Rumour: Xbox One family sharing was a "45min demo"


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Why was another feature mentioned at E3; The ability to gift a game to a friend on the family account even as a feature? cause family share would've made that pointless.. Also the gift feature for family accounts you could only gift that game once before it got 'stuck' and your friend wouldn't';t gift that game away or return to you.

 

I don't agree with you there. Only one player could play the game at the same time, and the owner would probably be able to kick the other player out if he wants to play the game himself. He's the owner of the game, so he wouldn't have to wait for his friend to quit. THAT + the ability to share with your friends(that the current owner doesn't know) is a reason why you would give the game away. So it wouldn't be useless to have both sharing and "giving away".

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Sony has had massive revenue and been in the red so... 

 

And a lot of game companies don't necessarily have high profits since the profits get shunted back into new projects. MS for example, always try to put the majority of their profits back into new projects.

Sony are in all sorts of product markets, so that is more complicated to work out. Putting your profits back into the business, is standard/good practice after everybody gets their cut. I'm pretty sure everybody involved has been well paid.

As for pure game companies, I just don't see how they are struggling. At least according to that info-graphic.

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no that just isn't true. there was going to be a system in place where you can buy/sell/trade at authorized retailers/online. of course now we wont know how it works exactly because of the axing of the drm, BUT its been commented by Microsoft that such system was coming.

 

I guess his point was that "family sharing" wouldn't affect the publishers compared to how it works today. Today, publishers don't earn money from sharing or 2nd hand sales. Family sharing would be the same as physically sharing the disc. The fact that publishers would get some money from 2nd hand sales would actually make sure publishers get more money, while people are able to share the same way they have always done(only digital instead of physical). So they make more money, while the only limitation for consumers is that they can't sell on ebay.

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Sony are in all sorts of product markets, so that is more complicated to work out. Putting your profits back into the business, is standard/good practice after everybody gets their cut. I'm pretty sure everybody involved has been well paid.

As for pure game companies, I just don't see how they are struggling. At least according to that info-graphic.

 

And Microsoft isn't in all sorts of product markets???

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It should be clear that revenue does not mean profit.  Zynga is in there at $1.2billion and I remember a week or so ago that they're slashing like half of their workforce?  So what does that actually say?  I'd like to see a breakdown of profits and not just how much money they initially pulled in.

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And Microsoft isn't in all sorts of product markets???

But they are doing will in most of those markets.

It should be clear that revenue does not mean profit.  Zynga is in there at $1.2billion and I remember a week or so ago that they're slashing like half of their workforce?  So what does that actually say?  I'd like to see a breakdown of profits and not just how much money they initially pulled in.

No used games there, I might point out. :p

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The way I look at this is: I don't play online much, if at all. So say my friend bought COD, I'd get to play it for free single player.

Not to mention say you team up with a friend in the states or down under. I could play all evening whilst they'd be in bed or at work.

 

Then when I'm at work/in bed they could play, due to the time difference.

 

People keep comparing it to the old disc system, but lets face it. When was the last time you loaned a game to more than 1 person?

 

I can't remember the last time I actually let someone barrow a game from me. Most people I know play the games and once bored, they sell them on.

Recoup some money and then buy a new game.

 

I have friends all over the world now and picture the amount of cash I'd save using this feature would be great. there is no way this would/could ever be true.

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Can somebody please point out to me how this industry is struggling?

 

Genuine question.

Microsoft E&D != only Xbox

 

Industry may not be struggling but they are losing a big chunk to GameStop and other chains. There have been many developers reporting unique gamertags vs. actual game sales. The ratio is very unfavorable to them.

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Why would we want to download 40gb if we could install from disc in 15 mins or whatever?  It's a difference between playing with disc and installing from disc.

 

It takes about 15min. on a 6GB install for XBOX360. I can download 40GB in a bit over twice that time.

I support discs, but don't mind people who go for digital as that's usually more convenient and faster if you can depart with the idea of owning a physical copy.

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It takes about 15min. on a 6GB install for XBOX360. I can download 40GB in a bit over twice that time.

I support discs, but don't mind people who go for digital as that's usually more convenient and faster if you can depart with the idea of owning a physical copy.

 

I guess you haven't read my other comments. I'm all for digital games/disc-less gaming, however I'd need about 3 hours to download 40GB (at max speed). So if it's less then an hour (you can play while installed), then installing from disc is better for me. That's why I supported the system they threw away after the complaints, because I could buy a physical copy and install it fast, "throw it away" and get digital benefits like cloud-sharing, no disc swapping etc.

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The way I look at this is: I don't play online much, if at all. So say my friend bought COD, I'd get to play it for free single player.

Not to mention say you team up with a friend in the states or down under. I could play all evening whilst they'd be in bed or at work.

 

Then when I'm at work/in bed they could play, due to the time difference.

 

People keep comparing it to the old disc system, but lets face it. When was the last time you loaned a game to more than 1 person?

 

I can't remember the last time I actually let someone barrow a game from me. Most people I know play the games and once bored, they sell them on.

Recoup some money and then buy a new game.

 

I have friends all over the world now and picture the amount of cash I'd save using this feature would be great. there is no way this would/could ever be true.

 

 

FYI, Digital downloads where region locked

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FYI, Digital downloads where region locked

 

I wonder now if they are still going to be...I'm guessing no since their last statement. I only guess that's for both digital and physical.

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If they took region locks away from discs then there is no reason to have them for digital content as well.

 

As far as the downloading of 40GB bit, I posted this, probably a few pages back if not more.  Why do people think you'd have to download 40GB?   It's one thing if a game is 40GB on a disc because in most cases you play it right off of the disc, maybe with a minor install to help with load times like on the PS3.  Because of that the files aren't compressed at all and so on.  But look at the PC for example where you don't play games from the disc but install it to the hdd fully.  The files on the disc are thus compresed and uncompressed when you do the install.  That single 8 GB dual layer DVD for a PC game can end up taking 12-15GB on your hdd after the install process. 

 

So, you won't be downloading a large 40GB game, you could be downloading half that as it'll be the install files that will be compressed at the time.  Also add to the fact that we know you can start playing the game before the install itself is done, so I'm thinking maybe when the first 20-25% is installed.   The rest will install, and also download, in the background while you start playing.  I think that means that, depending on the game, you might just have to download the first ~5GB or so and you'll be good to go. 

 

We'll know more once people get their Xbox Ones and start to buy digital games but I'm sure they're going to use as much compression on them as they can to reduce the size and time it will take you to download and start playing.  

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Microsoft E&D != only Xbox

 

Industry may not be struggling but they are losing a big chunk to GameStop and other chains. There have been many developers reporting unique gamertags vs. actual game sales. The ratio is very unfavorable to them.

 

But they are doing the same mistake they do with piracy. Assuming people who rent or buy used will pay the full price for a game. This is a really big assumption that is more than likely false.

 

The fact is most people are already spending the more thay can on entertainment. Most people can't spend more. I know i can't.

 

If they want to kill the used/rent market and take the money Gamestop and such make with it they need to reduce the price of the games back to 50$ and make more sales or else they will never have the support of gamers (who would need to play less games if there was no used price or renting).

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But they are doing the same mistake they do with piracy. Assuming people who rent or buy used will pay the full price for a game. This is a really big assumption that is more than likely false.

 

The fact is most people are already spending the more thay can on entertainment. Most people can't spend more. I know i can't.

 

If they want to kill the used/rent market and take the money Gamestop and such make with it they need to reduce the price of the games back to 50$ and make more sales or else they will never have the support of gamers (who would need to play less games if there was no used price or renting).

I am not defending either side. I am just pointing out dev. justification for it. I also expected lower game prices with used games block but that was clearly not happening.

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If they were ever going to reduce prices due to blocking used game sales, they should have been screaming that from the roof tops from day one. The outcome of all this could have been very different.

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If they were ever going to reduce prices due to blocking used game sales, they should have been screaming that from the roof tops from day one. The outcome of all this could have been very different.

 

 

That was never the intention.

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...  The files on the disc are thus compresed and uncompressed when you do the install.  That single 8 GB dual layer DVD for a PC game can end up taking 12-15GB on your hdd after the install process. 

 

So, you won't be downloading a large 40GB game, you could be downloading half that as it'll be the install files that will be compressed at the time.  Also add to the fact that we know you can start playing the game before the install itself is done, so I'm thinking maybe when the first 20-25% is installed.   The rest will install, and also download, in the background while you start playing.  I think that means that, depending on the game, you might just have to download the first ~5GB or so and you'll be good to go. 

 

We'll know more once people get their Xbox Ones and start to buy digital games but I'm sure they're going to use as much compression on them as they can to reduce the size and time it will take you to download and start playing.  

That assuming the game was still in DVD capacity ..., seeing continous trend of bloatiness on games, it wont surprise me in few years some games will requires multiple BluRay Disc to complete installation.

 

IF the cost/GB are getting economical, a game might be on released using propietary formated 2TB SSD  ...

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