gaming Microsoft exec says original Xbox One licensing was "ahead" of consumers

[long gone 8,929]

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/09/microsoft-xbox-one-licensing-plan-was-a-little-ahead-of-consumers/

 

And by all means he is right. Console gamers aren't like PC gamers, they're not used to the absence of a disc in the drive yet or the digital distribution of games yet. Since this generation is now merely introducing the concept of digital distribution to console gamers instead of trying to force them to buy their games digitally (a la Steam), maybe we'll see a transition similar to the PC where discs for games were all but phased out and digital sales through Steam, GOG, Amazon and the like take over, albeit with centralized game stores owned and maintained by Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft.

 

What do you think will happen in the future of consoles? Will they continue to offer discs, or will digital distribution take over and discs will just be an alternate form of acquiring games?

[Discordian 6,013]

Console gamers are obsessed with having physical copies of their games so it's hard to say whether they will ever be phased out or not.

 

If it is all I can say is they better start adding bigger HDDs. I know some consoles let you use custom HDDs but I've never changed them myself so I dunno if it only takes certain brands or whatnot.

 

The ability to download things even while the console is off would help too though so we don't have to wait for six hours for a large game to download while we play something else which I'm almost certain slows down the download.

Edited September 6, 2013 by Discordian

[Scootalove 10,684]

The future of consoles can hold many different opportunities when it comes to buying video games, so in the future a disc might still be required and you could be able to buy games online without a disc and still be able to save your progress. For now, the future has a lot of different possibilities.

[long gone 8,929]

Console gamers are obsessed with having physical copies of their games so it's hard to say whether they will ever be phased out or not.

 

If it is all I can say is they better start adding bigger HDDs. I know some consoles let you use custom HDDs but I've never changed them myself so I dunno if it only takes certain brands or whatnot.

 

The ability to download things even while the console is off would help too though so we don't have to wait for six hours for a large game to download while we play something else which I'm almost certain slows down the download.

First point is definitely true. I know very few console gamers that make only digital purchases. The rest love their discs.

 

The PS3 allows you to use any 2.5" hard drive. I know because I put the 320GB hard drive from an old Acer laptop in my 40GB model when my sister started using it and absorbed all but 3GB of the stock drive. Microsoft limited the Xbox to just the 8GB or 10GB hard drive contained within and the Xbox 360 to proprietary hard drive designs from them, not sure about the Xbox One but it seems to be the same as the original Xbox, except with 490 (or 492) more gigabytes of storage. From what I've seen of it, the XB1 doesn't seem to have a whole lot of ports beyond I/O ports. Sony, with the PS3, allows any 2.5" hard drive up to I believe 2TB to be used with the console; there are people who upgraded their PS3s to 2TB. I'm not sure about the PS4, but when I get mine in November I'll definitely check it out. Nintendo doesn't have upgradeable storage due to their insistence on tiny eMMCs and flash storage, but they allow the user to partition an external, USB hard drive for use for digital game storage instead of relying exclusively on the built-in NAND module. Only thing is that one partition has to be dedicated exclusively to the console and the whole drive is formatted.

 

Being able to play a game while waiting for another game to download is a good idea, yeah. I also know that the PS3 allows background downloads of digitally purchased games, but I don't know if this can be done while gaming due to the console's limited RAM (only 256MB!) and games tend to take up a lot of this memory.

[Mutemutt 772]

To be fair, I think the main problem with Xbox One's original direction was just how they sold the idea. When everything you advertise sounds like an undue restriction, it doesn't sound very appealing. 

 

I actually buy many of my games digitally now. It's just simpler to play a digital game: no switching discs, no having to go out and buy a disc. But I still like to get discs for the games I like to sort of collect, I guess. It's kind of like the age old joy of reading the little booklets that came with games and I think it will probably be phased out just the same. 

 

And yes, I mainly play on console.

 

Being able to play a game while waiting for another game to download is a good idea, yeah. I also know that the PS3 allows background downloads of digitally purchased games, but I don't know if this can be done while gaming due to the console's limited RAM (only 256MB!) and games tend to take up a lot of this memory.

 

It's doable.

Edited September 6, 2013 by Mutemutt

[Nomadic 210]

I don't know about ahead of the consumer, when I buy games for my console the physical media is one of the big draws for it, the other one being online gaming with my friends although that is rapidly shifting. If I don't care about the physical media, I might as well game on my desktop. My other issue with companies switching over to digital distribution is a retro-gamer, a lot of these modern games that were released in a buggy state or eventually came out with DLC, after the servers go down everyone will have to suffice with the vanilla game if they ever get an itch to go back and play the game, if they don't have said patches/DLC.

[Abstract 831]

Dunno about the rest of y'all, but my internet connection is dreadfully slow; it would take less time and be less frustrating for me to just go buy the game on optical media at the store, rather than trying to download one.

 

Not to mention the possibility of a HDD crash or some other data loss when it comes to downloaded games; you better have made backups. And when you buy a game on a disc, you already have it done for you.

[Bucky McGillyCuddy 956]

The only reason I ever buy discs now is if there's a collectors edition with some cool stuff that it comes with that otherwise wouldn't be available through digital download. I'm on PC by the way. 

[ActFast231 432]

Being a console gamer myself, I personally find that having a physical copy of a game is much better than a digital one. It feels better when you go to the store, throw down some cash, and walk home with a brand new game. Having an actual physical product, adding to a sort of collection on a shelf, and this may just be me, but I love the smell of a new game. Kinda like how there is a new car smell, there is a new game smell that for one really like. It just isn't the same when you purchase it online, though I still do for games like Journey and Minecraft. I will always be one that will always try to get a physical copy if I can.

[Discordian 6,013]

First point is definitely true. I know very few console gamers that make only digital purchases. The rest love their discs.

 

The PS3 allows you to use any 2.5" hard drive. I know because I put the 320GB hard drive from an old Acer laptop in my 40GB model when my sister started using it and absorbed all but 3GB of the stock drive. Microsoft limited the Xbox to just the 8GB or 10GB hard drive contained within and the Xbox 360 to proprietary hard drive designs from them, not sure about the Xbox One but it seems to be the same as the original Xbox, except with 490 (or 492) more gigabytes of storage. From what I've seen of it, the XB1 doesn't seem to have a whole lot of ports beyond I/O ports. Sony, with the PS3, allows any 2.5" hard drive up to I believe 2TB to be used with the console; there are people who upgraded their PS3s to 2TB. I'm not sure about the PS4, but when I get mine in November I'll definitely check it out. Nintendo doesn't have upgradeable storage due to their insistence on tiny eMMCs and flash storage, but they allow the user to partition an external, USB hard drive for use for digital game storage instead of relying exclusively on the built-in NAND module. Only thing is that one partition has to be dedicated exclusively to the console and the whole drive is formatted.

 

Being able to play a game while waiting for another game to download is a good idea, yeah. I also know that the PS3 allows background downloads of digitally purchased games, but I don't know if this can be done while gaming due to the console's limited RAM (only 256MB!) and games tend to take up a lot of this memory.

You can play while things download on both PS3 and 360 (though not on Wii) but what I'm saying is playing while the console is off so that someone can leave the console to go to work and have things downloaded by the time they get home or something.

Dunno about the rest of y'all, but my internet connection is dreadfully slow; it would take less time and be less frustrating for me to just go buy the game on optical media at the store, rather than trying to download one.

 

Not to mention the possibility of a HDD crash or some other data loss when it comes to downloaded games; you better have made backups. And when you buy a game on a disc, you already have it done for you.

This, too, is another reason why discs won't go away so easily. Unless internet because very good in every region it's not gonna be a good idea to download unless consoles can download while the system is off. Slow connections can download overnight or something.

[Abstract 831]

This, too, is another reason why discs won't go away so easily. Unless internet because very good in every region it's not gonna be a good idea to download unless consoles can download while the system is off. Slow connections can download overnight or something.

Well, I don't really see the need to have a console download things while it's off - can't you just leave it on? If it's off, you obviously aren't using it at that moment; you can leave it on and not use it just as well.

[Discordian 6,013]

Well, I don't really see the need to have a console download things while it's off - can't you just leave it on? If it's off, you obviously aren't using it at that moment; you can leave it on and not use it just as well.

You really wanna leave a console on 24/7 simply for the sake of downloading something? It both saves power and extends the console's life as well as reduces any potential hazards from overheating and such (not that those are common anyway)

[Brony Number 42 9,996]

Pet peve of mine: DVDs and CDs are digital content. Selling a game on a disc is distributing it digitally. I'm trying to change the bad nomenclature. Technically a piece of paper with 1s and 0s is digital content.

 

I am a game collector and I will not buy medialess (a better term?) content. I like having something tangible. I like the control. I don't want someone locking out my content or deleting it, like Kindle did. I don't want to have to be online just to play a game or read a book. I know there is medialess content thay you can still have control over. That's fine for some stuff. But as a collector there is no point in paying for something virtual that I don't have time to play.

[GrauWitz 1,010]

Xbox One Highlights; TV, TV, TV, TV, Movies and TV, Sports TV, watch TV, live action Halo series on TV, TV, TV, TV, TV, TV, EA Sports, TV, TV, Call of Duty, Call of Duty, Call of Duty, Call of Duty, TV, TV, always-on DRM, TV, Kinect 2.0 bullshit, DEAL WITH IT, TV. Did I mention TV?

[~Silver Essence~ 2,622]

The future is endless to say what will be the true distribution.

 

I for one like it physical copy like, but digital is not bad either.

[Harmonic Revelations 8,833]

The reason I prefer a physical copy is because digital distribution isn't actually you purchasing a copy of the game, it's you purchasing the right to play the game, the bad thing about that is that the right can be revoked at any time without compensation.

[Fridge 382]

I think as it stands now the Xbox one can't have an external hard drive attached, there was a report that it will eventually allow one to be attached but what's the bets it's got to be a Xbox approved one?

 

In a way the licensing thing was ahead of console gamers but it wasn't just that, the system itself just isn't ready to go without a physical medium. Part of the reason why gog and steam work so well is because of the deals they give, with steam I don't care that I 'technically' don't own my games simply because I generally have paid less than a third I would in a real shop. Top that off that gog even makes the games totally drm free so you can play offline or copy them to a disc etc.

If the Xbox live system could emulate steam etc with those kinds of deals then they would get cut a substantial part of the preowned market in one stroke.

[FoxyCryptid 4,327]

The reason I prefer a physical copy is because digital distribution isn't actually you purchasing a copy of the game, it's you purchasing the right to play the game, the bad thing about that is that the right can be revoked at any time without compensation.

This, this right here is the point I've trying to make to people that want everything to go digital, without any hard copy or way to legally make a back-up you're putting yourself in a precarious spot of putting all your faith in the company and hoping they won't screw you. 

 

Personally, I'm a collector and I like having hard copes of things(especially collector's editions and such). 

 

The big issue with comparing it Steam is that Steam gives absurdly good deals to balance it out and make the DRM and restrictions worth it. I can't picture Microsoft doing that in any way, shape, or form(or if they do, they'd probably only have sales on games so old it didn't matter)  

Edited September 6, 2013 by Shoboni

[Harmonic Revelations 8,833]

This, this right here is the point I've trying to make to people that want everything to go digital, without any hard copy or way to legally make a back-up you're putting yourself in a precarious spot of putting all your faith in the company and hoping they won't screw you. 

 

Personally, I'm a collector and I like having hard copes of things(especially collector's editions and such). 

 

The big issue with comparing it Steam is that Steam gives absurdly good deals to balance it out and make the DRM and restrictions worth it. I can't picture Microsoft doing that in any way, shape, or form(or if they do, they'd probably only have sales on games so old it didn't matter)  

Exactly. Licenses are just that, licenses, they can be revoked. While it is possible, it is much harder to revoke a physical copy.  

[Crystallize 279]

I don't know what it is about consoles and PCs. On a PC, I can't stand discs and have everything bought from Steam. But on console, I must have it on disc. No matter how much cheaper it is online, I still always opt for the disc.

 

This is going to sound really, really dumb but I even bought a game on PSN, but a few months later I ended up buying it again in physical form. Weird right?

 

And I hope things don't slowly go into digital sales. I love that feeling of opening a new game and smelling all that new stuff and flipping through those booklets.

[Flutter's lover <3 8,204]

Console gamers are obsessed with having physical copies of their games so it's hard to say whether they will ever be phased out or not.

 

If it is all I can say is they better start adding bigger HDDs. I know some consoles let you use custom HDDs but I've never changed them myself so I dunno if it only takes certain brands or whatnot.

 

The ability to download things even while the console is off would help too though so we don't have to wait for six hours for a large game to download while we play something else which I'm almost certain slows down the download.

 

 

I agree on point 1, because that's partially why some people buy a console.  and if they want to share that game wit ha friend, well they just give them the disc. It makes for having a nice "Collection" as well.

 

Point 2, well not everyone has that great of internet, and some don't have unlimited either. Like my friend, he doesn't have unlimited, so he can only download so much a month before he's capped.  Which is another reason I like a physical copy, I don't have to wait to download it or anything I can just play it.

 

the 360 does "background" downloads, which means it'll download your stuff while playing a game, so long as that game you play is not online. And when you shut your console off, it goes in to a low power state only keeping on the stuff needed to download the game to the HDD. It also does this for any updates that need to be downloaded after you've shut off your console.

[Shanks 10,811]

I can't speak for all console gamers but for me personally I prefer a physical copy because they tend to take up less drive space than downloadable copies. The good news of course is that memory and disk space are getting cheaper and cheaper allowing companies to bring out more power for less cash, and things like external hard drives and sd cards are also becoming cheaper making digital copies more and more feasible. What is a long way from becoming feasible though is having all games require constant internet access to play, it is understandable for games like MMO's for example but where does that leave gamers when they want to play but their connection is down? 

[long gone 8,929]

This, this right here is the point I've trying to make to people that want everything to go digital, without any hard copy or way to legally make a back-up you're putting yourself in a precarious spot of putting all your faith in the company and hoping they won't screw you. 

 

Personally, I'm a collector and I like having hard copes of things(especially collector's editions and such). 

 

The big issue with comparing it Steam is that Steam gives absurdly good deals to balance it out and make the DRM and restrictions worth it. I can't picture Microsoft doing that in any way, shape, or form(or if they do, they'd probably only have sales on games so old it didn't matter)  

Steam also allows backing up games to a disc or hard drive, and some games (like Paradox Interactive games or Kerbal Space Program) ship without the Steam DRM, making the purchases more enticing. With the way how Microsoft originally set up the XB1's DRM, gamers would not have this "backup-to-a-disc" luxury if they bought their games digitally.

 

Further, Gabe Newell has stated that if Valve were to go under and could no longer do business, they would release one final patch for Steam that disables the Steam DRM, allowing gamers to continue accessing and playing their games if Valve were to shut down. With Microsoft, it's unclear what will happen with your digital purchases on the Xbox 360 and later Xbox One when support stops. Would you also retain these games or lose access to them forever?

[FoxyCryptid 4,327]

Steam also allows backing up games to a disc or hard drive, and some games (like Paradox Interactive games or Kerbal Space Program) ship without the Steam DRM, making the purchases more enticing. With the way how Microsoft originally set up the XB1's DRM, gamers would not have this "backup-to-a-disc" luxury if they bought their games digitally.

 

Further, Gabe Newell has stated that if Valve were to go under and could no longer do business, they would release one final patch for Steam that disables the Steam DRM, allowing gamers to continue accessing and playing their games if Valve were to shut down. With Microsoft, it's unclear what will happen with your digital purchases on the Xbox 360 and later Xbox One when support stops. Would you also retain these games or lose access to them forever?

 

Exactly, I don't see MS doing any of the nice stuff Valve does with Steam. As much as I dislike Steam for making budget titles(which I have a weakness for) harder and harder to find in stores I can at least get behind the way they run the platform on principal of how fair they are with it. 

 

In sort, I DO NOT trust giving that kind of control over my games to MS or Sony. 

Edited September 7, 2013 by Shoboni

[Twiliscael 3,958]

I honestly think that Microsoft had good intentions with their forced-online and DRM policies. The problem is that it doesn't work out well when such a huge majority of people cannot connect to the internet 24/7, and when the way that they're presented is in such an elitist manner that is unable to accept critiscm. Now that they've changed everything to what it should be, I don't see why people are so damn skeptical and hostile towards the One. I for one am looking forward to my shiny new Xbox, being able to play my games like Halo, Titanfall, and Dead Rising :3

 

You can play while things download on both PS3 and 360 (though not on Wii) but what I'm saying is playing while the console is off so that someone can leave the console to go to work and have things downloaded by the time they get home or something.

Actually, the 360 allows you to turn on a setting that downloads things while it's "Off." Rather than being truly off, it takes a minimal amount of power necessary to download whatever it is, while the console is almost as good as off. Kind of like sleep mode on a computer.