Sony Fesses Up

[Kulaf]

http://www.slashgear.com/ps4-used-games ... -11286065/

Just like I said.

[Kulaf]

And before the ...... but, but MICRO$OFT!:

http://www.geeksofdoom.com/2013/06/10/m ... h-xbox-one

“In our role as a game publisher, Microsoft Studios will enable you to give your games to friends or trade in your Xbox One games at participating retailers. Third party publishers may opt in or out of supporting game resale and may set up business terms or transfer fees with retailers. Microsoft does not receive any compensation as part of this. In addition, third party publishers can enable you to give games to friends.

We designed Xbox One so game publishers can enable you to trade in your games at participating retailers. Microsoft does not charge a platform fee to retailers, publishers, or consumers for enabling transfer of these games.”

And a reason why it is going to happen no matter what......because we want it to happen:

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-21539_7-57 ... e-know-it/

[Xican]

To cut through all the crap, this still comes off to me as the following...

Sony: We're letting developers decide how they want to handle the DRM issue.

Microsoft: We're encouraging DRM and even offering a specific means of enforcing it, as part of our service.

I still don't think Microsoft comes off clean, just because Sony is not going to restrict DRM use.

[Ddrak]

The PS4 has exactly the same DRM support as the PS3 (ie none, it's all on the publishers).
The XBox One has DRM baked in that makes it quite difficult to share or sell your games. Special "blessed" retailers have to register game transfers with MS? Seriously?

Steam is far, far above the rubbish the XBox One is piling on. Major difference: select the "Steam" menu and choose "Go Offline...". That's not possible on the XBox One. Steam is far more like the current PSN or XBoxLive marketplaces than the XBox One proposals.

Dd

[Kulaf]

You can play offline on the XB1. The only requirement is that you connect to the Internet one time every 24 hours.

[Ddrak]

Which sucks, seriously. When I next move house, it means no gaming for the 3 weeks it takes to get internet connected. There's plenty of other scenarios I can think of where you can find yourself without internet for that time. Assuming the console is secure (a fair assumption that anyone who cracks the console can crack the network protection), there's no reason to go with anything beyond one-shot activation like Steam. I have mostly stopped buying games that require repeated online activations for single player play (D3 the notable exception), so I'm not buying into a console that would mandate it. :/

Dd

[Fallakin Kuvari]

Introducing the Xbox 1984. It listens to you in every room, watches what you're doing whenever you're in the same room. Requires a Internet "check" (for undisclosed purposes) every 24 hours. We here at Microsoft love you, we want to take care of you.

[Kulaf]

It's not undisclosed. It checks for updates once every 24 hours.

[Fallakin Kuvari]

Surely its doing more than that, it can do that whenever you sign into xbox live. (In fact thats exactly what the 360 does)

[Kulaf]

So obviously some nefarious reason is to blame right? Here is the "disclosure" from Microsoft:

“Xbox One is designed to run in a low-powered, connected state. This means your system, games and apps are always current and ready to play—no more waiting for updates. While a persistent connection is not required, Xbox One is designed to verify if system, application or game updates are needed and to see if you have acquired new games, or resold, traded in, or given your game to a friend. Games that are designed to take advantage of the cloud may require a connection.”

So much like the various apps on your computer that update themselves automatically when you are connected......so does the XB1. But because they are also dealing with Cloud based games and the notion of selling/trading/giving games away......it has to verify the status of the games loaded on your hard drive.

Remember, the XB1 does not need the media in the drive to play......therefore it has to determine the validity of your license in other ways. This is what will allow you to play the same game on multiple XB1's in your home, or log in to a friends XB1 and be able to access your games.

[Fallakin Kuvari]

Which it could do whenever you launch a game, rather than requiring a 24 hour check-in...

[Ddrak]

Remember, the XB1 does not need the media in the drive to play......therefore it has to determine the validity of your license in other ways. This is what will allow you to play the same game on multiple XB1's in your home, or log in to a friends XB1 and be able to access your games.

Yeah, but this is still no different to Steam. They could easily just assume that if there's no internet connection then games already installed+activated are just fine. Sure, some freaks will get free games but the pain of always taking your system offline every single time you want to play a "pirate" game means there's virtually no piracy through that avenue anyway.

They're solving a non-existent problem, and doing it by blatantly assuming all their customers are criminals. Oddly, customers tend to not appreciate that.

Dd