This is pretty bonkers. It looks like Microsoft is not only ceasing to sell Microsoft Fitness on XBOne, but it'll actually be removing the program and all paid DLC from people's consoles sometime next year. No mention of any compensation or make-good for people. I never used it, but I'm sure there are a lot of pissed-off people out there. Even if licensing stuff can be difficult, the notion that content that you've paid for can just be rendered unusable is...alarming.

This is so slimy. I can understand why Microsoft would shutter this, because frankly I forgot it even existed, but removing the content that people paid for? Jeez, Microsoft. The Xbox brand is just starting to pull itself out of the hole that it's dug itself, it sure doesn't need this.

Xbox Fitness users best find a way to record their videos, I guess.

I would assume so, although that'd be cold comfort to anyone caught on the wrong end of it. Brad says that their twitter is referring people to customer service for refunds, so maybe they won't be completely idiotic about it?

I'd love to see some statistics regarding how much this cost to set up, and how much it made. Granted there are more then a few things at Microsoft I'd love to see those figures for...I bet most of them would not be in the positive.

Honestly, there needs to be a Gamer's Bill of Rights when it comes to digital content like there is for Airline travel. The potential for abuse like this is incredibly high. "Trust us", is not good enough especially when customer service is virtually nonexistent at pretty much any of the platforms.

Really stupid move on Microsoft's part, if this is how they treat digital purchases you can be damn sure I'll rarely possibly never touch the Win10 store and definitely never an XboxOne. Not to mention the Fitness stuff was probably the most unique thing the XB1 had going for it.

This can only be confirmation that Microsoft is buying Ubisoft.

I saw the thread title and thought that @rorie was interim newsman for Giant Bomb.

That seems like a pretty raw deal for people who still use that software to work out.

I'm not really defending this, but I don't think it's fundamentally different from a lot of online-only or licensed software that gets shut down even after people have put money in. Now you might view Xbox Fitness as not an online-only service, since it doesn't seem like it would necessarily need to be online only, but I'm sure there are all kinds of server-side hooks, and it probably streams, rather than downloads, a lot of the video.

Giving a year's warning is hardly the worst we've ever seen on something like this. It's part of the brave new (sucky) world we've entered into and are being pulled further and further into.

I wonder how long before they do this for other games people paid money for? Major reason their whole " Digital only/No used games" thing came under scrutiny at launch because everybody knew they could (and obviously would) do stuff like this. If they go through with it, it could be a huge blow for the rapidly growing digital game sales on consoles, i can understand ps+ doing it since i didn't buy those games but if i paid money for something and was told i couldn't use it? I'd go ape shit lol.

At least on PC i know that if steam ever did this, i could find a way to get my games back though other means.

Oh that sly legal talk "We released Xbox Fitness as a service with Xbox One on Day One". Yes you did MS, and then you offered a "paid" service with DLC. Now you are shuttering it. Not cool.

@rorie: I'm guessing they will offer refunds to anyone that asks for them but won't publically make any announcements so that they can just keep the money from people who either forget they spent it or simply don't care enough to bother with Customer Service and shrug off the loss.

It's always a bummer to see things like this happen with downloadable games.

I don't own an Xbox One or pay for Xbox Live, but I'll have to remember this before thinking about purchasing anything from their Windows Store. Not that I have purchased anything, but this just pushes me away from it even more.

As someone who pays for xbox live and bought content in xbox fitness and wants to live in a future where people feel safe buying digital content for AT LEAST the lifetime of the hardware...

@bisonhero: I say "apparently" all the time too. It's a nice way of saying, "This is some information I came upon; I have no proof and it could all be complete bullshit."

I thought it was a free service for Gold members. At least it used to be at some point because I never paid for it when I tried it out early on.

@wandrecanada: I think it was sort of a free-to-sweat model with Gold. You got the base stuff with Gold but there were add-ons you could purchase... a license for, I guess.

Exactly the reason I hate buying digital only content.

Does that article basically say,

"Therefore, the decision has been made to scale back our support for Xbox Fitness over the next year, and we want to provide our users with a timeline of the changes you will see.

Step 1. You can't buy stuff anymore.

Step 2. All the stuff you bought is gone."

Seems crazy. To me, "scale back support" means there will be support, just less of it. It doesn't mean, no support at all, and you can't use the stuff you paid for anymore.

"Microsoft removing Fitness"...

I mean, they've been removing my fitness since Windows 3.11.

But yeah, it's always scary when this sort of thing happens.

Weird. I wonder what their reasoning for disabling it is. Maybe they got sued because injured themselves using it. I would assume you have to agree to a bunch of disclaimers on the front end but maybe someone found a loophole and MS wants to sew it up tight. Whatever the reason, I see this as a fringe case, not a cautionary tale against buying digital goods, but I'm sure the internet will be the internet.

Who got hurt? That is my question, who sued them in a way where MS lawyers said, "Really you want to stay in fitness....fine prepair for a string of lawsuits to keep coming."

wut?

isn't a lot of that stuff licenced?

Also I was always under the impression that it was timed as well. I never really dug into it much, though. Seems weird all round. If it's just software you'd think they would just stop selling it while letting people who own it continue to download it. That's what makes me think it might be licensing issues. Fitness stuff is not cheap at all.

For some reason Sony didn't get much attention when they did this with their PlayStation Mobile platform last year, you used to be able to buy emulated PS1 games as well as some exclusive titles like Rymdkapsel which were compatible with the Vita and PlayStation branded phones like the Xperia. They shut it down with around three months notice in July 2015, including removing the ability to redownload any previous purchases.

simple answer, no one is doing Zumba fitness or Wiifit. In door exercise is out and it's all about Fitbit or any pedometer device that tracks your steps. It was a market tred that was maybe 8 years behind when it was announced and then a new trend emerged. I say this because a friend of mine who owns an XBone and he's a fitness nut never touched it once. I asked him and he replied at least with Yoga I can meet new people and not feel isolated..... he's also a major hippie.