Xbox One Launch Woes Were Preventable, Next Console Likely Digital Download Only 230
MojoKid writes: Microsoft's Xbox One launch didn't go off exactly as planned in late 2013. Before the console's release, the company was dogged over DRM restrictions with the console and concerns over its high price tag compared to its counterpart, the Sony PlayStation 4. Microsoft would attribute the higher price tag to the included Kinect camera — a peripheral that many gamers didn't particularly care for. Former Xbox Chief Robbie Bach offered his two cents recently on the Xbox One — a console that launched years after he announced he retired from the company in 2010. Bach noted, regarding the Xbox One's rocky launch, "...gosh, I think some of that was predictable and preventable." As for the future of physical game media, Bach doesn't think that the future will be so bright when it comes to DRM and always-connected requirements in the next generation of gaming consoles. He said that the next Xbox would "probably not" have physical media to speak of, with consoles adopting digital-only distribution.
Fine with me. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Fine with me. (Score:4, Insightful)
So long as they offer an experience comparable to Steam, including weekly sales and the deeper discounts around Summer/Winter.
Oh, it would be the same experience, but without the discounts. Especially for exclusive franchises. I think they just want to control sale process and prevent used-game resale.
Also, I have never used Steam -- do they have a contingency for when they go out of business?
I've got no issues with always-on, since I'm always connected anyway.
Wait until you move into a building with "free/included" internet that blocks a bunch of ports to keep that free internet usage down. I cannot connect to any game servers from home.
Re: (Score:2)
Not a true contingency but steam is an easy drm to circumvent if you need to. Quite often the extra DRM games come with is a lot worse than the steam one and some of the steam games are DRM free, it is just they come delivered via steam and you tend to launch them via steam. You can launch those directly from the executable if you so desire (Prison Architect, & Gnomoria are two examples).
I have come full circle on steam. When it first appeared I was super anti it and extremely pissed that HL2 needed
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Yes I do. But not 100% sure why you are asking.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I know I can do that. But I don't keep my consoles plugged in, as in connected to the mains power or on. Consoles represent casual play, especially if a couple of mates come round, I might get the xbox out from where it lives in my hallway cupboard, plug the whole thing in and together and drop a disk in. I know I am not a main target customer but I have a 360 and about 30 games.
Either way I had data cabling run through my house so where ever it was set up there will be a data point anyway.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Don't hold you're breath.
http://www.vg247.com/2011/02/1... [vg247.com]
And yes, Steam has a contingency for how you can play your games if they go out of business. It's called, "offline mode". And if you're worried about online-only games being unavailable in offline mode, why aren't you asking if Blizzard has a contingency for WoW players if Blizzard goes out of business, or if CCP has a contingency for Eve Online players in
Offline mode on reinstall? (Score:2)
And yes, Steam has a contingency for how you can play your games if they go out of business. It's called, "offline mode".
How will offline mode survive a backup of user data and game binaries, reinstallation of the operating system, and restoration of user data and game binaries? And over the years, the Steam client has had plenty of bugs causing it to lose the "receipt" that allows a user to play a purchased a game in offline mode.
Re: (Score:2)
For me (strictly IMO) that risk is part of the tradeoff for the reduced prices and near-perfect memory while active
Literally every single game I've ever purchased on steam is still available. That's 200 games over the better part of a decade. What are the odds that you would be able to track 200 disks (or more, for multi-disk games) for years and years, without a single one getting scratched, lost, etc? I can't speak for everyone, but for me personally, no chance. Absolutely nope.
Yes, there's a risk. On
Re: (Score:2)
The other big upcoming thing with streamed games (and video) is ads. Ads that are placed right into the game and can be updated. Product placement is one of the more successful types of advertising and the tech is becoming good enough to tailor the product placements for each individual. You see a character drinking a coke, Joe see the same scene except a pepsi and so on. Not only ads that you barely see on a conscious level but also ads that you can't block, fast forward, etc because if you do you miss out
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
You don't do backups? If you back up your Steam folder, and your "My Games" folder, just restore it to wherever you want and point your Steam install to those directories.
Re:Offline mode on reinstall? (Score:4, Insightful)
You don't do backups? If you back up your Steam folder, and your "My Games" folder, just restore it to wherever you want and point your Steam install to those directories.
Bullshit. Some games don't have DRM, but all the AAA ones do, and they aren't playable until they are blessed by Steam, which can't happen until Steam is blessed by Valve's servers, which can't happen until the installer says that it's been fully updated. You absolutely can not restore DRM-protected steam backups and play them without being online.
Not a troll, Valve shill (Score:5, Insightful)
I have personally tried to restore Steam backups, so I know the drill. You cannot play the backups without being online. And last time I checked, the Steam installer would refuse to install if it was old, and the download for the new one still won't resume. You either get the file all at once, or not at all.
It's really pathetic that someone is actually shilling for Valve here on Slashdot by modding down my factual comments. It's sad if they pay for it, and it's even sadder if they don't.
Re: (Score:2)
Bullshit. Some games don't have DRM, but all the AAA ones do, and they aren't playable until they are blessed by Steam, which can't happen until Steam is blessed by Valve's servers, which can't happen until the installer says that it's been fully updated
So... is this a Steam issue or an issue of the AAA studio's DRM?
What would happen to your shiny game CD when the studios DRM servers go down? Expensive coaster.
And somehow it's steam taking the heat here. That's usually called "shooting the messenger"
Re: (Score:2)
So... is this a Steam issue or an issue of the AAA studio's DRM?
It's a Steam issue, because it's specifically the Steam DRM which must be satisfied by being blessed by Valve. There may also be other DRM which requires a network blessing, but when a game uses Steam DRM, this is rare. This problem is not unique to Steam, but it is exceptionally rare outside of games which are meaningless without a network connection anyway.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm not super worried about it, they are rolling in money, have no public shareholders to be accountable to, and almost completely hold a monopoly on the PC digital download market. And every time they fuck up with the community they backpedal as hard as they can. It's possible they will go under in the next decade, but that's longer than the lifespan of a console, so I'm ok with that. When Gabe Newell dies some day (he's what, 65?) then it could take a turn for the worse but right now they seem be headed o
Re: (Score:2)
That depends on whether you can add discs to your homeowner's or renter's insurance.
Re:Offline mode on reinstall? (Score:5, Funny)
And how will you play Borderlands 2 after a meteor destroys all life on Earth?
You didn't think of that, did you? BOOM!
Re:Offline mode on reinstall? (Score:5, Informative)
Get a replacement at GOG.com for a cheaper price than Steam and without any DRM.
Re: (Score:2)
And if you're worried about online-only games being unavailable in offline mode, why aren't you asking if Blizzard has a contingency for WoW players if Blizzard goes out of business, or if CCP has a contingency for Eve Online players in case CCP goes out of business?
That is part of the reason I personally only buy games with single-player mode support.
Still, MMORPG games are a very special case which actually deserves different treatment. Game price is not really the cost of the game. You would pay a monthly fee (at least for WoW, I am less sure how Eve Online works). So it is understood that once servers go down, you won't be able to play. You also won't be paying monthly fees for ongoing gaming after that.
Re: (Score:2)
No, they have no contingency. Offline mode doesn't work so well at times. As well, you must be online to install the games. That means if the computer dies and there's no Valve, then you lose the games.
Steam games are not MMO always-online games, you can't really compare the two categories. In one camp, if the server goes down it's pointless to play anymore anyway as there are no other players, and as well there are concerns about other cheating so you need game verification; in the other case you have
Re: (Score:2)
I agree completely. But "asking permission" is not limited to Steam. Most AAA games now phone home to authorize whether you're on digital download or physical disk.
Re: (Score:2)
Now you're extending the criteria. How will you play your physical media if you lose the disk or it gets damaged? How will you play your video games after the heat death of the universe?
I trust Steam to stay in business more than I trust myself not to lose or damage a disk. And this has been borne out statistically. Regarding the heat death of the universe, I expect to have fully leveled up in all
Re: (Score:2)
And if it is a Ubisoft game, it will be useless when there is no more Ubisoft. If it is a Blizzard game, it will be useless when there is no more Blizzard.
I think you may have more faith in physical media than is warranted. DRM is not just limited to Steam.
Re: (Score:2)
do they have a contingency for when they go out of business
Does it really matter? OK, probably there will be a hack --- almost certainly there will be a hack -- but, seriously, this is a set of games. Buy em again if you have to - by the time Steam ever goes under, you won't be a broke student, and the expense will be trivial.
Don't get me wrong, I always check GOG first, but if GOG doesn't have it I shrug and pay Steam. Of the ~300 Steam games I own, there are ~20 I'd bother to buy again, and by that time they'd be in the $5 price range, at most (heck, most of t
Re: (Score:2)
If you've got 300 games and only 20 you'd buy again, then you are the perfect customer for Steam. They had a statistic about how many games were purchased from them but were never played, and it was surprisingly high. Most of my games I have replayed, up in the 90% range.
As for price, it took Half Life 2 well over 5 years before the price dropped to $10. Valve is extremely stingy about sales with their own games, and stingy with sales for top tier games as well. Their sales are on the very old stuff, ind
Re: (Score:2)
a lot of it is buying packs of games on steam.
maybe there's one or two that you want to check out or play but you'll get 4-6 extra games thrown in.. like the xcom pack etc
Re: (Score:2)
When a game is $2, and it looks like it might be fun, why not try it? If I get a few hours of fun, it's money well spent, even if I never see it again.
As for price, it took Half Life 2 well over 5 years before the price dropped to $10.
Sure, but how many years would you project before Steam somehow goes under? At least 5? Then the games you're buying today will be under $10 if you need to re-buy them. Heck, I think I've bought Master or Orion II 3 or 4 times now, and since I spent several addicted weekends each time, I can hardly regret the $10 or whatever.
For awhile they had DLC for Skyrim that still costs more than the cost of Legendary Edition of Skyrim
DLC is an attempt to make gami
Re: (Score:2)
This is easy to understand if you take a look at their bundling policy. You find a game you like, see that there's a bundle of a bunch of games available, find out that you'd want three out of the bundle of like 15 games, notice the three games cost about as much as the bundle (or even that the bundle is cheaper) and buy the bundle instead.
And then you have 15 games in your library, 3 of which you actually play.
Re: (Score:2)
They had a statistic about how many games were purchased from them but were never played, and it was surprisingly high.
I'm one of those people. And its not suprising. Steam Bundles, and Humble Bundles... mean I have a lot of titles I didn't really buy. I might play some of them, or not... I don't really care. I got my money out the bundles even just for the titles i wanted.
Valve is extremely stingy about sales with their own games, and stingy with sales for top tier games as well.
WTF?
Orangebox (HalfLife series), Left 4 Dead 1&2, and Portal 1 & 2 are regularly 75%+ off. You can probably get the entire valve catalog for under $40 without trying.
The point of DRM is to keep the prices high by killing off lending, gifting, and reselling.
That's a fundamentally wrong way of looking at it.
There is no product being sold in the first place, so the semantics of reselling don't really make sense. What is a 'used copy of a steam game' exactly? How does it differ from a brand new copy?
If the market became efficient enough, I could just resell and rebuy the games in my library as I needed them.
The end result being the developer only sells exactly as many units as are required concurrently. Because any time I want to go play, I'll take a used copy someone else isn't using that minute, and drop it back onto the market when I quit. The only time the developer makes a sale is when the used supply is exhausted by people playing.
Is THAT what you want? How would that be a good thing?
And then taken further why bother buying and selling games at all. Steam can just buy enough to meet concurrent demand and then steam users can check them out like library books.
Why not? Indeed the only way for a developer to make any money at all is to have a big splash on release week to drive up the concurrency demands. No long tail sales, tricking in because the secondary market will be full of 'idle' licenses up for grabs.
I'm just not sure reselling games on steam makes a lot of sense. It makes sense for discs or cartridges because there is actual friction in that market (actual physical goods need to be transferred), and the discs and carts do wear out over time as well. I don't know reselling makes sense for steam or itunes or even GoG.
Because honestly, I prefer GoG, which is DRM free. But reselling games even on GoG isn't really a thing either. (Its DRM free... so you could I suppose make a copy and sell it, and then not use it anymore... but nobody does that.)
And really the ONLY objection I currently have to steam is that when I'm playing game A, my kids are locked out of the other 200 OTHER games in my library. So I'd like family sharing to allow that.
Re: (Score:2)
Ahh, so your "solution" is simply to throw away money.
Yes, you understand! In fact, beyond basic food, shelter, and clothing, most of what I do with money is pay for convenience. If I had a yard, I'd pay someone to mow it for me, and in just a few months that would add up to more than the potential I've "wasted" if Steam ever shuts down.
Re: (Score:2)
It's just money. Don't treat it like it was something important.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Also, I have never used Steam -- do they have a contingency for when they go out of business?
I have to admit that I came to peace with the idea of no, difficult or not perfect contingency as an inherent drawback of online game distribution as long as they share the inherent advantages of online game distribution with me, too. Read: as long as games are cheap enough to easily write them off when or if steam may go out of business.
It's nothing more than different risk sets for different media types:
Book/CD/DVD: absolutely safe from distributor going out of business, varying risk of technical deprecat
Re: (Score:2)
So long as they offer an experience comparable to Steam
I don't see how a console can "offer an experience comparable to Steam" while continuing to be a console. An "experience comparable to Steam" includes the ability to install mods, the ability to make mods, and the ability to Alt+F4 and open an IDE to theoretically make your own game from scratch.
Re: (Score:2)
"an experience comparable to steam" would probably include heat and moisture
Re: (Score:2)
Don't forget the mildew that comes after that.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
More likely though is that Steam offers an experience more like consoles - with SteamOS, big picture mode, new controller, steam machines.
And with the added benefit that the hardware is backwards compatible (OK, SteamOS won't run Windows titles, but going forward...), and the games are much cheaper.
As for "always-on", I *do* have a big issue with this. Yes, I have an "always connected" broadband. But that doesn't mean it is bullet proof. It doesn't mean their servers are bullet proof either.
I have deezer th
Re: (Score:2)
Steam, being PC, is likely going to be around for a long time and will probably be able to serve up your games at any time so long as you have a compatible OS.
Valve was founded in 1996.
Microsoft was founded in 1975
Sony was founded in 1946.
Sony's first platform with digital store downloads was the PSP. If you go to PSN/SEN, you will see those PSP games right on there ready to download to any PSP...or Vita, or Playstation TV.
https://store.playstation.com/... [playstation.com]
Plenty of older PS3 games on PSN too: https://store.playstation.com/... [playstation.com]
Heck, SOE kept the PS2's first MMO running for 9 years.
Personally I'd be more worried about Valve than Sony or Microsoft.
"..gosh, i think..." (Score:2)
Woes == Customer Dissent (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Removing second hand sales triples the price of games. Used you be you could buy it on launch for 60, sell it couple of weeks later for 40. Resale prices have already been forced down due to online and DLC access being tied to the original machine, effectively doubling the price of games.
Re: (Score:2)
"sell games"? What kind of heresy is this? True Gamers don't sell games, only "dudebro gamers" playing the "brown shooter of the week" or "sports game of the season" buy their games only to sell them a few weeks later.
comment subject title doesn't matter (Score:2)
Am I the only one who gets annoyed with past future tense used like,
Microsoft would attribute the higher price tag to the included Kinect camera
I see this tense a lot, especially in online RP and it just feels off, every time I read something like this. Why not just "Microsoft attributed the higher price tag to the included kinect camera..."
I'm no englishologist, I just know when it feels wrong, and that feels wrong. Saying, "I knew microsoft would..." works out, but not "Microsoft would attribute..."
Re: (Score:2)
Why not just "Microsoft attributed the higher price tag to the included kinect camera..."
maybe it might be because microsoft never actually said that
Re: (Score:2)
It's legit, because it's speaking FROM the past.
"The Apple Newton was a failure, but Apple would learn from the experience, using the "Eat Up Martha" as a call for better device interaction."
That's saying that the point of the story is still in the past, with the Apple Newton failure. The next sentence is probably about either the Apple Newton or something at a similar time to it- it's not in the present yet.
90% of the titles are actually download only now (Score:5, Interesting)
you get a disc that tells it to download a 20gb "update" that is actually the whole freaking game.
Even old games! (Score:2)
Like World of Warcraft CDs that I bought on its release day! :(
Re: (Score:2)
And you really think that circular piece of plastic you have there can ward off this fate? Especially if the only thing contained on it is the installer that sucks 20 gigs through the pipes?
Re: (Score:2)
And you really think that circular piece of plastic you have there can ward off this fate? Especially if the only thing contained on it is the installer that sucks 20 gigs through the pipes?
No, but perhaps we can help spell the fate of those wasteful companies who feel like pressing millions of pieces of plastic for zero fucking reason.
They went after Capone for tax evasion, and succeeded. Perhaps we should go after these companies for no other reason than green initiatives. Stop destroying the planet with pointless plastic and cardboard if you're not going to actually give the consumers anything viable in return. And we'll look to punish you in kind if you continue to do so. Enough is en
The problem is obvious (Score:4, Interesting)
The guy who was in charge of the Xbox team for these 'woes' was a guy named Don Mattrick.
During the run up to the horrible E3 where most of these poor decisions were revealed, he had been negotiating and then accepted a job running Zynga.
To put it mildly, he had completely checked out and didn't appear to care about what happened to the Xbox at that E3, as he knew he was going to be out the door a few weeks later.
This is one of the larger straight mistakes that Ballmer (as opposed to reasonable but poor decisions) made during his role as CEO of Microsoft - leaving a guy who just didn't give a shit in charge of a major project.
Re:The problem is obvious (Score:5, Interesting)
I think letting him off by saying it's just because he was leaving understates the issue. Let's be clear, Don Mattrick was an anti-consumer arsehole who simply had no idea what he was doing.
Since he left Microsoft's Xbox division has done a complete u-turn, they're actually incredibly responsive to user demands now, and seem genuinely sensitive to gamers concerns going so far as to ditch their previous pet project Kinect from the majority of console bundles a while ago and providing dashboard changes and functionality people actually asked for, usually within short order.
I suspect the reason Mattrick was looking for a new job in the first place was because no one else at Microsoft liked or trusted him either, it's pretty obvious the whole culture at the Xbox division changed when he fucked off, and that couldn't happen if many other people there agreed with his direction, the fact the change happened so quickly and was night and day suggests he was using his position of authority to make a lot of staff implement a lot of things they didn't actually want to implement.
The problem is that the damage Mattrick did is lasting, people still parrot a lot of myths about the X1 based on things that were, once, in the product development plan under Mattrick but ditched even before the console was released and thankfully never came to fruition (e.g. you could always disable the Kinect camera and unplug it and stuff worked fine, right from day 1). Similarly console sales have really struggled to recover because of this early damage and it's still lagging against the PS4.
I think it's safe to say that Mattrick is the biggest failure in the world of gaming in the last decade. He's the Stephen Elop of the video game world. He should probably be relegated to something like sweeping the streets with a brush or something where he can't do as much financial damage as he did to the X1 programme.
Re: (Score:3)
That's the staple of C-Level management these days. Pump it, dump it, move on to the next company.
Doritos Dew It Right (TM) (Score:2)
Please drink a verification can to continue.
Re: (Score:2)
Your pee came out... orange-ish yellow. You fail. Please drink further cans until it is green. Remember to urinate directly in front of the Kinect for verification. Thank you for your cooperation, citizen, I mean consumer, I mean sir and/or madam.
That team (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
It's from the company that made you click a button labeled "start" if you wanted to shut down your computer, what sophistication did you expect?
Re: (Score:2)
Have a user swappable main hdd + moving of games t (Score:2)
Have a user swappable main hdd + moving of games to an ext hdd / usb stick.
PS3 and PS4 make it easy Xbox it's a lot harder and you may get banned for doing it.
with the Xbox 360 people got banned for use there own and much cheaper HDD's in the xbox 360 hdd caddy.
Re: (Score:2)
"Have a user swappable main hdd + moving of games to an ext hdd / usb stick."
You already can move games to an external HDD on the X1, given that it supports USB3 there's not really any point changing the internal drive when you can get a perfectly fast external drive and just plug it straight in anyway. Of course you wont get banned for using external storage on an X1, that's complete nonsense, it's a standard function of the console, well advertised, and fully supported within the UI.
"with the Xbox 360 peo
Secure Offline Disc-Free Kiosks (Score:2)
Welcome to the future. You live somewhere without reliable internet access, and want to play a game on the Xbox Two. You take your hard-earned bitcoins to a Gamestop as well as a flash drive/external HDD that's been prepared by the console. You plug it in to a kiosk at the store, which lets you download game data for ANY game available for the system (a single HDD can hold every game released in the past several months). Of course, you won't just be able to play it. You scratch off a prepaid bitcoin card an
Re: (Score:2)
no drive does not mean no media (Score:2)
MS might not be the first... (Score:2)
This is an area where there's a huge disadvantage to being the first mover. As MS learned in the run up to the
Always On Sucks (Score:5, Interesting)
I've got an XBox One and currently a really shit internet connection (digital nomad in Spain sharing wifi across 3 different flats).
When the internet goes dodgy and the XBox One loses access, I can't save my game and the games start missing features.
Sure my predicament is a bit odd, but I can't be the only person with flakey Internet. Not being able to save a single player game just because you aren't online is a bit off imo.
Re: Always On Sucks (Score:2)
I guess it depends on the game. I've had no Comcast internet for over a week due to storms. In that time I've happily installed Dragon Age Inquisition onto my Xbox One, been playing it for a week, with no problems at all.
They say that now... (Score:2)
But the only way digital only will work is if Sony goes along too. If not, then all the people who hate digital only will start choosing the competition and they'll have to backpeddle again.
I own an Xbox One. I've picked up several games through Amazon, Best Buy, Target, etc. that were on sale for $20, while the digital versions were still full price. Then, I played them through and sold them on eBay for what I paid for them or, at most, a $5 loss. I don't like multiplayer and don't like playing games I've
Wont happen until the world has ubiq. internet (Score:2)
Digital-only is tunnelvision, unless they're fine making multiple versions of the system and still having to produce discs in some markets. The sheer volume of consoles in soldier deployments and countries with limited internet will see to it.
Should finally be more authentic (Score:2)
I think it's good that they're moving toward digital. Analog downloads didn't seem to have enough fidelity. Sure, it was nice that if someone picked up the phone in the middle of your download, it'd still work and you would just have a noisy blur in the texture on some wall, but video games these days are more about art, so we need to protect the artists' vision.
100% preventable... (Score:2)
But next time they'll double down on always-on and no media, which were two huge parts of the bad press of Xbone.
Though for all that public bitching about that, and the fact that PS4 is faster, the key factor was probably pricing, with all the controversy not even visible to the person looking at the two boxes on a retailer shelf or on amazon web pages and just seeing the price tags.
Why would any retailer sell this? (Score:2)
Why would any retailer sell a digital download only system? The game systems have very little margin. The retailer is counting on the game sales to make up for that.
Re: (Score:2)
How did the iPod touch, iPad, and Android tablets succeed where the PSP Go and OUYA failed?
Re: (Score:2)
Because they're seen more as multipurpose devices and gaming is secondary to their Facebooking/twittering/music/video?
The PSP Go failed, more because many stores didn't carry it, not because prospective buyers really cared about the UMD Drive. Sure a few Slashdot nerds might mention that tere were UMD only games, but that didn't matter as much to new customers. Besides, by the time the Go was released, AFTER the PSP-3000, most of the people who wanted a PSP already had one. And most of those people were a
Re: (Score:2)
The PSP GO failed because a) there was no way to carry over your existing UMD collection, and b) the PSN simply wasn't there yet.
The Vita, on the other hand, has no real need for a cartridge port. Every game released for Vita is available on PSN.
I own exactly two Vita carts; one came with the Vita, and one I got in a LE package for a series I happen to collect. I also bought the digital version of that game, so I'd never have to juggle carts.
I've bought quite a few Vita games, though.
Re: (Score:2)
And no, I'm not pretending either list is exhaustive. I can just recall having seen it for those platforms at a minimum.
Steam games can be lent and modded (Score:3, Informative)
What pushed me towards a PS3, after decades of PC gaming, was the large "lending library" of PS3 games offered by a co-worker.
Steam on PC now allows your co-worker to lend you her entire library.
Pay $60 for PS3 game
Run into a game design flaw that ruins your enjoyment, can't lawfully mod PS3 games. Use value $0, though it has resale value.
Pay $60 for a PC game that isn't online-only, run into a game design flaw that ruins your enjoyment, mod it out. After completing the game, add mods that increase replay value. Use value more than $0.
Re: (Score:2)
What pushed me towards a PS3, after decades of PC gaming, was the large "lending library" of PS3 games offered by a co-worker. I could try full games before I purchased them.
My going forward with the PS3 was it's backwards compatibility, it plays all my old PS and PS2 games. Mine is at least, I've met very few others with one of the first versions.
Buying cheap used games one finds gems like Beyond Good and Evil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
Mine is at least, I've met very few others with one of the first versions.
CECHA/CECHB?
I have a not quite as compatible CECHE model, I had to send it in for fixing earlier this year. Graphical glitches, freezes and whatnot (probably solder gone bad). It's perfectly fine now.
Buying cheap used games one finds gems like Beyond Good and Evil
Which I own, and haven't finished. Did you know it has progressive scan support? There's a remastered HD version for the PS4.
Re: (Score:3)
But I'm sure they'd worry about someone hacking it.
Re: (Score:2)
You're idea is terrible on top of terrible. You, yourself, point out the very onbvious problem of people hacking the games stored. Add onto that the fact that every system ever has launched with only a few quality games with the rest as garbage. I mean really, almost all of a console's quality content comes out after launch. How could this ever be a solution to anything?
Re: (Score:2)
You're idea is terrible on top of terrible. You, yourself, point out the very onbvious problem of people hacking the games stored. Add onto that the fact that every system ever has launched with only a few quality games with the rest as garbage. I mean really, almost all of a console's quality content comes out after launch. How could this ever be a solution to anything?
Yep, Xbox was destined to follow the same demise as The GameCube https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org], till Halo came out.
Re: (Score:2)
How could this ever be a solution to anything?
What are you 3? You are even posting to a site that talks about "slashdotted" regularly. Big companies manage to do stupid all the time. If Halo 25 is the only game worth owning on the release day, and they sell 1M the first day like the last release, then they'll hav
Re: (Score:2)
Canada?
Re:No discs = no buy (Score:5, Insightful)
The real example was, ironically enough, 1984 that was yanked from networked ebook readers of a certain variety when there was a dispute. Sorry, I'm not going to have that happen to my movies, my books, my games.
Re: (Score:2)
I honestly don't care what the medium actually is, I want media. I don't want a company to be able to take away titles that I've bought because they screwed up somehow. Same reason why I have not yet subscribed to a paid movie service, I want to be able to watch the movies that I have access to forever, not simply for the time that a particular service temporarily has rights. I want to have access to a permanent library, not something temporary and based on shifting license agreements and shifting tastes coupled with limited storage.
The real example was, ironically enough, 1984 that was yanked from networked ebook readers of a certain variety when there was a dispute. Sorry, I'm not going to have that happen to my movies, my books, my games.
That was pretty much what killed off my willingness to spend money on DRM'd media, really--I'll take download-only with the DRM I'd expect from Microsoft only if it's on a lending library system, where what I'm actually paying for is access to the library and not any specific game. Drop the fiction of selling me the games, sell me access to a library that I borrow my games from and can return the ones I'm done with for new/different ones for no additional cost, and you might get me in the door.
You'd have t
Re: (Score:2)
I want to be able to watch the movies that I have access to forever, not simply for the time that a particular service temporarily has rights.
That's not what I care for. I want transparency and that I get what I paid for. Same service for the same price might be a good deal if it works and is marketed like an "all-you-can-watch" season pass at Blockbuster, that lets you rent out and watch as many videos as you want to. But it is misleading at best if they pretend you're actually "buying" something. And it's an outright scam when they call $3 for "buying" an online movie that will end up in the Walmart bin for $9 a few weeks later to really buy an
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I will take media less if.
1. Games are half the price of those on Disk
or
2. I can resell or lend the game to someone else.
It is insane for me to pay the same for a game I can not trade or lend to a friend.
Re: (Score:3)
The next generation is years out, and you won't be in the target demographic. Specifically, cloud users will be.
Your only hope is to convince millions of individuals that their convenience is not worth the price.
Just like my favorite idiot, rms, whose paranoia turned out to be more than right.
And you will be ignored and ridiculed in the same way, and less effective. And Microsoft will get fistfulls of dollars from people who you failed to convince. And your choice will be Xbox Next or something like Steam.
T
Re: (Score:2)
That entirely depends on how the service works. If it does like Steam, yes, you will be a minority. Steam manages to just not piss off its customers. What you buy stays available (even if they later somehow lose the ability to sell the game, if you bought it, you retain it) and so far I have not noticed games that were removed from your library because something newer appeared (i.e. the franchise got a new year number slapped to it so you should buy the next one and the one you bought is dropped). There's a
Re: (Score:2)
I can think of at least one example of an occurrence of Steam removing content from my library with no warning and no consent from me - and most importantly, no way to prevent it. The Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas soundtrack lost more than half of its content after R*'s license for many tracks expired. No, it is not losing an entire game, but I still felt that this was important content that I had purchased. I had previously owned the physical media version - not sure if a "patch" was issued that would have
Re: (Score:2)
It's time to get rid of discs. Thumb drives are so cheap in blu-ray capacities, and the cost of games so high, shipping games on "cartridges" again is practical, and save the pressure on local storage.
I miss the old days where you could have a giant library of as many games as you want / could afford, plug them in and instantly play them without having to install them, or juggle what you have installed.
Console gaming now is more like PC gaming - except it's less flexible, the hardware is uinderpowered / get
Re: (Score:2)
Thumb drives are so cheap in blu-ray capacities
They're still not as cheap as stamped discs are.
the hardware is uinderpowered / gets outdated very quickly,
Compared to what? Have you seen the steam hardware survey?
http://store.steampowered.com/... [steampowered.com]
The most common CPU is a dual core with quad-cores slightly behind, the most common GPU is intel HD4000
A PS4 or Xbox one are easily better machines than those (I suspect they're budget laptops)
backwards compatibility is a challenge,
Of course it's a challenge, unlike the PC, console makers have switched CPU architectures. Sony has jumped from MIPS, to PowerPC, to X86_64.
and the games are FAR more expensive.
Let me guess, with a name like "Graham
Re: (Score:2)
You don't own your games. You own the packaging and a plastic disc, but nothing that's written on any of it.
Your ownership is an illusion. Get past it and you'll be happier.
Okay, that is fine with me me if all I own is the packaging and a plastic disc, as long as I can install it and it works on my computer and I don't have to be online and I can resell it if I feel like it. Maybe that is not ownership but it is a world and a half better than this download/only works online and while the company is in business crap.
Re: (Score:2)
You're deliberately conflating ownership of a creative work's copyright with ownership of an individual copy of that work (which was made by the party who did own the copyright). The only right the granted by copyright is the right to a monopoly on who can create new instances (copies) of a given work, and that right absolutely does not extend beyond that.
This is called the first-sale doctrine [wikipedia.org], which recognizes that reproduction rights are distinct form distribution rights, with copyright only granting the
Re: (Score:2)
Well, there's the interesting part. Most of the console releases come to PC too nowadays. If I buy a PS4 game, in 10 years I might not be able to play it easily. On PC, I almost certainly will be able to if I want.