An Xbox One DRM Breakdown

Patrick has been consistently on point with this issue. Mad props to him for providing a balanced perspective in a topic that leans too much towards corporate apologism among the GB crew.

Aside from the fact that consumers gain nothing from this scheme, it doesn't seem worthwhile for publishers to hinder legal lending or reselling of physical copies to such an extent (and hindering the increased new game sales that result from them, as several studies have shown!) and to effectively deny sales to the 30 million Xbox 360 owners that haven't connected their console to the internet plus anyone with an inconsistent internet connection in the US or the growing South American and Middle Eastern markets.

The whole scheme reeks of an ill-thought out and short-sighted stereotypical Wall Street way of thinking, where the singular focus on supposed higher quarterly profits blurs the vision these firms have of the long-term effects and externalities of their decisions.

@billyhoush: Exactly

Yep. Maybe it's simply the moderate age gap that makes all the difference.

About those edge cases, by making it more difficult to legally obtain games at low cost through the used market, they are actually increasing the likelihood of pure pirated and illegal game distribution. This policy, if utilized at retail in its current form, will create a market for jail broken offline capable xbox consoles that will play physical discs without authorization.

I'm not saying this is something I approve of. But it's going to happen. You make it hard for people on a tight budget to obtain games legally, some percentage of that market demographic will go illegal.

Amazon may be an 'authorized' retailer. Barnes and Noble and other peculiar retailers that tried to get in that game are more likely to get burned on this.

I like how Rorie is in the background for part of this video, then Ryan turns away and when he turns back Rorie's gone and Drew is standing in his spot.

Drew and Rorie confirmed to be the same person?

Why can't the Xbox One do a simple disc check? Wouldn't that solve all the BS about lending or trading games?

No it doesn't. Offline mode lasts weeks on Steam. There are tons of games on Steam that don't even need Steam to be running. Steam is cheap and the storefront side of it has lots of competition (as you can buy games elswhere which install via Steam).

The discussion of smaller retailers - at least in the UK we have a good few indies, but also, the vast majority of back catalogue games on Amazon are from small Amazon traders, not Amazon themselves.

My question is about the presumed trade in option. How is it beneficial for retailers to support this idea for Publishers? The retailer can't take the disc and resell it, it would be time consuming and a waste of money for any retailer to support this on what's known about it so far.

Why the hell does this video player suck the devil's balls? It skips all over the place and repeats certain segments.

THAT JUST REEKS TO ME.

I will miss Patrick quite a lot from these sort of videos when he moves away.

Hey guys..

Remember when a new console generation just meant we were going to get better looking games and a better experience? Instead of, yanno, pages of corporate double speak trying to justify them screwing us?

Everyone keeps talking about this full of cynicism and worst case scenarios. This is how all digital stores work. Steam, iOS, Android. You name it. For me, as a gamer that is elated about the news of Day 1 Digital Downloads I have no issues with any of these restrictions. How I will realistically be gaming will work absolutely fine with these restrictions in place. I think people just hate restrictions of any kind in general.

I see a lot of people saying they are going to switch to PC gaming because of this. How exactly is this different than how PC gaming works? Xbox One requires an internet connection every 24 hours, Steam requires an internet connection every 30 days, that is the biggest difference. I can't trade in games from Steam or Origin or Impulse and Steam is where the majority of modern PC gaming happens. I can't share games with friends or family on those services unless I give them my account. I can't play games on multiple PCs without having logged in to my account on that PC, granted you can play games in offline mode on multiple PCs but that still requires having your account on that PC at some point and connecting to the internet on that PC on a semi regular basis. What makes people think that switching to PC is going to free them from Xbox One restrictions when the publishers who have been pushing Microsoft in this direction have had these restrictions in place on PC for years?

Steam gives you more offline time than Xbox One, other than that the requirements are very similar. I can understand if 30 days offline is what people want, but if people think PC gaming is a paradise without internet requirements they are in for a rude awakening. Maybe they just want to play indie games that they download directly from the developers and old PC games from Good Old Games.

I agree with Patrick completely - it seems like they're designing around edge cases that you think wouldn't really impact sales that mutch. But hey, they have the data, so maybe this impacts more revenue and/or other factors than we think...

So the console bricks itself (as a games console) if you disconnect it for more than 24 hours and will only de-brick once you connect it again?

Yeaaaaaahhhh. This is hilarious stuff, Microsoft. Really fresh material. xD

To everyone that is saying this is fine now, trust me, it won't be fine when you have the system and have to deal with these unnecessary problems.

Nervous about what Sony has in store for PS4 in regards to their stuff like this. I probably won't get one for while, but I'd like to stick with them.

I have no idea how third parties can have any leg in this used game bullshit. Sure, they can threaten to stop publishing games on these consoles or charge more for games, but why would they ever actually do it? If they stopped publishing games on sony/ms consoles, where else could they put out games to sell the amount they need to sustain their size and continue to grow? If they charge more for games, wouldnt that lead to a huge fall in game sales that would cripple the industry? Both are dumb fucking business decisions, so why would it actually happen? Doesnt make one lick of sense to me

wow, at the end: Vinny - "Buy a PC".

I'm with ya Vinny, I'm right there with ya in your feelings about all of this.

Analogue Rights!

@unndunn: the thing about that is steam games go on sale more often, and third party sites sell cheap steam keys. All I can see coming from the xbone is games never going down in price, nintendo style, since theyre dictating almost every facet of the sale of games. Doubt anyones going to get sweet xbl sales

So say my brother has a sub account on my xbox one (home xbox). And he has his own xbox one. Say I buy Halo. Can we both play on the same purchase of Halo from separate xboxes at the same time? So in essence, buy 1 copy of Halo for the both of us?

And a cold air filled the room.......

Not only do I not appreciate them assuming I have the internet, I'm not connecting my consoles up to the internet. Never have never will. Presumptuous bastards.

Phew. I was afraid I was the only one here noticing the truly important things.

So why the fuck would I buy an Xbox One, then?

All the little details doesn't really matter that much. The lynchpin change is that ownership of disc doesn't equal ownership of game anymore. If people reject that idea it's just over, if not people will deal with it.

Offline gaming is not possible after these prescribed times

Guess I'm going to have to figure out what Killzone, Infamous, and God of War are all about because I'm honestly not buying this new Xbox. I love Halo and it was the sole reason I got the 360, but this is the straw that broke the camel's back. No Xbox Live Arcade games, no backwards compatibility for a console that's known for red ringing, and having to log in once a day to play video games? I thought you were supposed to get your customers excited for the launch of your next console.

I think the family thing may be based on the ip or something.

Patrick is the voice of reason.

The breakdown is more confusing than the actual text.

The games are way cheaper on PC. Wait a few months, the price of the game you want can be anywhere from 45$ to 5$ Some times even 3$ to 2$.

Also, you have total, and I mean total, control over every kind of component and software. You can download cracks, you can download mods; you can do anything you want to your hardware and games. You can modify / download some files giving you complete privacy, or doing the opposite and fully opening up each and every piece of software at hand. None of which, can you do on a console.

Your rules, your way. There is a big difference between the two.

All those DRM ridden consoles can eat cold spaghetti in hell.

As long as the system is not confusing, then I am fine with it. Currently, I am still fairly confused about what it is and what it isn't. I imagine that it will become clearer the closer we get to the launch.... I hope.....

Awwww, fuck this shit.

When Patrick's talking, he only looks at Jeff. Just a weird thing I noticed.

@hunter5024: "Always On" means that if you lose your connection at all, you get booted. The Xboxone isnt always on, it only needs to be on every 24 hours. The PS4 could have the exact same system and not have "always on" DRM.

Fuuuuuck that. If they don't remove that time limit bullshit I'm not touching their shiesty system.

I refuse to put up with this nonsense so I won't be getting an Xbox One.

Suddenly my WiiU purchase doesn't seem so dumb after all.

The whole point of this is to massacre the used game market. They can't achieve that goal if the xbox will automatically play a physical disc in the system without online account tie-in verification check. So they opted to do online verification for each new console used to play the disc under their strictly proscribed circumstances. Since they've committed to that step, the disc check is no longer necessary as the online authorization already covers it.

Which is, of course, about the most anti-consumer policy the video game industry has attempted to date.

90 minute "Quick" Looks :)

I bet interpretive dance would somehow make this all much more clearer.

I've never seen lip balm applied so efficiently.

GET READY FOR A HUGE BOOST IN VIDEO GAME COMPANY PROFITS AS ALL THOSE PIRATES AND USED GAME CHEATERS ARE FORCED TO PAY FULL RETAIL!!!!! Welcome to profit town, TOOT TOOT!!!!! $$$$$$$$$

Where I live, on Nantucket, I could buy games from two small independent retailers. One was an independent toy shop and one was a ship chandlery. So they will probably never be able to sell Xbox One games at all under this system, and given the restrictions they probably won't want to even if they could.

My library loaned games, and we won't be able to do that anymore either. We currently loan PS2, PS3, Wii, Wii U and XBox 360 games. If nothimg else teh stupid restrrictiosn on Next Gen will probably mean we will keep buying games for legacy systems and get as many ports as possible.

Just so you folks know this system is coming for ALL media. This isn't about games. DVDs, BluRays, audiobooks, eBooks, eMagazines will all have this if WE accept this system for games. And, yeah, this WILL kill your local library. Some of you kids might not care about your local library closing down because its can't loan anything. But you will care about a public library when you have kids. You will care about a free public library when you have no job, or you will care when you are living out of your car and the only way to get Internet is from a public library.

Roll-over and play consumer by suck this down at your own risk folks. Just because PC games and Steam work this way doesn't mean it has to work this way, we need to be rolling back the restrictions on those services not accepting them on more and more media. This all seems hazy and acceptable when you have a job and you have a middle-class life, but the very second you lose you job its a painful tumble across the digital divide. The second you have to cut back your bills and lose your internet, and then you loose you ability to pay for Live, and then lose you ability to buy a book at Amazon.com don't come looking for free services from anyone else because when you accepted this for yourself you accepted a unfair society where nothing could legally be loaned...you have accepted a world without public libraries...you have accepted that when you slip behind the digital divide you stay there like a serf.

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