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MS eliminates its best new feature: 10 person, 60 min Family Sharing plan for Xbone

The 45 minute restriction's been confirmed? That would have been some slimy MS bullshit keeping that little bit of information a secret.

edit: 60 minutes? Any time limit is still a horrible bait-and-switch.
 

Oppo

Member
Doesn't really matter if the time limit is accurate (was accurate) or not. We'll never see this version of the sharing, whatever it is/was.

Makes me think this was to be the new equivalent of Zune "squirting" songs.
 

jett

D-Member
Naive doesn't cut it for people that thought they were going to be allowed to freely share their shit with 10 random people without any restrictions.
 

Zemm

Member
I kind of wish they didn't back peddle on the DRM just so I could see them explain this 45 minute 'game sharing' farce.
 

Oppo

Member
Naive doesn't cut it for people that thought they were going to be allowed to freely share their shit with 10 random people without any restrictions.

I humbly submit that these people should be referred to as evian.
 
Gonna echo the other people who say to keep this feature for digital games only. It would create a strong incentive to buy digital without having to lower digital game prices, thereby getting rid of the problem of used games without alienating the consumer. It'd generate some much needed goodwill and be a feature MS could use over Sony. It doesn't make sense that they'd get rid of this feature completely just to be vindictive.

They probably got rid of it because they need to make sure that retail games are more appealing than digital games. Otherwise they will lose the support of the retailers and then the Xbox One really would be in trouble. Their solution before was to treat everything as digital so retail and digital were almost on even footing. Retail still had some advantages (reselling/ limited editions/etc.).

They didn't just get rid of it to be an ass like some people believe just to make MS look bad for removing DRM...
 

SRTtoZ

Member
No wonder why they didnt explain the family sharing completely. It SOUNDED cool until you knew ALL of the details.

ps: I'm pretty sure cboat is Major Nelson.
 

nib95

Banned
Well, Cboat did say as much. Lol at Microsoft. Fuck em. They listened, and I am genuinely grateful for that, and I will buy their console eventually. But not any time soon. You can't treat us like this and expect to just get away with it just like that.
 

coldfoot

Banned
LOL, with PS+ you can get 1 hour trials for many games already for free. None of this family BS.

CBOAT confirmed pastebin, and LOL @ people who thought MS/publishers would allow them to share their games with 10 random people over the internet.
 

Jomjom

Banned
I kind of wish they didn't back peddle on the DRM just so I could see them explain this 45 minute 'game sharing' farce.

That definitely would have been a tough one.

"Today we are rolling out a program essentially like what PS3 had with Full Game Trials, except you have to know someone who owns the full game, and even then you can only share the trial with 9 people. Oh and to top it off we give you 15 less minutes for the trial because we here at Microsoft value your time.


...Oh yeah by the way have you seen Titanfall?"
 

SRTtoZ

Member
The odd thing is how happy that MS employee was with the current family plan. "You get to play 30-45 minutes (we haven't decided on a limit) and then after the limit is up it takes you right to the Marketplace where you can BUY THE GAME!!!!"

yay?
 
The family sharing plan sounded amazing when I thought you could just play your share members' games how you wanted.

45 minutes though, that's like a demo. A really solid demo. No reason why they couldn't still do that.
 

Averon

Member
So the Family Plan was just a glorified demo sharing scheme.

The notion that MS and the publishers would be OK with allowing you to give away full $60 retail games to 10 people with little to no restrictions was absurd on its face. Also the whining by some that we gamers killed this "awesome" feature look like gullible clowns now. Hell, MS been making a lot of people looking like clown lately.
 

Satchel

Banned
The family sharing plan sounded amazing when I thought you could just play your share members' games how you wanted.

45 minutes though, that's like a demo. A really solid demo. No reason why they couldn't still do that.

If it really was just a demo program, then there's absolutely zero reason they couldn't still do it, which is why I doubt it was a demo program.

So the Family Plan was just a glorified demo sharing scheme.

The notion that MS and the publishers would be OK with allowing you to give away full $60 retail games to 10 people with little to no restrictions was absurd on its face.

But now you CAN do that with your disc. So I really doubt it was a demo program. Makes no sense. By removing the DRM, you can give your disc to 100 people. Under the sharing program, 10 people max. If it was a demo program, they could have left it in even with the DRM gone.
 
So the Family Plan was just a glorified demo sharing scheme.

The notion that MS and the publishers would be OK with allowing you to give away full $60 retail games to 10 people with little to no restrictions was absurd on its face.

Well apparently they're ok with lending physical copies of games to up to 10 people, so whats the difference?
 
The 45 minute restriction's been confirmed? That would have been some slimy MS bullshit keeping that little bit of information a secret.

edit: 60 minutes? Any time limit is still a horrible bait-and-switch.

I don't know if it was "bait and switch" just GAF got all excited over the feature before knowing all the details.

I think most of us here assumed that the Family Plan was always too good to be true, in theory.

I'll gladly give it up for no DRM.
 

Reallink

Member
It would have been glorious to see the reactions had MS taken DRM all the way and spilled these details right at launch, or even better, let people discover the limitations themselves.
 

jett

D-Member
Well, Cboat did say as much. Lol at Microsoft. Fuck em. They listened, and I am genuinely grateful for that, and I will buy their console eventually. But not any time soon. You can't treat us like this and expect to just get away with it just like that.

This sounds like a person who has clearly not seen Titanfall.
 

Jomjom

Banned
If it really was just a demo program, then there's absolutely zero reason they couldn't still do it, which is why I doubt it was a demo program.

Er... that's the thing. MS has insinuated they are still doing it. Just not at launch.

But judging from your avatar it's ok man you don't need to try to justify your preorder to others here. As long as you like it, what does it matter what others think?

Well apparently they're ok with lending physical copies of games to up to 10 people, so whats the difference?

Digital sharing with 10 people and passing a disc to 10 different people is not at all the same...
 
They probably got rid of it because they need to make sure that retail games are more appealing than digital games. Otherwise they will lose the support of the retailers and then the Xbox One really would be in trouble. Their solution before was to treat everything as digital so retail and digital were almost on even footing. Retail still had some advantages (reselling/ limited editions/etc.).

Retail games would still be more appealing than digital games for some consumers, because they can be resold/lent/borrowed etc. Their previous solution alienated retailers a lot more than what the current one + family share would. Retailers would still have their used games market independently of Microsoft, there would still be lots of people buying retail.

They didn't just get rid of it to be an ass like some people believe just to make MS look bad for removing DRM...
The only people claiming this are the ones who defended Microsoft's position in the first place and are trying to make the consumers who rejected MS look bad.
 
So in return for gamers surrendering their consumer rights Microsoft were so generously going to allow us to share "demos" that only last 45 mins with only 10 people and only if they have been on our list for 30 days or longer. Yep that sounds about right and if that is the "future" as some are claiming in here, well you can take that future and shove it where the sun doesn't shine.
 

kurbaan

Banned
So basically family sharing was the 60 min demo from PS+ but even more restricted because someone in your family has to buy the game anyways.

I'm glad its gone then.
 

Joeki11a

Banned
You want it back?

Welcome DRM

That sharing stuff was the carrot they were using to make you love DRM

It was the big "benefit", heard tons of interview
And MS guys kept using this feature as gods idea.
 

SRTtoZ

Member
If it really was just a demo program, then there's absolutely zero reason they couldn't still do it, which is why I doubt it was a demo program.



But now you CAN do that with your disc. So I really doubt it was a demo program. Makes no sense. By removing the DRM, you can give your disc to 100 people. Under urge sharing program, 10 people max. If it was a demo program, they could have left it in even with the DRM gone.

Yea but people DONT do that. They dont give out their game to 100 people. With a family plan like the one people THOUGHT there would be, it would be VERY easy to take advantage of that just by using a forum and meeting fake online friends. In real life, you share your game with your real videogame friends. I'm sorry but I dont have 100 real life videogame friends that I share with. I share my games with 1 friend.
 

DigitalOp

Banned
If it really was just a demo program, then there's absolutely zero reason they couldn't still do it, which is why I doubt it was a demo program.

But now you CAN do that with your disc. So I really doubt it was a demo program. Makes no sense. By removing the DRM, you can give your disc to 100 people. Under urge sharing program, 10 people max. If it was a demo program, they could have left it in even with the DRM gone.

To be frank, The DRM policy switch statement from MS reads salty and spiteful. Alot of things could still be put in place but they took it out because nobody wanted to play their way.

I really don't care but maybe they might readminister some features in due time... Or not..
 

blackflag

Member
mods having a laugh right now or someone confirm. Amazing if all it was is a demo. There was no way it was really sharing like they made it out to be.
 
That definitely would have been a tough one.

"Today we are rolling out a program essentially like what PS3 had with Full Game Trials, except you have to know someone who owns the full game, and even then you can only share the trial with 9 people. Oh and to top it off we give you 15 less minutes for the trial because we here at Microsoft value your time.


...Oh yeah by the way have you seen Titanfall?"

60 min of Titanfall > 0 Min of Titanfall
 
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