet aren’t quick to forget and this might play on the minds of where people take their exclusives
I don’t buy used games, don’t lend games to friends and I am lucky enough to have a decent internet connection. I barely use Xbox Live as it is, this 24 hour need to connect would probably make me play online more often, as in online multiplayer and such. The exclusives are what define a gaming console in my opinion. I think people should wait for Sony to let out all their details.
From what I understand, it’s not turning it off but rather limiting the commands that it listens to. Or that’s what they’re telling us anyway… /conspiracytheory
That’s how I interpreted it, which would make sense as to why you still have to have the Kinect plugged in.
But if it’s listening for “Xbox On” isn’t it processing everything that is being said anyway? How the hell is that off?
YO GAME JOURNOS DO YA JOB and get it clarified 😀
Xbox bent over so badly for publishers. Who actually built the device? Microsoft or the game developers?
I can’t believe Microsoft are so ignorant that they actually defend their DRM and no used games. Does Microsoft even know that there are places where internet is almost non-existent, but might want to play some video games? Are Microsoft even trying to sound like a console people want to buy? Wii U and PS4 aren’t a whole lot better with their respective reasons, but they both sound a whole lot better than the XBone.
This deal is getting worse all the time. – Lando.
Pray they don’t alter it any futher.
“You can have up to 10 people in your Xbox One “family”, and can share ALL your content among them, regardless of which console they’re using.” I don’t think this is correct, emphasis on “ALL”. Microsoft uses the term “just like today” in their press release. Today, avatar items can’t be shared on the 360. Are they going to change this?
Consoles… pffft so 1984
Wifi, ain’t that hard to find. =\
Seems like I’m going to have plenty of time to discover all those 360 titles out there that I still haven’t played. Maybe in 5 years or so I’ll look at getting the x-bone.
Then I’ll be that guy. http://xkcd.com/606/
I’m surprised that the following article hasn’t come onto the AU site yet especially as it has a link in the main article above
http://kotaku.com/xbox-one-lets-you-share-your-games-with-up-to-10-famil-511767763
Leaving the sole piece of “oh, OK, that’s pretty cool news” to be:
You can have up to 10 people in your Xbox One “family”, and can share all your content among them, regardless of which console they’re using.
It’ll be exactly the same as SimCity. Everyone is bitching and moaning about it now, but as soon as the Xbone is released it’ll sell in the millions. I’m calling it now. Gamers can do a lot of things, but sticking to their guns is not one of them.
PC wins!
Geezus what a bunch of whiny tossers in here.
Millions of people buy their games on Steam, and nobody complains that you can’t sell them to somebody else later. And Steam users have to have Internet access just to play their games – every time – and nobody minds.
The whole Internet is going into the cloud. Hard copies of games will be extremely rare soon enough and we’ll all be streaming our content.
None of you – unless you are in the US military – are going to be affected by needing to be online once every 24 hours. WiFi tether your phone for 5 minutes a day and get over it.
Just to be clear, Microsoft have no policy at all on their website defining “family” and I’d bet you anything they won’t even go close to trying to define that.
You think gamers are whiney, easily irritated nut cases? We’ve got nothing on the assortment of crazy interest groups who’ll be spoiling for a PC-shitfight if Microsoft try’s to tell someone that their love/ friendship/ gamesharing fetish doesn’t count as “family”.
They aren’t the tax office, if you want to say your best mate is your boyfriend or that you’ve got 6 wives for religious reasons they aren’t going to be able to stop you. Once you declare those 10 people (and you can currently change who’s in an out of your family at any point) then you can exchange games as you want. It’s not a perfect system but it’s not the end of the world either.
Also as I pointed out in the other post, broadband internet was a requirement for the first Xbox Live over 10 years ago, at a time when some people still gamed online with 56k modems for an assortment of reasons. You know what? The sky didn’t fall in! Those people lagging behind the pack couldn’t play the latest and greatest games online until they got broadband. Thats life, it’s now 2013 and most people have broadband internet access most of the time.
I’d bet heavily on the PS4 having very similar restrictions. Why? Because thats what the big publishers want, because people will ultimatly suck it up and buy both machines anyway.
There’s a lot of hate here, and I think it’s completely understandable…
buuuuut, is anybody else like me, not fussed at all about those announcements? I understand that some of those things really will effect a lot of people, but just thinking about myself now, completely selfishly I’ll admit… it doesn’t bother me at all.
I don’t sell games, I buy them and keep them. I have internet that has never gone down for more than an hour in a year, so a 24 hour window to connect won’t effect me.
Are the people who are not bothered by this just not commenting, so they can avoid the barrage of downvotes or something? Or is it really pretty unanimous condemnation from gamers?
I remember when Steam was announced, people hated the idea – “what’s wrong with downloading patches the old way” they said – “you have to be online to play your games if they need an update???”. Even years later, I had friends who didn’t play Half Life 2 because they were still angry at Steam. And now we don’t care, most people love it. Even if Steam didn’t have regular crazy sales, I still love Steam because it’s easy.
It kind of feels like that to me – a lot of butthurt now, and then in 1 year everybody is enjoying Halo 5 and happy that they can mute the high-pitched 12 year old douchbags by just saying “Xbox, mute everybody under 18”.
10 years ago most gamers HATED technology being held back so that it could accommodate “everyone”. Now it’s hysterical “won’t somebody think of the 0.000000000001% of the world’s population who’s in the US military?! What about if I need to take my home console to my Grandma’s holiday house and she only has a 56k modem?!?”.
Honestly if you own a console (currently) which isn’t connected to the internet regularly then you’re missing out on so much content that you may as well be blocked out already.
I don’t understand it. I think both the major consoles will inevitably have some form of DRM just because it’s what the big publishers want and the technology is widespread enough that it’s not a genuine impost on the market. People who are lagging behind will just have to catch up or they can always keep their PS3/ 360’s until they are able to get with the times.
I’m not one of those people either, it’s nice to be able to relax and actually look forward to the next generation of consoles.
People are using an example of the military because it is relevant to what has been announced, no internet, no play. This makes people mad because it limits what they can do with the product they spent an excess of $700-$1000 (not including games). Internet should only be used for patches or Multiplayer. Not DLC, Not DRM and not anything else.
Now to address your thoughts on the publishers, Publishers should get limited to no say in how a console is built as they only care about their bottom line, not the consumer. As you can tell i am against the Digital purchasing of games as i like to have a tangible good that i know I can hold and not spend an hour hopefully downloading off the net.
I’ve downloaded about a dozen of my 100+ Xbox 360 games. It’s great and I play those games far more often because I don’t need to get off the lounge and go trawling through cupboards to be reminded the games exist or to change the disks.
If I’m bored I just scroll through the menu and pick something convenient.
Publishers get a HUGE say because they make the games. Ask Nintendo what happens when publishers tell you to go f*ck yourself. Especially for Microsoft who have the least in-house exclusives, keeping the people who actually decide what games get made and for what console is absolutely crucial to them staying in business.
Imagine you’re 2K games, you’re about to fund the next Bioshock game and you need to decide what console to put it on; You know that 99.9% of people buying your game are doing it only for the 15 hour single player experience, you know that heaps of people will finish the 15 hours, resell the disc and you won’t get a cent after the initial sale.
What do you do? In this generation they’ve tacked on shitty multiplayer modes, wasting important development time which could have gone to the core experience, or they’ve made a crucial part of the story “DLC” which needs a single use code which came with the original copy.
On the next gen (and let’s assume the PS4 has no DRM at all, which I think is very unlikely), you can make the Xbone version and know you’re going to get revenue from every single person who enjoys your game, or you can make a PS4 version and know that for every 3 people who want to play your game only one of them will give you a cent- that is unless you use one of the annoying current gen tactics which aren’t any better for the consumer.
There’s a good chance the publisher decides there’s more cash for them in releasing Xbone games, or even that making a high quality single player PS4 game isn’t worth the effort because it gets on-sold. THAT’S why publishers should get a massive say in DRM systems.
I understand what you are saying about publishers should get more money, but if publishers don’t release games that you can finish in 2-4 sessions than you don’t have that instant trade in, (yeah you are gonna have people play 24 hours non stop). I have never traded in a game because I only buy games I will enjoy and i don’t buy used games cause they could have more fingerprints on them than a prostitute.
My belief is Xbox is attempting to cater to the publishers at the expense of the consumers and the consumers are pissed off because we feel entitled to keep aspects of freedom. Everything Microsoft has released so far is a restriction that they are trying to blame on the publishers, when they are creating the Infrastructure for it.
To finally sum up i have to ask you if your from Microsoft because you seem so certain that the restriction tactic microsoft is going through with is in “the best interest” of gamers through the ” i scroll through 100+ games on my menu as i can’t be bothered to go and fumble through disks” as I assume you pay close to retail price on all that stuff since XBox and PS don’t reduce prices or if they do it is for like a week (unlike steam) as Microsoft don’t have unused stock. I am a consumer that wants to benefit from product depreciation ( i only buy unused games) but still you failed to mention that publishers are paid for X amount of their product when Gamestop or EB games buys them. ( as that is where the game makes a profit or loss) after that I believe it should be fair game to resell. Especially as in Australia earlier we had R18+ passed but before that how do you think we got MK2011 or other games that got banned. That then brings to me to region locking (i can understand PAL and NTSC) but Nintendo goes over the top with it and with Microsoft rumoured to have it, things are not looking good.
Honestly for me? It’s that just recently I moved house and for 4 weeks, I didn’t have the internet. In that time, I played so many games I hadn’t even opened like Assassins Creed 2, Darksiders and a bunch of others. These are now possibly some of my favourite games, and if that outage never had happened, I probably wouldn’t have discovered those games or enjoyed them as much because I’d have the feeling I could be playing something online.
Another problem is that when someone like Anonymous destroy Microsoft’s servers like they did PSN for an ENTIRE month ( http://au.ign.com/articles/2012/04/21/one-year-later-reflecting-on-the-great-psn-outage ) Wow that was 2 years ago already??? – Noone will be able to play a game… And imagine if that one game you’ve been waiting for that has constantly been delayed – like South Park – comes out the day after that begins, and for another entire month, you have a game you can’t play.
These are one off chances, but in the event it does happen… Are people really going to go outside? Or are they most likely to come online and lose their minds?
EDIT: I also agree with your points, I do always have my xbox connected, and I rarely give games to others. However, I do rent games if I’m not sure about them, so that’s one thing I won’t be able to do anymore. That means I most likely won’t try that new game everyone is giving mixed reviews, or the one that looks so awesome, but is a 4 hour long game.
If the servers get hacked, and honestly I think it’s a pretty good chance, then the idiodic kid that does it should go to jail for a healthy chunk of their lifetime.
Seriously, doing that intentionally around the Xbox launch would potentially cost Microsoft hundreds of millions of dollars. That person should be found, charged and improsioned just the same as someone who blew up a bridge or some other peice of peice of major infrastructure.
Did anyone even get held responsible for the PSN hack? Thing is, people are getting very advanced with their tech. Who says that they’re going to be found if they do?
I wouldn’t say blowing up a bridge or infrastructure is the same… That has the potential to seriously injure or kill people.
Most likely Anonymous will wait, then launch full scale war. They will bounce it through other organisations such as the Westboro Baptist church and the FBI, as they have proven they can hack these organisations before, they will scramble countries it passes through and if they live in sweden there is really nothing the USA can do. (Remember Julian Asange).
It’s pretty much a certainty that Anonymous or some other group will DDOS attack the MS servers isn’t it, as a punishment at the very least or even perhaps just for fun? It’ll be interesting to see what occurs then – if MS can handle it, or if it causes a lot of PR damage and unhappy gamers. I imagine that a DDOS attack would have to completely bring down the servers, not just lag them out, as slow servers can still return a “you’re allowed to play” ping in that 24 hr window without anybody noticing – it won’t be fun playing mp on xbox live if that happens though .
OUYA STILL CONFIRMED AS THE ONLY NEXT GEN CONSOLE OF THE NEXT GEN.
I could give a fuck.
Actually, I will throw in another.
I could give two fucks.
http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/121/234/LOOK_AT_ALL_THE_FUCKS_I_GIVE.gif?1304869942
Time to whip out my good ‘ol game cube once again and enjoy Need for Speed Most wanted and a few RPG gems.
ahhh, the days when gaming was simple.
i agree with numerous people above. ill enjoy my retro gaming and a some well priced PC gaming.
i’ve never been one to go out and buy a brand new console anyways. so it will be a few good years before i own anything current.
sad to see what Sony and Microsoft feel they must do to protect against piracy and whatever other reasons the feel they need to lock things down.
It’s not about piracy, not really. This is mostly aimed at the second hand game market.
Much as the entertainment industry likes to claim pirated copies as a lost sale (erroneously), they similarly like to claim second hand sales as lost first hand sales (also erroneously).
I’d be interested to hear how the second hand sales aren’t lost first hand sales.
when it comes to games im not sure about, i buy them cheap. second hand, no case, etc. Theres been a couple of cases where i enjoyed it so much ive gone out and brought it new. and a lot more cases where ive brought the sequel on launch day.
admittedly my first example might be a little rare. but im sure many people have gotten a cheap 2nd hand game, loved it, and then decided they need the next one new and shiny.
Because it’s a false equivalence to say that because they bought a second hand game at $40, they would have, without that option, paid $60 for it new.
Humans being what we are, if we see something that is perceived as value, we are more inclined to try it on a whim than if it is perceived to be at full price.
Then it is a lost sale. The dev sees nothing from that sale and the customer who wasn’t willing to pay $60 this time probably won’t be willing to pay $60 next time since they are human and subject to the issues that resulted in their $40 purchase the first time
For a developer it is a lost sale
That isn’t how it works. The person buying the game was never a sale in the first place. This is the same false equivalence that occurs with the piracy argument – most people pirating were never sales, thus equating piracy number to sales is wrong.
Exactly as it’s wrong to say that a second hand sale is a lost first hand sale.
What the second hand sale does is allow the retail distribution chain to stay in existence. Without it, there’s no retail store to sell the games, unless the price of first hand games go up dramatically (because while we pay more in Australia, it’s sure as hell not going to the retailer – the distributor is taking all that cream).
Obligatory master race comment
Xbone launch day will be the biggest event in history.
MS could rename the console the Fuck-You-Box and nothing would change.
Since when Did MS Turn into Apple’s ways of Locking the OS up So tight?
That said, Dont you think it’s fair for the publishers to see a bit of profit? Case in point, I Go and purchase new game from EB for $99.95, Finish it 3 Days later…Trade it in. EB Then Resell that game for $5 cheaper cutting the new game sale out and keeping their pre-owned stock in circulation. Ultimately I think this is the best thing to happen for the Publishers/Devs, Look at how many are going broke? How many new IP’s have we had lately?
The publishers could probably help themselves by not releasing games that people want to trade in 3 days later.
Well the alternative is that all game retailers close and we have to buy games of origin or Xbox market place or PSstore and I would be more inclined to actually buy a game at a store than download the thing. Also i want to know how you think Game retailers get their product, they pay the Publisher for X amount of games (so the retailer is now hoping they can sell these games) so no risk is on the publisher, they have been paid.
Exactly the point I was going to make. People forget that developers and publishers are making the games for these consoles. If they aren’t making any money, then there are no games.
These press releases read like a windows error message – it tells you that something went wrong, but no details that give a clue as to how to fix it, or prevent it from happening again.
“Xbox PR has encountered a problem, and needs to be restarted.”
Give details, dangit MS.
The used games thing is a total dealbreaker for me. I’m on a disability pension and with money being tight I HAVE to buy most of my games 2nd hand (I actually have a pretty decent collection after 5 years). If XBone games start at $90 a pop I’ll MAYBE be able to afford two or 3 games a year at best – I love my 360 but at those prices I just can’t afford one. Thanks Microsoft – you are forcing me from the platform – I can get a pretty decent gaming PC for around $800, the games are cheaper and I can upgrade when a little extra cash falls my way. There are some really smart people working for Microsoft – it just seems that none of them make any decisions regarding the Xbox…
well now your all NOT going to buy it….. its made it more interesting for me… unpopular is where its at…. popular i couldnt give two shits about
So how does it feel, owning a Wii U/being a hipster/both these things?
Being able to have my whole family access games from any box is a really good feature for me, it’s going to save me money. As it is I sometimes have to buy XBLA titles for both xboxes and I often buy two discs of games we play a lot.
I’m always online and I rarely trade/lend/give games so for me this is a great news day. But it DOES suck for people who don’t have a stable connection and people who rely on lending games a lot.
So over it really. Couldn’t care less what ms do at e3. They have already shown their hand and after being loyal through Xbox and 360 Years purchasing about 100 games I’m out. Lay golden eggs xbone I still won’t be buying one.
Who doesn’t have internet access? I would say it’s a very small minority….If they don’t have internet they prob aren’t interested in a brand new gaming console right? (A few exceptions exist here but not many at all).
Otherwise just more news that doesn’t mean much, bring on the game news already!!!!!
roughly half of the people i know rely on a 3g internet connection because they cant justify a expensive landline. many are gamers, none will be able to play a xbone
Hey, guys? Did y’all forget about the PC Master Race?
And they say we’re a dying breed….
Microsoft can fuck right off if they think they’re getting a cent of my money! I’d already decided I wasn’t getting the pathetic Xbawks-None. If the PS3 goes the same way it’s HELLO PC WORLD!!
It’s not that good a magazine
They should have just said: ‘We are going download only this gen for games, but as we recognise not all users have sufficient bandwidth to download the games they want we will also distribute the games on disc for installation’ Would have been a lot clearer.
Have they defined “content” in regards to that last and only good point? Because that could be a forgive all, or it could be complete crap, depending on your definition of the word.
The “always on” thing is the biggest annoyance. Occasionally the connection goes down, or I take my console on holiday or over to someone else’s house or whatever where it may or may not be easy to plug in to the internet. I haven’t borrowed or lent games since I was a kid, so that’s not a problem for me- the used game restriction is, however, also a big annoyance especially since it’ll keep new game prices up (which is an irritant because of the stupid prices here).
Because I actually do not pirate anything, I always resent these “solutions” which make my life harder for the sake of probably-not-deterring-pirates-at-all-actually. Especially when they do things like try to prevent me selling MY OWN PROPERTY (used game discs). If I buy online copies on Steam then I accept I don’t have a disc to sell, but that’s in exchange for Steam pricing and convenience. If MS want to take away something I’ve always had, they better offer me something good in exchange, and I ain’t seeing it here.
Pretty dramatic headline Kotaku.
This will affect a minority of people in my opinion. The issue is, if Sony doesn’t have any used game policies (I think it will) and sells more consoles, will the developers/publishers lean towards Microsoft for making them more money or will they go with Sony, which would be the more popular console.
Interesting times ahead.
How do I get my posts to appear straight away without moderation?
Like what? New IP isn’t likely to do much, and a new CoD or GTA title are more or less assumed. What could they possibly announce that would override all this bad press.
PC gaming is not the same thing as Steam.
Wiping my hands of this console! Love my 360 but the one is a huge Joke.
Ps4 here I come!
Used a 360 tonight. So many annoying updates and HDD choices. Worse than PC..
I’d rather trust Gabe with my games than Micro-soft cocks & Sunny Cash Station
“Smartest marketing move in history”- Kill any possible interest your best customers could still have in your console *before* even giving the *addicts* any incentive to buy it. “Smartest”.