Xbox's New Policy Says Goodbye To Unofficial Accessories (windowscentral.com) 127
In a significant development for Xbox users, the era of tinkering with your console to use unapproved accessories is drawing to a close. From a report: Xbox has taken a definitive stance by instituting a new policy that will block the use of unauthorized accessories with its consoles, effective as of November 17. This decision has already begun to reverberate amongst the gaming community, and many have already had a warning about it on their consoles in the form of error message 0x82d60002.
The error message states: "A connected accessory is not authorized. Using unauthorized accessories compromises your gaming experience. For this reason, the unauthorized accessory will be blocked from use on 11/12/2023. For help returning it, check with the store it came from or contact the manufacturer. To see authorized accessories, go to www.xbox.com/accessories. (0x82d60002)."
The error message states: "A connected accessory is not authorized. Using unauthorized accessories compromises your gaming experience. For this reason, the unauthorized accessory will be blocked from use on 11/12/2023. For help returning it, check with the store it came from or contact the manufacturer. To see authorized accessories, go to www.xbox.com/accessories. (0x82d60002)."
Uh no (Score:5, Insightful)
How about returning the XBox?
Re:Uh no (Score:5, Interesting)
>Using unauthorized accessories compromises your gaming experience
i LOVE lines like that, the corporate-speak is just delicious.
What they're really saying
"unauthorized accessories probably work better, and are cheaper than our officially branded crap; this hurts our revenue stream, so we must clamp down on it"
Re:Uh no (Score:5, Insightful)
Cheaper. Yes. Often to the tune of 50-66% less.
But you nail it on the head. This isn't about security, privacy, or anything user focuses. This is protect a revenue stream.
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The main reason for creating that super expensive branded xbox controller was that this was a well developed market by third parties. Who still make better controllers than that to this day, often for less than the official one.
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Re:Uh no (Score:5, Interesting)
Then you haven't used many if any unlicensed controllers. Almost all of them (apart from the absolutely cheapest ones) have very obviously superior quality to the official ones.
For example, I used to use xbox360 wireless controller and I now moved to logitech F710 (both are from the same design time). Other than the PS style position of "stick low left, d pad high left", they're very similar, down to being powered by two AA batteries making these effectively immune to the primary failure mode of "built in battery wore out".
It's generally vastly superior to 360 wireless in at least following ways:
1. Dongle is much smaller and packs inside the controller battery compartment for easy transport.
2. Proper DirectInput support for older games that just works with a manual switch on the controller.
3. Build quality is noticeably better.
4. Use of non-slip material in grips on the side (360 wireless is all slippery textured plastic and tends to get slippery for people with sweaty hands like one of my friends).
5. Vibration is can be switched on and off on the controller with a single button press.
6. Much better triggers.
7. Much better battery compartment design. In xb360 wireless, the compartment requires insertion of the entire battery into a very tight hole (cue the jokes) which means that modern 2500mAh NiMH batteries do not fit it. Technically you can force one in, but you'll have a hell of a time getting it out (ask me how I know). In F710, compartment is clearly designed with that in mind and larger diameter 2500 mAh NiMH batteries fit fine. It's almost a much faster process to swap batteries between the two.
8. Hats on joysticks are superior. This becomes especially evident after some wear settles in, where concave and slippery plastic design on xb360 wireless becomes extremely slippery when hands are even a little bit slippery, while the four protruding directional guides at the sides become much more pronounced and start to actually hurt your thumb during longer play sessions. F710 is convex, material is more rubbery and less plasticky making it much less slippery when worn down, and it lacks the directional guides meaning that they won't start to dig into your skin as wear starts to progress.
9. Mode switching for left Dpad and joystick (allowing input to switch between the two if you want to for example control movement with D-pad even when game expects joystick input for movement only).
But that's just for me because I wanted something that is "similar in terms of features, but better in every meaningful way". If you want actual additional features, typical stuff on more high end controller includes:
1. Rapid clicking switches for buttons (pressing button down results in "button mashing" input).
2. Additional buttons for games that support extended inputs (usually configurable under steam or driver package that sets those buttons as keyboard inputs to support games that only support plain XInput).
3. Configurable triggers with set depths (especially important for games where trigger depth input changes what it does).
4. Hall effect sensor joysticks. Or just normal ones but of much higher quality than "official" ones, which tend to be just barely better than worst options on the market.
5. Better quality buttons.
6. Higher polling rates for wireless.
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Controllers that replace the joystick with buttons are controversial in fighting games because they supposedly offer a big advantage.
Instead of a joystick or d-pad, you have 4 buttons: up, down, left, right. The advantage is that moves which were previously slow, like say doing a 270 degree spin on the joystick, is now as fast as sliding a finger over the row of buttons. You can also do some game breaking stuff like press left and right simultaneously.
From what I understand they are tournament legal in most
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>Controllers that replace the joystick with buttons are controversial in fighting games because they supposedly offer a big advantage.
Yes, that is why I said "if you want a high end controller". The point of getting a high end controller is getting a significant advantage in games through things like more button options, high accuracy joysticks, adjustable triggers, higher polling rate and so on. These are all features designed to give you an advantage over people using garbage controllers, just like hav
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The wireless on the 710 was always buggy. At least for me. I liked the 510 since it had the rumble where the 310 did not.
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To my knowledge, there was a time when the shift to the universal non-encrypted nano receiver caused serious problems with interoperability for a lot of logitech wireless gear, including F710. This was fixed pretty quickly however and logitech is generally pretty good at replacing parts. You can probably order the properly working receiver from them for cheap even if you are long out of warranty. I personally never had this problem because I followed up on the issue and bought mine only after the problem wa
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He's saying that slightly larger NiMH 2500mah batteries do not fit, not that regular AA batteries don't fit.
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Small recommendation if you're using AA batteries. Modern NiMH has new kind of isolation layer between as the battery is rolled together, which makes them very low discharge and very high capacity. Typical modern NiMH is 2500 mAh low discharge and costs something like 5 EUR for a pack of four, easily lasting five years of hard use before you have to replace them due to capacity loss with recharging twice a week or so (cycle for my always on at highest power rage gaming mouse that is also AA powered).
Problem
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I stopped console gaming in the PS2 era, but back then, the third party stuff often worked better AND was cheaper than the official shit. Mad Catz was the shit.
Re:Uh no (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, it's also to protect against cheating.
There are numerous "macro adapters" that people have been plugging into PS5s and Xboxes that basically allow controller level cheating - if you wanted to do a combo, you could hit one button and the macro adapter will do the combo for you perfectly every time. This also applies to games like Call of Duty where gun lift is a thing, and the macro basically fires the gun, then hits "down" enough to counteract the gun lift so you're still aiming at the right spot every time.
Common devices like Cronus are detectable and can get you banned. But these are merely the tip of the iceberg.
https://www.cronusmax.com/ [cronusmax.com]
Yes, these are unauthorized devices. There are plenty of authorized devices out there - you can buy cheap PS5 and Xbox gamepads that are half the price if you wanted and they will work just fine. 8bitdo has a line of pads that are authorized by all the big players.
Re: Uh no (Score:2)
I understand the cheating aspect, but why not simply ban them for online gameplay? I don't give a flying shit about multiplayer and I suspect there are other games who don't either. Let me cheat on singleplayer in peace and disable unauthorized devices for online play. This reads more like a cashgrab than trying to stop cheating.
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Even better, leave it up to each game. Let them query whether an unofficial controller is connected. Developers of competitive games will probably choose to block it. Developers of casual or social oriented games will probably choose not too. There are lots of online games where cheating isn't a concern.
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I don't give a flying shit about multiplayer
Because you're in the minority and it's easier to apply a global policy that meets the majority of users.
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Not to mention that it would be pretty straightforward to design a little daugherboard to slot into a genuine controller that could take care of button combos etc. So there's no way that a "genuine" controller is going to stop cheating.
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I modified one of my Switch controllers (a Pokken third party but authorized one) to have autofire. I have arthritis in my hands and occasionally in Mario Maker I need to mash a button, but it's painful.
I suppose it's technically cheating if I use it to win in multiplayer, but this ban applies to single player modes too.
In any case it's probably not going to be detected because it modifies the original hardware, if Nintendo were even looking. It could be detected by looking for very consistent high speed ma
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Actually it’s about cheating but actually it’s about making money.
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We cant make software that prevent cheating, so we are going to force everyone to use the thing same thing so we dont have to work.
And we get another revenue stream.
Re:Uh no (Score:4, Informative)
The xbox controller is one of the better controllers on the market but console gaming is simply not worth it anymore unless you’re really into nintendo exclusives, you’re a kid, or you wanna play online with friends who already made a foolish purchase.
The consoles might sell for a lot less than an equivalent PC but once you’re up and running with a quality PSU the price of games is so much lower and you can just keep upgrading. It’s really a poor tax in the long run.
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> The xbox controller is one of the better controllers on the market
I'll put forward that they are purposely designed to have a limited lifespan; and that isn't just opinion.
I encourage you to look into hall effect sensors vs potentiometer joysticks. XBOX sticks are known to fail AND there is an available solution. If you can buy drone controllers like Radiomaster for $65 that come with hall effect sticks, programable OS and that even includes the extra expense of the radio transceiver then surely they
Re: Uh no (Score:2)
Stick drift etc is well known. Its not a huge problem in regular play or use but the potentiometers get more jitter and such over time and need bigger deadzones as they wear out.. And then you end up with a controller you can't finish the atypical mission in gta3 with.
Hall effect or closed optical is nice as they don't wear out. You can fit bigger wipers in the thumbsticks either..
Re: Uh no (Score:2)
No link, but the difference between the two is simple. Potentiometers wear physically, while hall effect are non-contact and don't wear over time.
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2. Not really a thing anymore unless you like installing betas. I cannot remember fucking around with a broken game in quite a while. Fuck most of t
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I agree with the rest, but I have to ask:
>Or better yet, a game and 4 4k videos.
Why?
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I just did the logistics in my head. You either need five screens (4 for each video to have a reason to be done in 4k in the first place, and one for the game). Or you just run 4k video in small window each, because???
But most modern cards only have four video outputs, typically 3x displayport and 1x HDMI. So maximum of four monitors. And you'll need a fairly new card for all of those those ports to support 4k 60fps at least (especially HDMI has been somewhat lacking in this regard until last two-three gene
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I have only two. 3 with if I enable the TV.
But more than enough horsepower to run a game on one screen, and open 4 videos and arrange them on the other monitor.
Definitely can see the usage spike doing all of that.
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>But more than enough horsepower to run a game on one screen, and open 4 videos and arrange them on the other monitor.
You are a very small usecase.
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most of the Windows games work fine on Linux without issues
I run Kubuntu and that is such a huge lie [protondb.com]. You're obviously extremely biased or invested.
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I use OpenSUSE Tumbleweed. There is Arch if want to deal with all of that. I don't. You could also try the HoloISO.
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If DarkOx disagrees then you know you’re on to something.
For the cost of the online multiplayer feature alone you can get an absolute beast of a GPU given an 8 year life for a typical gaming console. See the console looks good until you get into total cost of ownership and that’s why they do it. I’d maybe grant you a point on finickiness but rtfa cause Microsoft is gonna just start breaking shit now.
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Re:Uh no (Score:4, Informative)
by now installing/playing a game from steam is pretty damn close to a console experience; hell playing them within 'big picture mode' might as well be a console. (of a course a few extremely cunty devs feel the need to inject their own stupid god damn 'launcher' into the mix here, but that's a gripe for another time)
but as for the crashing/driver issues, man you sound like you haven't really played any kind of PC game since pre-windows 7. at this point in time due to signed drivers and audio using windows built in sound API (buggy sound card drivers were the bane of windows gaming prior to about 2007) the number of technical problems I've had in the past decade+ of gaming are practically nil.
GPU prices are a problem of course, but a decent midrange card can roughly handle most games on medium or better provided you're sticking to 1080p. up until this past spring i was using a GTX 1080 from 2017 and it was fine for 1080/1440p (provided i didn't try to max out the graphics settings)
Not Reality, people still have driver issues (Score:2)
but as for the crashing/driver issues, man you sound like you haven't really played any kind of PC game since pre-windows 7
Pretty amusing you post this on the same day Penny Arcade revealed travails with GPU drivers. [penny-arcade.com]
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Wow, i honestly had no idea penny arcade still existed.
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Okay, but you don't need resizable bar to play alan wake 2. Apparently it doesn't help much (apparently because I don't care to play the game).
https://www.reddit.com/r/nvidi... [reddit.com]
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I haven't had a PC issue in a long time. Diablo 4 was crashing but a couple additional case fans solved that issue. I also only spend about $500 every 4-5 years upgrading my current PC. That's seems to be in line with the next generation consoles.
Consoles are easier in that it is simply plug in play but my preference is PC for everyt
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Maybe you just don't know how to use a computer.
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You don't need an expensive PC to match an XBox, yet people seem to point to costs of graphics cards without noting that they're looking at the high end of the spectrum. Sure, the PC isn't an "out of the box" experience, but the XBox isn't really (both seem intent on making you register, make accounts, subscribe, update, etc). But the PC already does more than the XBox - you've got a browser, spreadsheet, etc, it's versatile. If you ONLY play games, and ONLY in the living room, then the console may make
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1) you pay a lot more, and the 'upgrades' don't really offset that to much in the era of GPUs being 50% of the system's price tag.
Maybe you'll pay a lot more (it varies) but in return you get a device to which you can attach almost anything you want to attach.
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"Dear XBox, I am trying to compromise my gaming experience, but seem to be encountering road blocks preventing this. Can you help?"
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I mean you can try, but you may want to check with the store it came from only. The manufacturer will just laugh in your face. And no you don't have a legal right to something that was never officially supported in the first place. Mind you based on some legal rulings on these matters in the past 2 decades you don't have a legal right to something that was officially supported too, as Linux users on PS3s can attest to.
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There's a difference between unsupported and intentionally breaking.
Vandalism (Score:3)
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1,000,000 people: It is now a stat
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Ordinary people aren't allowed to damage the property of others. Corporations should not be allowed to damage the property of millions of others either.
Your peripherals still work, they just don't work together. Good luck fighting for damages to your xbox experience, but the EULA you accepted says the software doesn't actually have to do anything.
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Good luck fighting for damages to your xbox experience, but the EULA you accepted says the software doesn't actually have to do anything.
Good luck understanding that, at least in the U.S., your EULA is worth less than toilet paper in court.
The only thing a EULA does in this context is create the presumption of "the user agreed to this so we can do whatever the fuck we want".
In contract law, again, at least in the U.S., courts also look at what is reasonable, especially considering that A. it was working before, B. the difference in bargaining power between the end-user and the corporation, and C. the fact that it is often difficult to a
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"We refuse to let your new automobile start because we sense the presence of a passenger who might degrade your driving experience!"
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Corporations should not be allowed to damage the property of millions of others either.
Blocking something that never was officially supported is not "damage the property". It may be a dick move, but it doesn't fit any of the legal definitions. You can't just make up your own interpretation of the legal system. It doesn't work like that.
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I suppose you can argue that, assuming the controllers have a proprietary and undocumented interface. I also suppose you're an Apple fan.
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I also suppose you're an Apple fan.
I suppose you never pay attention when reading slashdot. I've been accused of being a lot of Apple things. But never a fan, and I take offense at the insinuation.
so why block keyboard and mouse that are not xbox? (Score:3)
so why block keyboard and mouse that are not xbox ones?
What about adding an big sticker says USB ports are not USB and most USB devices will not work.
Re:so why block keyboard and mouse that are not xb (Score:5, Insightful)
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It will allow third party manufacturers to charge even more too. They will simply take the PCB out of a genuine XBOX gamepad, attach their own custom PCB that routes their buttons to the right traces on Microsoft's board, and sell them for $60 + whatever they were charging before.
Do Microsoft encrypt the USB traffic from their controllers? If not, it should be possible to do a man-in-the-middle attack too.
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What about adding an big sticker says USB ports are not USB and most USB devices will not work.
Interesting idea we should flip on its head. The USB ports of the devices quite clearly have an USB logo meaning they should work with USB devices. I wonder if this can be seen as a breach of their certification.
Prediction (Score:4, Interesting)
You heard it here first.
$189.99 controller? (Score:2)
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Back in my time you almost had a console for $200, not a lone controller.
Yeah but back in your time, $200 was a month's rent.
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Nah, it's just what your Mom use to pay them for services rendered.
Re: $189.99 controller? (Score:3)
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You can get cheaper controllers, but yeah, it's a valid point. A couple of fancy controllers and you're getting into PC money.
However, the dreamcast was pretty much the last non-nintendo console at $200
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That controller came to be because there is a thriving market in that price range for controllers that were vastly superior to anything microsoft ever offered "officially". They basically looked at that market, asked "why don't we have anything in this price range and with profit margins we could get from selling a 70-80 grade controller for 200 pretending that it is actually worth 200?"
Fun part is, there are genuinely good controllers in that price range that wipe the floor with the elite controller to thi
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But does anyone ask the real question? (Score:3)
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To be clear the sub controller was a Logitech controller
What is interesting is the new Virginia Class attack subs use a literal wired XBox controller for the periscope as an option since the new kids in the Navy already know it so well:
https://youtu.be/0StWrXoN8nI?t... [youtu.be]
Re:But does anyone ask the real question? (Score:4, Informative)
This is likely because these controllers use a well documented XInput mode. Logitech controller in question uses the exact same input mode that comes from the dongle that it wirelessly connects to. From perspective of the machine, they're most likely indistinguishable in terms of input signals. It's just hardware ID that differs.
Logitech controller also has the old DirectInput mode as a fallback option though (controlled by a hardware switch in the back of the controller), so it's actually more compatible than xbox360 one.
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There was no control lost. Investigation showed the sub never got close enough to anything to hit it, it imploded on the way down.
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Game consoles are (Score:2)
If you want freeeedduuuummmmmmm while you game, you should consider some system that’s explicitly designed to be extremely modular and customizable, from the ground up. I’ve heard about these things called “windows PCs” that might be worth looking into.
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As much as I blame microsoft for a great many ills that have befallen gaming, bringing standardised controllers to the PC was one of their beneficial moves. I remember the horror of trying to control PC games with first gameport devices and then USB direct input things and I don't think I was ever satisfied. From mismatched axis mapping, button prompts with raw numbers and menu systems that could see the sticks/buttons, but had no way to actually utilise them in a similar way to the console port of the game
USA only? (Score:5, Interesting)
Of course the New Zealand government can't force Microsoft to reverse such changes their Xbox software but they can force the local Xbox retailers to accept back the Xboxes sold by them and provide the buyers a full refund. The sucky part here is the consumer protection laws here don't extend resellers so the shops that sold them can't force Microsoft to refund them. If they do that you can expect it to be a lot harder to find shops selling Xboxes.
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but this kind of thing is illegal in other countries. Basically you can't take away functionality and cost owners money unless this was clearly stated at the time of purchase.
You say that, but no other countries have not taken this stance. Firstly these third party devices were never a part of the core advertisement. You are literally still getting the exact same product you were promised on the packaging. Removing the ability to do something that was not promised to you in the first place is not illegal anywhere. Now if MS removed the ability for the Xbox controller to work, you'd be on to something.
But ...
Sony did advertise the ability to run Linux on the PS3. All suits were e
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The problem is that it's tricky to legally undo this kind of thing.
You can get the XBOX refunded. But what about the games? If you bought them from XBOX Live you might be able to get a partial refund. But if you bought them from somewhere else, that retailer isn't to blame for Microsoft making their game unplayable for you.
Same with peripherals and other accessories.
Similar issue if your console is wrongly banned, or your Steam account wrongly closed. Unravelling it all can be difficult. Your best bet is Sm
Just Microsoft (Score:2)
CRONUS (Score:2)
There are two main reasons for this.
1. Cheating. These companies are doing their best to reign in cheating in these games. The cheat market is huge. Physical devices to cheat ruin these experiences for everyone. One example is the Cronus Zen.
2. Of course they would love to license everything plugged in. Likely with an advertisement API.
--
If you can't make it good, at least make it look good. - Bill Gates
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Doesn't that just let you swap buttons around or use a mouse+KB instead of a controller? Or just script some button presses that you might have a hard time reaching or doing? Doesn't seem like cheating to me. Then again I play games on my PC where this type of thing isn't an issue. Seems pretty dumb not to allow people to use an input device that they prefer.
Hackers to the rescue? (Score:3)
I have to wonder if it's possible to fool the Xbox. If so, how long it will take for hackers to reverse-engineer whatever process and protocol is used to determine a "genuine" accessory? Then they'll design a dongle, probably based on some Atmel processor, that sits between the unofficial accessory and the Xbox and makes it look genuine.
I really hope that happens. But what would be better is if legislators managed to simultaneously grow a pair and acquire a conscience. Then they could just tell Microsoft to fuck off, and stop them from vandalizing customers' hardware.
If Microsoft had the guts to be honest, their error message would say "Microsoft stopping you from using unauthorized accessories compromises your gaming experience - but we're doing it anyway, because we can, and because profit".
Also, fuck Microsoft gently with a chainsaw sideways.
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I have to wonder if it's possible to fool the Xbox. If so, how long it will take for hackers to reverse-engineer whatever process and protocol is used to determine a "genuine" accessory?
In theory, sure, but in practice, probably not: the way Sony blocks third-party controllers on the PS5 is by doing a cryptographic challenge-response. Controller doesn't have a valid certificate? It's not allowed.
I have no idea if the Xbox controllers also have private keys embedded in them, but it's possible that they're using cryptographic verification, in which case you'd have to get the key, and then it would only be a matter of time before it gets revoked.
FTFY (Score:3)
Hey look! (Score:3)
Chess (Score:2)
There goes someone's special Chess device.
https://nypost.com/2022/10/06/... [nypost.com]
This will hurt Xbox. (Score:4, Interesting)
Disclaimer: Xbox user here.
This is a really really stupid decision on behalf of the Xbox division at MS. Xbox was/is the underdog in the console wars and unlike other products the Xbox actually has a solid sympathy bonus which is a very rare thing for MS. Point in case: I wouldn't touch windows with a ten foot pole for anything mission critical. The last version I personally used was Windows2k. Yet I am quite the paying customer for MS, with all things Xbox. The moment my cheap rgb keyboard that has been on my Xbox for roughly 3 years starts triggering error messages they'll lose karma with me.
Xbox could so easily differentiate themselves from the cheap lot by offering premium accessories that aren't just overpriced and half-assed *glances to elite controller (1)*, and yet they choose to go this route.
Yes, I get the need to prevent cheating with input bots and cheat accessories, but the press release for that would look and sound different. And I suspect the ceos really don't care.
This is about getting greedy is my strong suspicion and if they misstep they will lose a lot of sympathy. And customers.
I wouldn't be surprised if they both this epic style and have to backpedal. It's a shame really. Do like the platform and would hate to see it go down the shitter.
Adaptive gaming still possible (Score:3)
But I do know that the disabled community have been hacking together their own game controllers for a long, long time. About as long as video games have existed! Each person's needs are different: one gamer may be able need really large buttons to mash, others may need to wire in a custom two-axis joystick that they can manipulate more easily. For a long time it was just within the community. I wonder if those hacked-together controllers will just stop working now?
One sliver of good news is that some years ago [slashdot.org] XBox introduced the Adaptive Controller [xbox.com], which made it pretty easy and clean to wire in any number or type of input devices. Being an official accessory, presumably that will still work.
Class Action based on Anti-Competition? (Score:2)
Isn't there some way this can be turned into a class action lawsuit treating it as a fully anti-competitive action?
Cue the blocker-unblockers (Score:3)
I could be wrong but I don't think Microsoft is going to win this one- a million hackers and crafters just heard the starting gun go off.
And shit like this (Score:2)
Is why I'll never purchase any console newer than a Sega Genesis.
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I want to say there is also a subsection of cheating devices on consoles that operate via sending just button presses as an emulated gamepad with reading the game via a camera or capture card so it's functionally impossible to detect outside of catching weird perturbances in how characters move, nothing is intercepting or changing the game data.
It seems silly that people would go through such effort to cheat at a game but it does happen.
Re: Unpopular but should it be. (Score:2)
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Yeah I have to imagine the common devices used for this will be on the ban list in a whack-a-mole style fashion but i bet the really persistent people will actually interface to an actual controller to comply with the system but as you said that takes the potential pool of people down even further.
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it has long been debated whether Keyboard and Mouse players should compete with Mobile and Gamepad players
Pretty sure that debate is over. Is is pretty much equal except when twitchy gameplay is needed. Then KB player stomp the others unless they get help with the like of auto aiming and the like.
NBA restricts shoes, NHL restricts sticks and skates, and Olympics has all these restrictions and more.
Those all are professional sports leagues. Makes sense to restricts those. Online gaming is a mostly a casual affair. This shouldn't be a thing.
I think if online gaming is going to be taken as serious as it is and define a generation, the playing field should be as equal as possible
No thanks. I do not like consoles. This is what you want. Everyone to play on consoles.
As with all changes, we should strive to understand the before jumping to conclusions and see how they effect the experience.
It is Microsoft. The change is defaulted to terrible until a metric shit ton of evidence
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It used to be a simple fact that the official accessories were just better. The brand markup wasn't that big and this left very little wiggle room for 3rd parties, so they'd cheap out on the materials, the contacts, the firmware, etc. to get the price down to attract the parents of kids with consoles and this led to poor quality parts that gave a poor experience. These days things have changed considerably. It's not the cheap crap accessories that are a problem, it's that there's a market for HIGH QUALITY 3
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Hmm, the official controllers though have problems. Ie, I can't do the button press on joysticks very well, and there aren't official XBox controllers with programmable buttons to do this. So I use a third party one (wired Power A enhanced), it has an XBox logo on the box but it's distinctly third-party. At the same price as the Microsoft controllers but with added benefits.
Now I have had a joystick not center properly after a time but probably that's more about me not using it properly and the same issue
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Both my xbone and series x each have an SSD with a sata to usb adapter for more space. Hoping its for anticheat vs. forcing us to buy âoeofficialâoe pricey drive expansions.
Microsoft already nerfed USB storage on the Series X/S by limiting it to legacy games and offline storage of Series games, so there's likely no reason they'd block them completely.
This is probably more about blocking generic Chinese controllers, headsets and the like.