RIP Xbox Fitness: Users Will Soon Lose Access To Workout Videos They Bought (arstechnica.com) 115
insitus quotes a report from Ars Technica: Xbox users who purchased training videos through the Xbox Fitness app probably thought they were buying a workout program they'd be able to use regularly for the life of the Xbox One, at the very least. Instead, those videos will soon be completely unavailable to those who paid for them up front, according to a "sunset" plan announced by Microsoft yesterday evening. Xbox Fitness first launched in late 2013 with the console, offering a Kinect-powered health app that uses the 3D camera to evaluate users' form as they perform the exercises demoed by on-screen video trainers. The app, which provided 30 basic routines for free with an Xbox Live Gold account, will be coming to an end on December 15. The paid content associated with the app will also no longer be available for purchase, and those who purchased it previously will be able to use it for over one more year before the app becomes completely unavailable to download or use on July 1, 2017. What some have found especially upsetting with the news is that Microsoft has yet to announce any plans to compensate users who have paid for content or to provide downloadable versions of paid workouts that can be used after the phase-out date. Thus, many upset users have taken to the sunset announcement post and various other outlets to speak their mind on the situation. "I bought 140$+ worth of content just this year... I don't want a refund, I want to be able to continue to use what I PAID for !!!!!!!!!!!" Xbox Live user QuickSilver wrote.
Hey Microsoft (Score:5, Insightful)
Fuck you. Die of cancer in a fire.
That is all.
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You didn't "buy" anything. You paid for a license to access a video, until the "owner" of the video decided you can no longer view it.
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Why do people keep white-knighting large corporations like this?
Nobody is white-knighting anything. The idea that companies should keep services alive for less than 1% of it's original user base is ridiculous.
Most people here will spend $800 every 2 years to replace their cell phone but god forbid they have to purchase another $60 title they used for over 5 years and spent 500 hours playing.
Re: Hey Microsoft (Score:2)
I think it's generally more a distaste for the entire model, where you sell a 'license' instead--if this was being sold as a service instead, from the start, feelings probably would be different than if you had been told you were buying a game which implies you, well, own a copy of the game.
There have been several games I was interested in that were upfront about being in this style...and I didn't buy the ones who were priced too high for what is essentially ephemeral no matter how long it's kept running.
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I think at the end of the day the companies cater to what people want and people want new titles on a regular basis. Looking at it from that angle you understand why it's ok for games to disappear 3-5 years after their popularity tumbles under 10% of what their peek was. At the end of the day it's about providing good value and I strongly believe they provide that.
Don't pay ownership prices for rental material (Score:5, Insightful)
We told you so.
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Re:Don't pay ownership prices for rental material (Score:5, Insightful)
A change in the law is needed. Companies shouldn't be able to write "buy now" when they mean "rent now". The language should be clear about it.
Sounds like a class action lawsuit.
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Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day.
Sell a man a book, app, or online video and he'll enjoy it until you recall it, turn it off or abandon it.
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Sell a man a book, app, or online video and he'll enjoy it until you recall it, turn it off or abandon it.
Don't buy DRM content if you don't want to. You won't be buying much entertainment material soon enough. Most don't give a damn about a 5+ year old title which is why they are discontinuing it.
It's funny how people cry over a $40-$60 title but there the first ones to line up at the Apple store to buy the next iPhone for $800.
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Don't buy DRM content if you don't want to.
Sometimes it's not that easy. I have bought books from Tor and O'Reilly and other publishers where the foreword very explicitly says that the book is to be sold without DRM. Yet I cannot make a copy of the book because the Nook software stored the unencrypted file in a place inaccessible without rooting the device.
Which to me violates the spirit, if not the letter of their agreement with the publisher.
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I think books are a good candidate for DRM because keeping a huge library of books doesn't require extensive cost to maintain it. Games are a whole other story and monetizing it is not always possible.
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Good candidate or not, I pay for books which the publishers have been kind enough to insist on being sold without DRM, but the agency that delivers them is effectively applying DRM regardless even though the work itself EXPLICITLY says it is not to be sold that way.
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The problem is that to change the model you need to convince the 95% that don't care or don't know to stop buying the books that way. For that reason you aren't going to see change.
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Actually, if they are, in fact violating the terms under which the books were to be published, you need 0%. Plus one sufficiently active lawyer at O'Reilly, TOR, Baen, or whoever.
This isn't a market thing, it's a legal thing.
Fool me twice... (Score:5, Insightful)
This is just Microsoft once again making certain your bought and paid for content Plays For Sure! [wikipedia.org] (tm)
Microsoft announcement: "content youâ(TM)ve p (Score:5, Insightful)
I find it interesting that the Microsoft announcement says "This includes content youâ(TM)ve purchased." Not "subscribed to", "purchased". I wonder where else they used the word "purchased". I'm sure they have some BS in the tiny print, but if the bold print says "purchase" in multiple places ...
Re:Microsoft announcement: "content youâ(TM)v (Score:5, Insightful)
It's even more interesting when you contrast it with the way the media conflate copyright infringement with stealing. When someone makes a bootleg copy of a movie, the original is still accessible. When someone steals something from you, you lose access to what has been stolen.
So, when will we read the news "Microsoft will steal workout videos from consumers"?
Re: Microsoft announcement: "content youâ(TM) (Score:2)
It is even worse here in Germany: an unlicensed copy is called a "robbery copy".
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Stealing is something that people do to corporations, not the other way around. The fundamental right underlying all laws is the right of corporations to make money. If you do something that prevents them from making money, that's stealing. If they do something that hurts you, including taking away something you've paid for, that's just exercising their right to make money. It's not stealing, because no corporation is harmed by it.
Re:Microsoft announcement: "content youâ(TM)v (Score:4, Interesting)
The Act is enforced by the Commerce Commission (a Government body). The Commission can take traders to court if it thinks they have breached the Act. (And it does)
And no, MS can't say that the governing law is Washington state, USA. Well, they can, but it has no effect (see above), and doing so is itself an offence under the act.
That is, if a consumer might reasonably expect that this constituted a sale (and legal precedent in NZ under the CGA has established that means an average, not very well informed consumer), then it's a sale. And Microsoft has a presence in New Zealand and can certainly be fined. The fines are substantial and per incident, so as to discourage writing them off as a cost of doing business.
Disclaimer: I have no idea if this service was even sold in New Zealand. And if it was, it is important to know who sold it. If it was the local games retailer, then they are liable. If it was through Microsoft's on-line store, then they bear responsibility.
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In the UK, I'd suggest contacting Trading Standards as a starting point. This might be covered by the Sale of Goods Act, which says that goods must last "a reasonable length of time". For goods like this I think "reasonable" would be "lifetime of the console" at least.
Zune as well (Score:2)
..."users will soon lose..." (Score:2)
Live by the cloud... (Score:5, Insightful)
...die by the cloud.
They didn't buy it (Score:5, Insightful)
When I buy a game and "they" take down the multi-player servers, I get it. I can still play the single player game, but can no longer shoot n00bs. In this case, I can no longer sit on the couch eating ice cream while watching Jillian Michaels's ass. They took away my single player game which, had the game been designed correctly, would put exactly 0.0% load on anybody's servers. Of course, the game was poorly designed such that they wanted telemetry on who watched her ass when, hence the game you bought has to go away.
And yeah, I know single player games are going to this model. Wanna guess how many games I've bought that use this model? If you guessed 0.0% then you get a prize.
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They don't want old titles competing with their $60+60 DLC model. Idiots keep buying though, so they keep charging..
Re:They didn't buy it (Score:4, Insightful)
It's all about DRM, the "right" of the publishers to control when, where, and how you use a product regardless of and in spite of any laws to the contrary. They go out of business then you lose everyrhing you bought from them, even if they just get tired of the product and discontinue selling new ones you lose all the old access. Imagine if this were automobiles and there was no such thing as a "classic" because they just suddenly vanished into thin air.
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Re:They didn't buy it (Score:5, Interesting)
They bought a license to let them use it. This is why I don't buy anything in the cloud, if I don't have the physical media then the thing I "bought" can go away at any time.
Depends on where you live. Come to Canada? You indeed did "buy a copy for personal use" and so on. Think AUS(probably a few others too) has a similar law on the books, so yeah these people are being defrauded.
Re:They didn't buy it (Score:5, Insightful)
Expect those laws to disappear when those countries ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership...
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Treaties do not supersede a countries law even when signed into effect.
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"They didn't buy it"
Yes, they damn well did buy it. Anyone who thinks otherwise is a goddamn corporate shill and can go die in a fire!
In other words... (Score:2)
Stay away from Microsoft digital media purchases! This should absolutely send people running from the Microsoft Windows Store. Whoever thought that this was a good or even plausible idea must be brain-dead. It's the best advertisement for Google Play that I've seen yet!
Sorry but at this point its self inflicted (Score:5, Insightful)
This is far from the first time that Microsoft have totally cut off users from DRM'd content that they have already bought. Its already very well-known that Microsoft clearly feel free to fuck their own customers over anytime they please.
When will people finally get it? If you don't want the risk of your media/games/apps library just disappearing one day, STOP BUYING FROM MICROSOFT. That includes buying any platform (e.g. XBox, Microsoft phones, tablets) that lock you into only buying from the Microsoft Store.
Re:Sorry but at this point its self inflicted (Score:4, Informative)
In the past, Microsoft used to piss off other businesses by crushing them, ruthlessly.
Now, they are gratuitously fucking with their non-captive PAID UP customer base. That's just bizarre. Incomprehensible. Smells like poor management.
If you think your customer is captive, sure, you can squeeze them, if they have limited other choices, as the typical person does with an operating system. But with non-captive customers? Smells like poor management. It seems like a management philosophy that permeates the Windows and Office divisions is spreading to the non-captive-customer divisions.
Re:Sorry but at this point its self inflicted (Score:5, Insightful)
>> That's just bizarre. Incomprehensible. Smells like poor management.
Not really. They've discovered that the public really are mostly made up of schmucks who will still queue up to buy the next XBox no matter how much Microsoft fuck their own customers over.
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Because it's more complex than just "hate Microsoft -> don't buy Xbox". There are basically two current gen consoles, because Nintendo's product isn't very competitive. Sony is also an evil global megacorporation that screws customers regularly.
Third party developers make some pretty good games for these machines. At least these days most titles are multi-platform, but you still have to pick one or the other. And these days, if you are really into games you don't have much choice but to be screwed over b
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> but you still have to pick one or the other. And these days, if you are really into games you don't have much choice but to be screwed over
Yes you absolutely do have a choice to not be screwed over, or at least to very much minimize the risk:
1) Don;t buy Xbox. I don't remember ever hearing Sony pulling the plug on peoples already purchased software. I don't follow Microsoft but even I have heard of at least 3 times now that Microsoft have done it.
2) get your games on media not as downloads.
3) game on
We aren't all hardcore gamers (Score:5, Insightful)
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I feel like MS has missed the fact that there are a lot of Xbox users out there that bought the machine specifically for the Kinect and associated content. If I wanted an ultimate gaming platform I would have bought a PC...
If you're wondering why you were "left out" and feel like Microsoft missed some "fact", please understand that the other 99.999% of XBox owners bought an Xbox specifically for this reason.
Don't think for even one second that your demographic matters here in the rather large pool of revenue generated from a gaming platform...
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Bull crap. I have seen a low end laptop that uses the same CPU and GPU as in the Xbox 1 and PS4 :
11.6" screen, made by HP, touchpad rather good compared to older stuff, decent build
The CPU is quad core, but disabled down to a dual core and clocked at 1.0GHz. (vs 8 cores at 1.75GHz on Xbox)
GPU is the same as in consoles (minus some datapaths), but has 128 processing units organized in two blocks. It's 768 on Xbox, 1152 on PS4 so 6x to 9x bigger, not counting a different power budget.
The same laptop CPU on a
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Turn in your geek card, as you know nothing about hard drive speeds. In no way is the blu ray drive faster then the internal hard drive. A 5400 rpm sata II drive does not have a transfer speed of 10MB/s, that is slower then the old pata interface. 5400 drives get about 80 to 90 MB/s, that's big b not little b.
You really need to brush up on your rotational media, as you seem to be very confused about what actual speeds are.
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Actually the original vision for Xbox One wasn't just gaming. Microsoft was pretty clear about this point. In any case, good use of random quotation marks and fictitious statistics. Always makes a good argument better. Well executed.
What percentage of products created for the Xbox fall outside of the definition of "game" again?
Perhaps that will make it "clear", regardless of Microsoft intent or marketing.
Exactly, that was their entire pitch on daytime TV (Score:2)
I know a few people who only bought the Xbox One for the non-gaming purposes. But like any other MS product, if it doesn't pan out in the short term they're willing to completely give up on the long term growth, recognition, and loyalty that they would gain and instead piss off a group of people. As they keep repeating this I'm not even sure how they plan on even attracting people to new products without the looming fear that support could be yanked at any point.
the world's smallest violin... (Score:5, Insightful)
For decades we've been seeing that if you buy DRMed shit, you can and will lose access to it at any time, either temporarily (such as DRMed games with activation servers taken offline) or permanently (Walmart DRMed music). These events have been the primary headline on CNN, BBC, and other major news outlets.
By now, if you are still buying DRMed things - either software or hardware - tough shit when you lose access to them. You gave someone else control, so suck it up, bubs. You want a world where that doesn't happen? Buy non-DRMed stuff. There isn't "enough" of it, you say? (1) bullshit, there's more high quality stuff than you'll ever consume in a single human lifetime, and (2) there will be more once it becomes clear to companies that DRM = death in the marketplace. But the message you are sending now is DRM = wild success, so you can't then turn around and bitch that there isn't enough.
You want me to feel sorry you lost access to some DRMed thing you "bought"? Here's the world's smallest violin, playing just for you.
Re: the world's smallest violin... (Score:1)
[Citation needed]
Time and time and time again.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Software companies show us exactly WHY users want physical versions of software, why they want DRM removed.
The fact the console companies have the audacity to charge more for the download versions only makes things worse.
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Software companies show us exactly WHY users want physical versions of software, why they want DRM removed.
Well, those are two different things. I have plenty of non-DRMed games for example which I don't have any physical media for. GOG [gog.com] specializes in that sort of thing. You get non-DRM "plain old files" that you can backup, move to future computers, run on emulators, whatever. No activation, no DRM, no nothing. And these days they're starting to support native Linux games, too.
If people want that DRM-free model to succeed, I would recommend buying your games from such non-DRMed outlets, rather than DRMed o
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If people want that DRM-free model to succeed, I would recommend buying your games from such non-DRMed outlets, rather than DRMed ones like Steam. I've seen some games release on both GOG and Steam simultaneously, and the Steam version with DRM outsold the GOG version without DRM by 5:1 or more! That is sending the message that people prefer DRM.
If you want companies to release more DRM-free stuff, you need to reward the ones who do, and punish the ones who don't.
And slightly off-topic, the same goes for music. If you want ownership, buy ownership and not a subscription. Music sellers Bandcamp posted a nice item on their blog on the music industry's confusion over the difference between streaming and subscription based services [bandcamp.com]. Bandcamp grew 35% last year - DRM-free music ownership is alive and kicking.
DRM for the win! (Score:1)
Digital Restrictions Management once again helps large companies book profits, while depriving people of what they thought they "purchased".
The more non-tech people see this, the better. (Score:4, Funny)
Windows 10 Anthem. (Score:5, Funny)
Windows 95 had Rolling Stones "Start Me Up" as their anthem when they launched.
Windows 10 Anthem - by the Police:
Every breath you take
Every move you make
Every bond you break
Every step you take
I'll be watching you.
Every single day
Every word you say
Every game you play
Every night you stay
I'll be watching you.
Oh can't you see .....
You belong to me?
(Every Breath You Take)
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Hehe I hadn't thought of that Police song... PERFECT!! Kinda why I refer to Windows10 as "Windows NSA Edition" or alternatively, as a CTD (Computer-Transmitted Disease)...
Hilariously bad publicity (Score:3)
I have not much more to say, have trouble believing that Microsoft couldn't secure the rights for 30-something videos or perhaps it's planned both on the short term and steady income.
Also, by using torrent-like downloads on such 'EOL' content, being mild on users with low upload there would be a trade off users could accept (or don't suffer much if they don't know what upload is and have the hard disk space). But maybe they insist all the way on an "app" that streams so that there's no hard disk space consumed, instant access and work on so called "universal" devices.
The Microsoft solutions comes as playing nice to lawyers and accoutants first, the "technical purity" of their platform second perhaps and dead last your customers.
It's very silly, please at least pretend you care. You've even turned off customers with a big, well lit and aerated living room and $90 or something to blow on what you call "universal" content. You might as well still candy and ice cream from children in an early summer afternoon in the park. Invite the local journals and radio stations to come over.
Re:Microsoft please keep it up (Score:4, Insightful)
A lot of people actually do put up with this crap and will continue to do so, because they think (or actually - they're being told) they need this shit that is being shoved down their throats and up their asses.
Make up your own damn mind. Trust nobody.
Weird. (Score:2)
Don't you have those videos on your device so you can watch them any time you want to?
You paid money for them, right? Why aren't these videos on your device then?
Why do you people accept such a business model (i.e. renting stuff) in the first place?
Btw - the title is wrong, You did not buy anything. You don't own anything. You rented it. Your lease can and will be terminated anytime.
Why do people spend money on things they really actually don't like / want? Examples:
- cars with gear shifters that have a wei
is it any wonder ... (Score:4, Insightful)
Remember, if you didn't get it on the Pirate Bay, (Score:1)
... it isn't really yours.
The one reason I was going to buy it (Score:2)
And they get rid of it. The wife and I were planning to use it as a workout device, since it tracks you, heart rate, calories etc and we're tired of the old workout videos. There was a big selection on the Xbox One. I heard it worked great.
If MS was smart they'd package the Kinect 2 with hardware that only does the videos (like last generation's Xbox with no disc drive), throw up a simple app store, and workout tracking and sell it as the new Wii.
Xbox live support contact number (Score:1)