Microsoft Tries to Clear Up Xbox One's New Policies

"No."

Sony's going to do something similar. Otherwise, EA goes Xbox exclusive. You can see from the compromise in place here (publisher-by-publisher basis for game trade-ins, etc) that this is because of pressure from publishers, and Sony is of course under the same pressure.

@l1fef0rm: MMObox One, basically

It's probably some "within the same network" or "same IP" stuff. No way you can all be family with your friends.

Ah well, at least they had a good run with the 360. I wonder if it is too soon or too late to bring back the #DealWithIt hashtag?

No thanks.

Sounds pretty damn reasonable. Not sure what all the fuss is about.

"Share access to your games with everyone inside your home"

Can't believe this is listed as a feature.

FU XboxOne. I don't play that many games now I'm in my mid 30's anyway so if the PS4 goes this way too; i'm done with gaming.

wow so if Sony doesn't implement any of this they won, without much effort, if they do then PC game sales will skyrocket.

This is making me not want a BroBox at all. Yet I really don't want a PS4.

@bapetacular: exactly, im not one to trade in games as i tend to collect games from all systems and i wonder if this is gonna be the end of that

If I were a betting man, I'd say at least 75% of people here saying they'll boycott PS4 or XBONE over these policies will end up buying one anyway.

What the hell was microsoft thinking disabling consoles for offline play? 24 hours and you console does what your bluray player and tv already do? Most of these policies dont affect me much, but not being able to play a game at a friends house for more than an hour? microsoft, u be crazy.

I dont think sony will render ps4 useless if not connected online. for that matter i dont think they will disable use of a disc game on other consoles. sony has to think about their international markets(just like nintendo), unlike microsoft..........

I think microsoft has really dropped the ball here. They are going to shut out many potential customers with these policies they are going to adopt

This generation is looking like one big massive "Nope!" from me. All of this reliance on internet connections for this and that is just the most unappealing thing that they could put in front of me. I'll hold out for more PS4 news and keep my fingers crossed, but even then it's not looking good.

So how's that Ouya coming?

What a fucking disaster, I really hope Sony does not go this route because this is not where I want the gaming industry to go.

So fuck people who live in rural areas with a shitty internet connection and people in the military?

They made things much more complicated than they had too and even though I wasn't going to get one anyway, this just all seems like it's heading in the wrong direction.

Nope. The fact that I can't make personal sales of a game (say, to a friend or other person) without MSFT or publisher approval is 1) BS and 2) a deal breaker.

Don't fuck it up Sony. Otherwise.... WiiU?

Edit: GAF user alr1ght made a pretty good image to explain it all

24 hours is too short, ONE HOUR is fucking asinine, only being able to have two accounts use a disc, and shifting the almost certainly guaranteed fees off of themselves and onto the publishers. This does zero to make me want one. MS can fuck right off with this crap.

Won't take long for their system to be busted by hackers, and all this will have been for nothing anyway.

Nail on the head there mate. All i see is me giving up a lot for nothing in return. I just want to play games, nothing else interests me here so, to quote Seinfeld, "NO SOUP FOR YOU, Microsoft."

They're going to end up doing the same thing, especially with a lot of this being publisher pushing.

So a lot of people are gonna be learning to manage or giving up on a hobby.

I have absolutely no interest in purchasing an XBox One. What Microsoft, Third-Party Publishers (and likely Sony) are planning to evolve video games to, is entirely not what I am interested in.

That being said, my current collection of games is pretty solid, my backlog significant, and as I get older, I'm bound to forget various games. I can just go back to them! They'll always be there!

Turning the Xbox One into a glorified blu-ray player after disconnecting for 24 hours is ridiculous. That part alone makes me not want this piece of hardware at all (and I got near perfect functioning internet). Some of those things sound reasonable, some of them sound completely bonkers. And some.. I am souring so fucking fast on next gen consoles I am pondering if I'll even get them. And I realize on a website like this that sounds like common "hurr durr boycott" nonsense. But I don't want to do that, but I don't find myself liking the reality of these new policies either. It's just too antagonistic and flat out dumb. Not sure the hassle is worth the end result.

I do believe that Sony are having a little chuckle right now.

Well at least until we ask them the same questions a little down the line.

Either way this mess isn't helping them sell the console to me.

I do believe I'll just end up buying what my little bro's get and own them either way :)

The main things I'm looking for is sharing physical copies of games with friends and the always online process. I don't like the way they are setting those up.

Which other publishers are pushing for this? Its no surprise EA is, but are there really any others? Microsoft needs EA games on their console, but do you really think sony needs them with all the other solid exclusives it has already? not to mention a monopoly on the japanese market where microsoft is failing miserably right now.

Why would any gamer support such restrictions when we don't get anything of value in exchange for what we are giving up?

Not only are game rentals effectively dead, I can't even lend my physical copy of a game to a friend so he can try it out to see if he wants to buy it? And not only that, they are allowing third parties to fine or forbid people that want to sell their games? I don't sell games or buy used, but I still recognize that this is a disgusting practice.

Also, my area has no internet competition, and it goes out for multiple days every month or two on average. There is ZERO justifiable reason why I shouldn't be able to play a single-player game during one of those outages. ZERO.

Here's a tip on empathy for those who support this: Just because one or several of these things don't personally affect you doesn't change the fact that these things will directly harm or hinder the gaming experiences of millions upon millions of others.

Now it is up to Sony to capitalize on the massive opening that Microsoft has made for them. Hopefully they have the sense to avoid the short-term benefits and the pleadings from the EAs of the world and can see the long-term benefits of avoiding such a scheme.

I don't like the way they keep saying "Xbox One is designed to..." Can't quite explain why.

I don't get what everyone is complaining about. I agree the 24 hour online thing is annoying but everything else seems perfectly acceptable. Don't delude yourself into thinking that Sony will be the savior to all gamers or some shit.

@milkman: "Just because MS is doing something Sony must be too" is an annoying mentality.

So, if I buy Halo 5 on my Xbox One in my game room, can my wife play my shared copy of Halo 5 on her profile on her own Xbox One in the living room? Can we play at the same time?

So it sounds like MS is allowing individual publishers to determine their own DRM and whether or not to allow used game sales or rentals. Which means they are allowing the practices and hoping to pass the buck to EA, Activision, etc. in hope that those publishers take the heat for not being 'resale friendly.'

Also, assume Sony comes out in the next few weeks and says something very similar about their DRM. If they don't, all the big publishers will move exclusively to Xbox One and without Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed, or Madden, Sony will lose.

In our role as a game publisher, Microsoft Studios will enable you to give your games to friends or trade in your Xbox One games at participating retailers. Third party publishers may opt in or out of supporting game resale and may set up business terms or transfer fees with retailers. Microsoft does not receive any compensation as part of this. In addition, third party publishers can enable you to give games to friends. Loaning or renting games won’t be available at launch, but we are exploring the possibilities with our partners.

That's the key paragraph there. Game resale, loaning, renting, or giving to friends are all options, but only if the publishers allow them. Which, for most big publishers, likely means no chance. You think EA or Ubisoft will let you trade in or gift your games? Death to those concepts, but it's not Microsoft's fault - they just gave the knife to the publishers and they did the dirty work. Nice to know console developers and publishers have been working in the background to screw over consumers in the next generation.

And assuming for a moment that Sony is going to tell the publishers to fuck off and try to be a gaming Messiah is a terribly naive one.

More reasons why im just sticking with pc and handhelds next gen.

@xplusy said:

Do you really think these companies would risk losing millions in sales over the loss they take from the few thousands that would 'possibly' get their game illegally because sony didnt use their drm?

Pretty much that.

This is the way the industry is going.

My internet is almost always working, like 90% of each month I'd say. Sometimes though it's out for a day, sometimes 2, due to just... whatever issues my ISP has at the time (Shaw). I'm going to be sad if I can't play games during that time, but honestly I never play games during those times anyways... or the few times I've tried have been on my PC, and in that case it's already been a nightmare due to the ways in which Steam Offline didn't just 'work' without you having to think and plan ahead for it.

Still not deathly bothered about this stuff, the availability of games via digital methods from day one of their release is way more interesting and valuable to me than the lack of awesome that comes from these tighter access restrictions on them. Afterall, I can't play any of my steam games without actually hitting steam's auth so why should my console act any differently if I want the same level of digital interaction and benefits (cloud library).

As a side not relating more to my recent interests in gaming than console DRM, I'd love to see myself 2-4 years from now being able to buy a Live Key (Steam Key equiv.) via a beautifully cheap site like Greenman and get amazing deals, then just activating that key online through xbox.com or whatever and getting those sweet sweet games for like $20. That would be rad. Also humble bundles for consoles, if keys act that way would be rad too. Though I still prefer that ecosystem on PC because of the nature of Windows being so backwards compatible we've hardly had to think about that library being tied to 1 generation of software OS like you see with these consoles, hopefully after this gen if/when new consoles come they will be compatible with these upcoming libraries of games.

@efesell: If the assumption is that publishers are pushing these anti-consumer measures on console manufacturers then Sony has already told them to fuck off. No mandatory internet connection and no system level anti-used games DRM. About as close as Sony is going to get telling the publishers to fuck off without losing a ton of support.

@phoenix87: I agree, I'm about to upgrade to a GTX 770. The future for us is the PS4 or PC.

I can't believe certain people are ok with this. This is some really fucked up anti-consumer bullshit that no one should stand for no matter who does it.

We have no idea what Sony is doing. They're a corporation looking to make money too. Microsoft completely shit the bed by relaying misinformation and having no clear cut company wide policies. And a lot of this stuff still isn't clear at all. Sony is smart for keeping quiet through all this but don't interpret that silence as "nope, we're not doing any of this! we're for the consumers! YAY!"

You created an account just to say that? Is it possible that you work for Microsoft? If so can you pass on a message? FUCK OFF WITH YOUR XBONE!

@milkman: Let me help you out with this. Sony was very clear after they announced the PS4.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=572949

I always buy new anyways, so the used game policies don't bother me. I'm happy to have clarification on the kinect privacy settings , cause that was the only thing I was really concerned about. Otherwise, I'm ok with the Xbox One policies.

Seems fine to me all in all.

personally i can live with the used games thing, there is just going to be a reliance on the systems to have more frequent sales similar to steam. if they want to guarantee long term sales on games rather than the 1 month-2months burst of sales then they will have more discount sales.

but the 24 hour check ins though, thats fucked. and sony at least hasn't shyed away from that as they have said you can play your games offline, its the used games stuff they have been quiet about.

I really can't expect anything less from MS history.

This cleared up almost nothing except what happens after the 24 hour period, and that answer was what I expected (and also my fear). Can't play your games at all without internet every 24 hours? Nope, not interested. Like many people here, my connection is quite stable, but I'm not going to allow MS to dictate when I can play my games for some pie-in-the-sky reason like "cloud gaming!"