rumour Xbox One: No Games DRM or "Always Online"

[Ryne]

Wonder what that Amazon poll will look like now? hehehehe

 

MS might have seen bad pre-order numbers before, thus another reason for the change?

[Prosidius]

I wonder how many people are like me - they simply don't care.

 

In my case, I'm not going to buy a console until its well into its life-cycle - the overall experience is better then; kinks have been worked out and the devs have got to grips with the hardware. I buy a console for games like Halo 4 and The Last of Us. Beautiful graphics, good gameplay, nice story (though TLoU>Halo, Naughty Dogs really did something magical with that story there). In other words I buy games that show the console at the peak of their abilities. 

 

I don't see how the XB1 will be affected in the long term. Sony survived the DRM rootkit scandal. MS survived the RROD. Sure, the echo chamber of hate will continue to reverberate to at least launch but in the long term I doubt anything will really affect overall console sales - PS3 caught up to the 360 after all. 

 

If MS continue to have PR disasters with the XB1 then things might change. But all that will really happen is that PR handlers will give Mattrick and co a shorter leash, MS will up their marketing budget to 1.1 billion and they'll double down on TV and exclusive games. Also their long term strategy won't change - they'll just implement the more controversial features more slowly and quitely and make a better job at showing the good stuff off. 

 

The whole DRM fiasco is just a short term thing that will pretty soon blow over. 

 

The people that care are the most loyal, those that will buy a console at launch.  Most people buying a console after launch won't care, though they may just get whatever is cheaper (a bigger problem than DRM I think).

[Roger H. Veteran]

While i'm glad to see some of these changes, i'm also saddened by the loss of some stuff. The game being tied to your account which meant you could do without the disc was great. Family Sharing was great also. Always online wasn't that big of a deal and I guess used games thing. It would have affected me in that I buy almost ALL off the games I own used. Not dropping $60+DLC for games, i'm not that rich. I work hard for my money to go blowing it on 1-2 games that maybe last few hours (single player).

 

So I guess we can be happy for some changes and be sad for the others.

[FiB3R]

Please tell me what rights I'm gaining, and how my options have increased.

You can exchange games with any amount of people,  as many times as you like

 

You can buy a used game, and not be stuck with it for life

 

You can sell any one of your games to anybody, anywhere

[jakem1]

Cant they buy their own game?? Surely if they can afford the console they wouldnt have to rely on you for games.

I don't see the point of posts like this. 

 

Of course people can buy their own copy of the game. 

Of course you can get up and manually switch discs. 

Of course you can send a friend a disc in the mail. 

 

The question is, is that progress? 

[kaotic]

Lets see...Having to wait to download a 8-10GB game with average internet speed or sliding a disc in and ready to play. What sounds better??hmm.....

 

Some of us can download games in a few hours and over the next few years more and more people will be able to as well.

[MorganX]

MS might have seen bad pre-order numbers before, thus another reason for the change?

 

No, no, I'm not suggesting the Amazon poll is the reason for the change. I'm suggesting the restrictions that have now been lifted are the reason for the lopsided pro PS4 results in the poll. Now that MS has made this change, I wonder what that poll will look like now.

[trooper11]

If they do the same as PS3 digital DRM, at least one of your family can quite happily download and play your digital games. My GF plays all my digital games on her PS3 as my account is locally stored on her PS3 (and yes she can play the games under her account).

 

My point? Sharing digital already exists and is easy to implement without BS DRM.

 

 

I agree, but the difference here is that MS was allowing you to pick 10 people that could access all of the content you had via their own account on any X1 and you and another user could play the same game at the same time. That was a positive improvement over the ps3 or any digital platform.

 

I agree that they don't need a lot of drm to still have a sharing plan, so I expect MS to still roll out the digital features like sharing for anyone that buys a digital copy. Now we can choose how we want to consume media.

 

This is nothing but good news and now MS can move on to actually promoting the console. Plus, the gaming community can go back to talking games.

[Woelfel]

Lets see...Having to wait to download a 8-10GB game with average internet speed or sliding a disc in and ready to play. What sounds better??hmm.....

 

Downloading the game. Now I don't have to spend gas money. I'm still hoping for predownloading of games.

[kaotic]

You can exchange games with any amount of people,  as many times as you like

 

You can buy a used game, and not be stuck with it for life

 

You can sell any one of your games to anybody, anywhere

 

That's using physical frakkin' media. I don't want to do that. 

[-T- Member]

Cant they buy their own game?? Surely if they can afford the console they wouldnt have to rely on you for games.

 

Do people really not understand what sharing is? Sometimes I'll buy games they normally wouldn't and with my recommendation they'd like to try it, and vice versa

[chrisj1968]

I don't see the point of posts like this. 

 

Of course people can buy their own copy of the game. 

Of course you can get up and manually switch discs. 

Of course you can send a friend a disc in the mail. 

 

The question is, is that progress? 

 

The progress is that, your games aren't tied into your console. you can sell a title to gamestop and but used titles at gamestop used or new and play them to your hearts content and then sell the title to your friends.

 

ooo what.. some are mad that we still play physical discs. they seem to want all digital content is that right? nothing in the playbook doesn't say you can't buy digital games for download as far as I have seen DRM is a technology that ties your game to your console, no chance of selling it when you tire of it.

[freak180]

Downloading the game. Now I don't have to spend gas money. I'm still hoping for predownloading of games.

Wow are people afraid to leave their homes anymore.Time to get some fresh air and go outside..A 10min drive work cost a lot.. I assume you stay home everyday?

[MorganX]

I don't see the point of posts like this. 

 

Of course people can buy their own copy of the game. 

Of course you can get up and manually switch discs. 

Of course you can send a friend a disc in the mail. 

 

The question is, is that progress? 

 

Nothing really stops progress if it is truly progressive. As evidence I point to the XBox one including Blu-ray, after HD-DVD, claiming physical media isn't needed anymore (pre next-gen), claiming DVD9 was more than enough, had many years left, etc. etc.

 

If MS wants to implement more robust sharing and if enough people want that, they will.

[jakem1]

The progress is that, your games aren't tied into your console. you can sell a title to gamestop and but used titles at gamestop used or new and play them to your hearts content and then sell the title to your friends.

That's not progress (it's the status quo and MS already said that you'd be able to sell used games) and it doesn't have anything to do with what I posted.

[freak180]

Some of us can download games in a few hours and over the next few years more and more people will be able to as well.

Well it takes me 12 hours to download a 8- 10 GB file.. Thats the average over here. Unless it takes 5 mins to download a 8gb game then bring on the digital games only era  

[spudtrooper]

 

 

If MS wants to implement more robust sharing and if enough people want that, they will.

 

I wish that were true.. maybe we can opt in to installed games someday? but without it being universal and left up to game developers now i'm betting any digital download service will just have to flourish another 8+ years from now

[freak180]

The progress is that, your games aren't tied into your console. you can sell a title to gamestop and but used titles at gamestop used or new and play them to your hearts content and then sell the title to your friends.

 

ooo what.. some are mad that we still play physical discs. they seem to want all digital content is that right? nothing in the playbook doesn't say you can't buy digital games for download as far as I have seen DRM is a technology that ties your game to your console, no chance of selling it when you tire of it.

Dont forget ebay! I sell my games there a lot and buy them used there as well for great prices :D

[spudtrooper]

Well it takes me 12 hours to download a 8- 10 GB file.. Thats the average over here. Unless it takes 5 mins to download a 8gb game then bring on the digital games only era  

 

I'm going to have google fibre next year, I was so looking forward to full digital distribution. I hope we can still download games at release, if its all back to disk only this reversal really blows.

[ctrl_alt_delete]

Actually I wont shutup. In fact I sometimes dont use the remote to turn on the tv. And I'm sorry 5 seconds of getting up will kill you.. :rolleyes:

It's not about just getting up to change a disc, it's about a feature where I would be able to switch to any game that I have installed and be able to flip between as needed and have those games start up right where I left off. So in layman terms for people like u, I could switch to any game at anytime even if there's 500 games installed. It's the difference between trying to find a specific song on a vinyl record or cd and be able to just play any specific mp3 song I wanted on a computer or smart phone.

We've been playing games like how we play vinyl 45 records. One at a time. Now we were supposed to play games like how we play mp3 songs, switching to any song we wanted at anytime. Do you get the difference now?

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

You know it's not the same and I know you're smarter than this.

 

#1 - that's extremely unlikely to ever happen.

#2 - you can't share in the same way.  Now the people you share with have to come and physically take your disc from you.  Family sharing was a fantastic feature that we now lost.  It's far less flexible now.

#3 - Switching a disc isn't a huge deal but it's nice not to be able to, and a necessity when you start talking about features like being able to play one game, suspend it while you switch to a second that you got an invite for, and then immediately resume the first after you're done.  Switching discs when you got game invites in the past used to lead to games having already started before you'd have it booted up.

 

#1: since neither you nor I can see in the future what will happen, I'm happy being on the side that will let me play my games how I life, without relying on an outside entity. There was talk for many years (and in some respects it's ongoing), that consoles won't even be part of the future of gaming. I can definitely see those people's points of view when you look at what the nuts & bolts of PS4/X1 are; glorified PCs, and much more than any generation before. If it weren't for the exclusive titles then there would be little reason to buy one IMHO.

 

#2: Unless you frequently send your games around the world to family and friends to lend, I really don't see how anything has changed. Nor have I ever met someone who actually does that. Further more, if I don't know the person IRL, then I'm not sure I want them to be in possesion of my games. So I'm all for having to meet them in person before they take something that belongs to me. However, there is nothing to say that game sharing will not be possible by other means. If rumours are to believed we are about to see Steam do it and seeing as Microsoft have always been pro-digital, I'm sure they could come up with their own ways.

 

#3: I admit that being able to switch from one thing to another very quickly is nice. Is it a deal breaker? Not even close. As for suspending games, I'm sure that will also still be possible when it comes to digital copies. Why wouldn't it be possible to switch from a disc to something stored on the HDD? Consoles have been doing this for years all the way back to the PS1. If you remove the disc once the data is loaded, it doesn't need to access it again until the next sector. The discs aren't constantly spinning, so it's very feasible to switch to something and leave the current app/game suspended. Of course, discless or not, it means resources are tied up to some degree to keep the data points.

[spudtrooper]

so whats the point of the 500gb hdd again if we have to have the freaking disk to play?

[jakem1]

Nothing really stops progress if it is truly progressive.

Fast game switching and sharing were progress in my opinion. Making you get up and change the disk or jump on a train to give it to a friend is not. Progress is about making life easier and that's what the XB1 offered up until now.

[123456789A]

so whats the point of the 500gb hdd again if we have to have the freaking disk to play?

 

Get the digital version.

[FiB3R]

That's using physical frakkin' media. I don't want to do that. 

You'd give up all those freedoms, in favour of being a lazy ######? This is a prime example of the state of society.

 

Happy Birthday btw :fun:  <--- not being sarcastic