Microsoft adjusts Xbox One DRM policies, online check-ins and used game complications are history

[abdelmajidtolba]

don't know about you guys but I'm leaning toward a XBOX one now, design wise that sober look is awesome, makes me remember carbon fiber tuned cars.

 

[leion8000]

yet...

Meh, didn't care about DRM that much.
What I care about still isn't fixed - there are no good GAEMZ for the thing.

 

[Lestworth]

Walking through the mall, I saw pre-order signs up at every electronics retailer. I'm assuming they would take them down if they could not longer take pre-orders...

And also, are there even maximum capacities to preorder numbers?

Well let me respond, working with a few companies when I was trying to get jobs, retailers during pre-order days typically leave up these signs, despite already being booked out. Cashiers, and people who work in the Electronics department are warned when the preorders are full, and then they start giving out rain-checks to those that may want to take them. So yes if the Electronics retailer is smart, they will still advertise it, yet warn it's a rain-check so you can reserve a future system/game/ect when it becomes available. These are my experiences with basically every job I have held in the electronics department (miserable crappy job fyi).

Yes, there are always a maximum amount for any store on highly sought after games or console for preorder. Where I live, both Blops1-2 and Battlefield 3 were maxed out in preorders overnight because each store only gets a certain number of games / consoles shipped to them. It is not an indefinite demand / supply route. The publishers make a certain amount come release day, and continue to pump them out afterwards. Each store that demands for copies / systems are then given a certain amount according to their location in the city / world. A higher dense populated city will gain more preorder copies then a rural area for obvious reasons.

 

[SifJar]

Your entire argument for this system Microsoft wanted to implement is so that games would decrease in price when the only time we've seen a title not selling at the established price is if it was unpopular and sold like crap, or if it was aging and new copies were still on the shelf. Precedent still debunks this notion, and until all consoles go digital only, the perfect digital model will not come true.

I don't recall saying anything about prices decreasing, and it certainly is not my "entire argument". Digital has other advantages besides the potential price drops. And I agree all consoles should go digital only, but they do not have to for it to work, in the same way that pretty much all music is still sold as CDs in retail stores, but digital distribution is better, so it's still successful.

 

[Sterling]

I don't recall saying anything about prices decreasing, and it certainly is not my "entire argument". Digital has other advantages besides the potential price drops. And I agree all consoles should go digital only, but they do not have to for it to work, in the same way that pretty much all music is still sold as CDs in retail stores, but digital distribution is better, so it's still successful.

Digital may be better in an ideal future, but at the moment the industry is anything but ideal. Let the PC scene grow into a proper model and keep the old model with the consoles. Transition slowly and not as fast as a meth addict on fresh drugs.

 

[BORTZ]

Man, now this means there might actually be a choice between what I buy now.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Thank fucking god. Not that I'm planning on getting one anyway, but it's good to see that M$ actually care about their sales.
Region free is nice too.

 

[Bobbyloujo]

Thank goodness they actually listened to what their customers wanted. Region free is pretty cool too.

 

[The_Cooker]

Wow. Microsoft actually listened to something.

Now, if we can convince Microsoft to change windows back, Microsoft would be great again

 

[JoostinOnline]

Thank goodness they actually listened to what their customers wanted. Region free is pretty cool too.

Probably the same "region free" policy that they had with the 360. Games can be region free, but probably won't.

 

[The Riolu]

I can't believe I'm saying this but for having both current gen consoles, this next-gen war is making the Wii U and the Ouya more interesting to me.

 

[ElYubiYubi]

Staff edit. Though pictures work we find that text is nicer.

The premise is simple and elegant, when you buy your games for Xbox One, you can set any of them to be part of your shared library. Anyone who you deem to be family had access to these games regardless of where they are in the world. There was never any catch to that, they didn't have to share the same billing address or physical address it could be anyone. When your family member accesses any of your games, they're placed into a special demo mode. This demo mode in most cases would be the full game with a 15-45 minute timer and in some cases an hour. This allowed the person to play the game, get familiar with it then make a purchase if they wanted to. When the time limit was up they would automatically be prompted to the Marketplace so that they may order it if liked the game. We were toying around with a limit on the number of times members could access the shared game (as to discourage gamers from simply beating the game by doing multiple playthroughs). but we had not settled on an appropriate way of handling it. One thing we knew is that we wanted the experience to be seamless for both the person sharing and the family member benefiting. There weren't many models of this system already in the wild other than Sony's horrendous game sharing implementation, but it was clear their approach (if one could call it that) was not the way to go. Developers complained about the lost sales and gamers complained about overbearing DRM that punished those who didn't share that implemented by publishers to quell gamers from taking advantage of a poorly thought out system. We wanted our family sharing plan to be something that was talked about and genuinely enjoyed by the masses as a way of inciting gamers to try new games.

Pastebin
http://pastebin.com/TE1MWES2

 

[WhiteMaze]

Staff edit. Though pictures work we find that text is nicer.



Pastebin
http://pastebin.com/TE1MWES2

No, I'm sorry, I'm not buying that.

To blame the second-hand industry for the fact that gaming developers are dying, is ridiculous. The fault is not with the second-hand industry. It never was.

You have the used cars industry, you have the used books industry, you have the used clothing industry, and you also have and will ALWAYS have, used games industry. This is something that will never go away, because it was created for those who cannot afford to pay full prices, but they can still enjoy their games/cars/clothes/books/etc.

ALL of those areas have a second-hand industry. And they are doing fine.

The problem here is only one: PRICE.

You can argue whatever you want, fact of the matter is: nowadays most people do not pay or can't pay 69.99€ for a video-game. This is not 1995. 69.99€ buys you half a month of food, which is fairly more important than gaming.

The economy has changed over the last 20 years. But have their prices? Nope. Developers still want to get payed 20€ an hour, when most people earn 5€. That is the only problem with the gaming industry.

Why do you think Steam is getting bigger everyday and getting more and more people to join? Valve is growing so fast, they are even going to launch a gaming platform for crying out loud.

Why? Really? You don't know?

PRICE.

Yes most of the time the prices on steam are fairly equal or with little difference to a retail store. But fact of the matter is, most people and myself, only purchase on steam when there are offers and sales of 50% or 75% off. Because that is all I can afford if I want to enjoy gaming. They have a pretty good deal going on EVERY SINGLE DAY.

So please, Microsoft, do not argue that the Second-Hand industry is killing the developers. No. The developers have to adapt to a whole new world economy. Not the economy of 20 years ago.

The day Microsoft, and / or other developers begin to think a little bit about the gamers, and drop the prices to reasonable standards, I will give up on hacking, flashcards, and used games right away.

Because I also like new things. And if a new game, costs 20€ or 30€ instead of 70€, I will without thinking twice, buy it new.

Valve is growing because Valve understands that selling a game for 69.99€ to 10 people is very profitable.

But what they understand even better, is that selling that same game for 29.99€ to 100 people is a Jackpot.

They keep their costumers happy and their wallets filled with gold.

 

[ov3rkill]

This is indeed a good news.
Anyway, what do you think is the most anticipated exclusive game for XONE?

 

[KingVamp]

Digital may be better in an ideal future, but at the moment the industry is anything but ideal. Let the PC scene grow into a proper model and keep the old model with the consoles. Transition slowly and not as fast as a meth addict on fresh drugs.

There is a good way to lead into digital,but Microsoft path, DRMing everything, is not the way.

Problems with digital is, trading/selling/sharing, people without/bad internet and availability of those digital (As in, how long will these games stay on the shop.)

Looks like that first one wouldn't be a problem in the future and that without all this DRM nonsense.
That second one going to have to work itself out overtime.
Not sure about the last one, but I read it as a complaint.

 

[Katakana]

Some MS fans almost begun to defend this DRM system, but suddenly MS cancelled it. It's so funny to watch this circus.

 

[kehkou]

Not to mention you still need internet to set the damn thing up; there are heaps of people I know who wont be able to play out-the-box without doing Wi-Fi hunting.
[New Mexican]"Hey neighbor, may I use your internet and TV for a second...Oh, you only have a CRT, never mind..."[/New Mexican]

 

[FAST6191]

Not to mention you still need internet to set the damn thing up; there are heaps of people I know who wont be able to play out-the-box without doing Wi-Fi hunting.
[New Mexican]"Hey neighbor, may I use your internet and TV for a second...Oh, you only have a CRT, never mind..."[/New Mexican]

If the phone shop will offer to set up a phone for me, the TV shop will send people round to calibrate it for me, the bed shop will set up a bed for me and so forth I imagine a game shop will offer to set up a game console for me. Not an ideal situation by any means but not an insurmountable problem either.

 

[kehkou]

If the phone shop will offer to set up a phone for me, the TV shop will send people round to calibrate it for me, the bed shop will set up a bed for me and so forth I imagine a game shop will offer to set up a game console for me. Not an ideal situation by any means but not an insurmountable problem either.

That would prolly piss of the yanks who work for Gamestop or the like if you asked them to set it up for you...at least at my local Gamestop. They suck and are unknowlegeable i.e. "I can't buy this PS2 from you without the original HDMI cable that came with it". dafuq?

 

[WhiteMaze]

"I can't buy this PS2 from you without the original HDMI cable that came with it". dafuq?

Thank you for making milk come out of my nose.

I've been laughing at that for a good 15 min :'D