Something went wrong. Try again later

Bollard

I wish these status updates still pulled from my Twitter feed.

8298 118 92 78
Forum Posts Wiki Points Following Followers

No used games sales was the best feature of the Xbox One, and we ruined it.

I'm going to preface this by saying I don't write blogs very often, and I have never traded in a game in my life. So I'm a pretty biased author here. Additionally, I have no proof or facts that this was indeed Microsoft's vision for the future, but it is my (hopeful) interpretation of the design choices they made early on.

Microsoft might have never done a good job of explaining the many extreme design choices they made with the Xbox One, and their endless backtracking probably ended up doing as much harm as it did good. However, when it comes to the choice to block used games sales, I truly believe Microsoft were on to something.

Go Digital or Xbox, Go Home

In an all digital future, discs are becoming less and less relevant. Just look at Steam, having libraries of hundreds of games to chose from without ever having to change the disc is fantastic, and a feature I think the next generation of consoles is now severely lacking. If you are willing to buy into downloads direct from Microsoft and Sony, that future is here - but, more often than not, if you buy direct you're getting shafted for the convenience of not having to go out. I mean, just look at the prices on Nintendo's eShop services.

With Steam, if I go out and buy a disc (maybe because it's cheaper, or my internet has a usage cap, or is straight up slow) I can slam it in my PC, install that shit and then throw the disc out a window. If Microsoft had stuck to their guns, and ignored the internet, this is the future we would have today with the Xbox One. If each game was tied to an account upon activation, why would I ever need to change disc after the install?

This screen right here? This screen is dumb.
This screen right here? This screen is dumb.

This is the convenience we have denied ourselves. Thanks internet.

Shit, I forgot the disc

Right about now is when we hear the cries of people exclaiming "What if I want to take a game to my friend's house, and play coop!" That's where Microsoft had you covered again. Gone would be the days of going round your friend's house to play FIFA, to realise you had left the bloody disc at home. Just sign in, and download that shit direct from online! Instead, what we get when you launch a game without the disc is a sweet prompt to go buy the game again from the digital store.

One Day...

Clearly there are many more nuances to the issue, and some people actually care about trading in (but those people are bad people who are killing the industry. I'm only being 50% sarcastic). I'm probably being overly optimistic about what Microsoft had in mind, but it bums me out when I think of what we could have had.

157 Comments