Unspeakable Evil
Member
PS4 has digital too.....
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MS eliminates its best new feature: 10 person, 60 min Family Sharing plan for Xbone
- Thread starter Horse Armour
- Start date
PS4 has digital too.....
Brawly Likes to Brawl
Member
Yeah I guess that makes sense but I feel like they would lose alot of money with it. Like Sony and the 4 console rule on digital.
bishopcruz
Member
Those who are crying about the loss of the family plan have absolutely no one to blame for this other than Microsoft themselves.
Fact is, if MS had come out early talking about the cool ways you could share your games, the advantages of having stuff digitally tied to your account, and actually had... y'know a viable plan that they succinctly told people about, maybe this wouldn't have been an issue.
They didn't though. They released the information in an incredibly confusing way in a Q and A page that left more questions than it answered, they pretty much said that physical lending was done, and they had nothing to say other than, it will be great... trust us. Not something a lot of people were willing to do for a company that had spent the last three years burning it's hard core gamer cred like Joker burning a pile of money.
MS acted like they had something to hide, they set gamer's BS detectors off, and the internets responded in kind.
So they in no way SOLD this digital future that you guys are lamenting, they just expected everyone to be on board, losing rights for hazy promises. Their PR was catastrophically bad this E3, maybe this new change will have fixed it, I don't know. I haven't seen this much of a fan exodus since Sega's chain of missteps nearly 20 years ago.
Fact is, if MS had come out early talking about the cool ways you could share your games, the advantages of having stuff digitally tied to your account, and actually had... y'know a viable plan that they succinctly told people about, maybe this wouldn't have been an issue.
They didn't though. They released the information in an incredibly confusing way in a Q and A page that left more questions than it answered, they pretty much said that physical lending was done, and they had nothing to say other than, it will be great... trust us. Not something a lot of people were willing to do for a company that had spent the last three years burning it's hard core gamer cred like Joker burning a pile of money.
MS acted like they had something to hide, they set gamer's BS detectors off, and the internets responded in kind.
So they in no way SOLD this digital future that you guys are lamenting, they just expected everyone to be on board, losing rights for hazy promises. Their PR was catastrophically bad this E3, maybe this new change will have fixed it, I don't know. I haven't seen this much of a fan exodus since Sega's chain of missteps nearly 20 years ago.
There were no details at all in that link. Just a wishful thought or to appease people at first. Just like the exploring options for lending and rental. Think about it you can share with 10 people but can't lend a game? Best case would of been first party and XBLA games from smaller companies they could pay off to be part of it.
It requires a gold membership so you can assume they have access to the internet.
Ding fucking ding fucking ding.
NullPointer
Member
So I guess this counts as a datapoint that customers *are* interested in the details?
Indeed. I wonder if they'll be that many digital only games anyway though.
John Caboose
Member
The always online was for one thing only: To make sure you didn't have offline access to games you had traded in at GameStop. Remember, you wouldn't have needed the disc after initial install with the old system. Now you will always need the disc in the drive but no internet heartbeat.
IrishNinja
Member
i don't know who this guy is with his nick fury jr avatar, but i wanted this post quoted cause it needs to be hard by those of you seriously lamenting this loss
K
kittens
Unconfirmed Member
Again: Microsoft cutting family sharing isn't anyone's fault but Microsoft's.
I think it's safe to assume that the game sharing requires you to be online so that you can't have multiple people playing the same game at the same time.
VibratingDonkey
Member
Hope there'll be some way of sharing downloaded games. Anything at all would be an improvement really.
plagiarize
Banned
That and anti piracy, and anti people playing the game early. The internet heartbeat had absolutely no benefit to legitimate consumers, basically. That's different to treating all physical games as digital though, steam style, which I think we agree on.
Kite
Member
Instead of obtaining Bioshock Infinite from YarrmemateyBay and the publisher getting $0, they could have gotten $5-10 from me which is about what I'm willing to pay for a single player game with no MP , online or anything beyond playing the story once. Even Game Stop's lol used game prices is too much when compared to WoW's $15 a mo or GW2's even better value of $0.
The Gaming Zen
Banned
I'll gladly say goodbye to this Family Share Plan in order to get rid of always Online and no used games. Who knows, maybe they will still implement it sometime in the future. I've been dreading the day when all my games are digital and I can no longer see, smell, or touch them. Now there will still be a physical history of the games we play and not just some Photoshop image or text on my monitor.
NullPointer
Member
If it ever actually existed in the way many here think it did.
It was bound to be part of this decision. It already seemed too good to be true and it was already a concession/advantage for people putting up with always online. If they're going in the opposite direction, it was going to get cut. If people expected otherwise, they weren't think it through very much.
Its definitely on us in the end. Perhaps some people have gotten this whole, "We can dictate the terms' thing to skew consumer realities to a degree, so they didn't see this coming, but they should have.
John Caboose
Member
As the owner of your library you wouldn't have to stay online to play. Just the 24h heartbeat to make sure the games was still in your ownership. You would, of course, have to be online to play something from one of your friends libraries (using family sharing).
Well yeah those would come as a bonus but pirates would find a way. They always do.
plagiarize
Banned
That was clearly the design though, if you get what I mean.
Why are you believing in a choice that was never presented to gamers? When EA talked about getting rid of online passes and that they are formulating a used game policy, i don't recall them saying " but on xbox one you can share all of our games with any 10 friends you want to" No one talked about sharing like it was actually a thing, let alone only something that was possible by killing rentals/used games.
IllumiNate
Member
Worst news all week. Pre order cancelled. Not even joking
anexanhume
Member
The complaint was always on for SP. Never for sharing.
John Caboose
Member
Yeah. My point was the only thing that would have to be cut to get rid of the heartbeat (and keep everything else about the old system) was to disable any offline license transfer (Read: kill used games).
And with that it's bedtime. Will read up on the thread tomorrow.
This. I mean, ideally this would be gamechanging. But when you really think about the logistics of this, it falls apart. It would have never lived up to the hype.
longdi
Banned
exactly..family sharing was all too sudden and under marketed until the last moment...doubt there is any real 'loss' to gamers now.
They did say the feature wouldn't be available at launch, so there is still hope we could see it through software updates. Microsoft has a pretty good history with adding capabilities throughout the console cycle.
I feel the same way, or else they would have control of what games would be allowed to share because I can't see in any conceivable way how they would all agree to sharing a brand new AAA game with 10 other people and not have concerns.
blitzcloud
Banned
Nice knowing ya.
Not 100% sure what you're saying here?
Are you implying that the game sharing thing was never actually going to happen? I think thats plausible. It did seem too good to be true, like I said. But thats just speculation and will only ever be speculation at this point. We'll never know the full story behind it.
Is there any real reason that they can't do this with digital games, guys? It's a little absurd to be going on about how big jerks who are against drm ruined everything if there's no line of cause and effect between getting rid of crazy drm on disc-based games and eliminating digital game sharing.
Also, I spent a ton of time reading the details about the sharing plan and I'm confident in saying NO ONE knew exactly how good it was going to be or how it would work -- microsoft even contradicted themselves almost whenever they talked about it.
Also, I spent a ton of time reading the details about the sharing plan and I'm confident in saying NO ONE knew exactly how good it was going to be or how it would work -- microsoft even contradicted themselves almost whenever they talked about it.
Iced_Eagle
Member
1) There is now a split between a physical copy and a digital copy. Previously, it doesn't matter where I bought the game (retail or digital), it all got put into the same library that was shareable to anyone in my family group. This loses a lot of the appeal right away.
2) The removal of the connection requirement even for digital games means that this would easily be exploitable. Start playing a game, unplug, and the service doesn't know if the sharing license is in use or not. You could then play offline permanently assuming you don't leave the game. Since MS is now unable to force this, there's no way publishers would want their games to be able to be shared, with the potential they could lose out on a lot of sales. Previously, there was a limit as to how many people could play at a time, and you could know that someone would have to get back online within a day and the license could be refreshed.
It's possible MS could implement something like this in the future, but it will in no way be as good as what they originally announced, especially with point #1 above.
I was actually looking forward to the Family Sharing feature. Is there an answer on if buying a disc copy will add the game to your Cloud library? Or has that been eliminated too? I prefer having physical copies of my games, but I really liked the idea of going on a friend's console, logging into my account, and have access to all my games without the disc. Or do you have to double dip in order to do this (like it is today)?
The Gaming Zen
Banned
Boohoo! You showed them!
entremet
Member
To be honest, I thought these features were pretty interesting. Those who didn't care about the DRM had the PS4 as alternative. The XB1 looks less attractive me now.
MS was doing interesting things with full disc installs and no disc checking, digital lending, physical and digital being all in the same. Sad to see that stuff go. It seem like it was the first true digital console.
MS was doing interesting things with full disc installs and no disc checking, digital lending, physical and digital being all in the same. Sad to see that stuff go. It seem like it was the first true digital console.
Been in meetings all afternoon, so just getting the news now.
This would be the natural compromise, and I hope they do it. But I'm just glad they've done a full backtrack of the DRM and always online requirement. They've made the Xbox One much more appealing, IMO.
I think it's safe to say we can thank Sony for this. (Thread title should be updated to indicate the disc DRM was scrapped as well.)
Edit: missed the other thread on this.
This would be the natural compromise, and I hope they do it. But I'm just glad they've done a full backtrack of the DRM and always online requirement. They've made the Xbox One much more appealing, IMO.
I think it's safe to say we can thank Sony for this. (Thread title should be updated to indicate the disc DRM was scrapped as well.)
Edit: missed the other thread on this.
Giving up consumer rights and being treated like a criminal are not "advances", no matter how many other features are thrown in.
Tyrone_Biggums
Banned
BS. Gamers would've cried no matter how they "presented" it. They always do.
entremet
Member
You don't have to buy the console. You can get a PS4 if that mattered to you. Personally, I have a great, stable connection, I don't care about selling my games back, and I don't buy used. Family sharing and disc free installs were awesome features that only worked with some type of verification to prevent abuse.
I do hope this will pan out for digital--it still sucks that it'd be limited to things bought from MS store, but it's better than nothing and might be enough to push me to go mostly-digital next gen. I really hope the gaming media bugs them about this and it doesn't just fade away into the night; if they were lying the whole time as people like to theorize they deserve to be harassed about it, and if they weren't then maybe they'll actually do something.
To be honest, I thought these features were pretty interesting. Those who didn't care about the DRM had the PS4 as alternative. The XB1 looks less attractive me now.
MS was doing interesting things with full disc installs and no disc checking, digital lending, physical and digital being all in the same. Sad to see that stuff go. It seem like it was the first true digital console.
Yah I was pretty ready to accept it with open arms. I'm aware how an "online requirement" is important to other consumers but to me I was pretty ready for it. Ah well.
Like one of the mods was saying before, it seems likely that they *will* implement some form of this in the future, probably locked as a feature with an optional always-online DRM policy. Its still in their best interests to push digital, and this would be a good way to do it. Not sure if it will be as grand as being able to share with 10 other people, but it would be smart of them to provide some sort of incentive for people who were fine with a constant connection and little interest in retail or reselling.
It would be the best of both worlds. But we cant have it all.
plagiarize
Banned
I know you're pretty upset right now, but you have to turn a huge blind eye to a lot of things to thing next gen is advancing 'nothing'.
No one really knew much about how this worked or which publishers would opt out. The excitement for it was born out of finding ways to justify and defend the draconian DRM of the system.
The MS pr machine went into overdrive recently trying to push this feature to deflect the DRM issue but they were very unclear as to the restrictions. The DRM is gone guys you can stop fantasizing about what the pr said about the magical feature.
The MS pr machine went into overdrive recently trying to push this feature to deflect the DRM issue but they were very unclear as to the restrictions. The DRM is gone guys you can stop fantasizing about what the pr said about the magical feature.
SneakyStephan
Banned
I don't get the complaints (though frankly for DD games they should have kept sharing in since you can't fucking trade or gift them either...)
Just give the disc tothe person who wants to play it, like you've always done.
They'll thank you for not having to download 20-40 GB as well...
Just give the disc tothe person who wants to play it, like you've always done.
They'll thank you for not having to download 20-40 GB as well...
Its an Xbox One. I would like to say your petty over-simplifying BS wont work here, but I'm sad to say that if this was Facebook, you'd get a ton of likes for that comment.
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