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

koryuken

Member
Well then, here was the catch ladies and gentlemen:

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...When the time limit was up they would automatically be prompted to the Marketplace so that they may order it if liked the game.

Taken from: http://www.heyuguysgaming.com/news/12507/heartbroken-xbox-one-employee-lets-rip-must-read

45 minutes to an hour of trying the game... not quite "sharing". Useless...
 
pubs/developers said the 5 person ps3 gamesharing was a total disaster zone for them (with capcom going as far as to put always online drm in a couple of their psn games to stop it), you think they would make a system that is even more convenient and with 10 people? are you kidding me?

edit: i mean this even if the pastebin isn't real, because it probably isn't.

I've said again and again, 5 full unrestricted licenses in which anyone could have access to on those 5 systems is not the same as only 1 instances at any given time among the white list of accounts. There's a considerable amount of difference in those two restrictions/policies.

Edit: Why is the title saying it like the time limit is fact? Man, can we a least get accurate info being discussed rather than running with unsubstantiated rumors? It kills any type of discussion when there's so much BS.
 

spookyfish

Member
LOL @ folks believing the pastebin post. It's so obviously anti MS that I can only believe those regurgitating it as fact are part of the SDF. As for the removal of family sharing: sigh. I guess this is the result of the strident and vocal anti-DRM minority wishing that all consoles stop evolving and advancing over time.

LOL at "minority".

OK. Keep telling yourself that, if it helps you.
 

JesseZao

Member
The shift in policy could explain the lack of details and asinine interviews with MS people since the reveal. If the company was having internal debates as to how they should deal with the outcry they probably didn't want to add more concrete explanations to the announced plan if they were just going to reverse it all anyway. It was a PR disaster for sure, but they took way too long to make up their minds and left the consumer in the internet age of "instant reactions desire instant simple and complete answers" hanging for far too long.

Maybe they did have a legitimate plan for digital sharing and maybe we'll see it someday, but the fact that they had to change course put the brakes on fleshing the service out.
 

Crisco

Banned
Whether or not the pastebin is valid, I think it speaks volumes that MS never fully explained the family share system, or really tried to pitch it as benefit of the XBone. They were clearly still undecided on how it work and the restrictions it would have. Some of sort limit on play time makes the most sense.
 
Wait, I'm confused. Was the 45 min Family Sharing plan thing confirmed or is that some random rumor?

Looks to be a rand pastebin rumor. Odd title change considering pastebin rumors aren't really allowed anymore. There probably was some kind of caveat to this family sharing plan we weren't told about yet because it seemed too good to be true, but I doubt that rumor is it.
 
So pastebins are now a valid source? Wtf at the thread title change.

I've noticed this has happened a couple times recently... We really should be erring on the side of caution for things like this. There is no confirmation for this and as such is really misleading on what has become the loss of what some consider a really nice feature.

I personally would much prefer they would just offer the option. Make it an opt-in opt-out. If you opt-in, you have your 24 hour check in and can share the games. If you opt-out, no check in and no game sharing. This easily allows BOTH sides of this sad fence to get what they desire.

Microsoft could have easily turned this around in a positive way with a positive outcome for all parties... I just don't understand what they're thinking here. Its a shame because I really feel the xb1 has great things to offer as well as the ps4... and MS is just adding weight to that sinking ship every chance they get.
 
I've noticed this has happened a couple times recently... We really should be erring on the side of caution for things like this. There is no confirmation for this and as such is really misleading on what has become the loss of what some consider a really nice feature.

I personally would much prefer they would just offer the option. Make it an opt-in opt-out. If you opt-in, you have your 24 hour check in and can share the games. If you opt-out, no check in and no game sharing. This easily allows BOTH sides of this sad fence to get what they desire.

Microsoft could have easily turned this around in a positive way with a positive outcome for all parties... I just don't understand what they're thinking here. Its a shame because I really feel the xb1 has great things to offer as well as the ps4... and MS is just adding weight to that sinking ship every chance they get.

I agree; I wish this is what they offered. But I think they had two things going against them. First, time, to flesh all that out and get it working takes time. It's much easier to rip it all out rather than trying to work between the two scenarios. Second, I think they were afraid that if they had anything in there, the backlash would continue. The only solution they probably felt was a full reversal otherwise there would be more confusion and more outcry.
 

coldfoot

Banned
Title update is good for the lulz, but pastebin shouldn't be treated as a credible source.
Still, there was no chance in hell the 10-person sharing would be implemented the way gamers thought it would.
 

Owzers

Member
I don't know why the someone wants to stifle conversation so badly they''ll change the title over a random pastebin.

it's only a conversation that gaf was having with itself though based on very few concrete details, it's the equivalent of feature secret sauce.
 
The thing that pisses me off about this thread is how myopic it is. Even in the best case scenario, this would have been a a good feature for a small subset of US gamers. These are fucking global devices.


The world at large is just not ready for an all digital future. Not even a mobile one.
 
Polygon writer says that what was on pastebin was false, but that said, it was a Polygon writer and when asked for proof, he simply replied "believe me or not."

@aegies: "the xbox one game sharing thing was real. it was not demos. they had arrangements with publishers in place."

If he knows what the plan was, he should spill it or keep quiet. Isn't he supposed to be a journalist? Why would he sit on info like this? As it is there is no reason to believe he isn't working off hearsay like the rest of us.
 

koryuken

Member
I'm thinking of trying to confirm this myself. I live in Seattle and I have quite a few very close friends that fairly high positions at MS. One is in the games division... maybe I will give it a shot.
 
pubs/developers said the 5 person ps3 gamesharing was a total disaster zone for them (with capcom going as far as to put always online drm in a couple of their psn games to stop it), you think they would make a system that is even more convenient and with 10 people? are you kidding me?

edit: i mean this even if the pastebin isn't real, because it probably isn't.


Yep. PS3 game sharing was a disaster for publishers, they had to cut the limit and publishers sometimes used always online drm...

but if you read the terms of service, it doesn't actually say game sharing is allowed. It's a gray area. The problem would have even been much bigger if the terms of service clearly said "go ahead" and the method was hassle free.

Delusional people are thinking MS was going to say, loud and clear, right in the terms of service: go ahead and share your games with 10 people. We'll make it hassle free and 100% safe and easy. Go ahead and play every game on our console for the price of one. Join groups, play all the games, move on to another. Never pay for a game again.
 
We are better off believing family sharing was only a 45 minute demo.
Or else we killed an amazing feature so that we could play without internet.
 

Ghost

Chili Con Carnage!
Doesn't really matter if it was 45 minutes or not, it could have easily been changed to what people wanted it to be in response to the uproar.


Really if they do bring it back for digital content then an hour is still a good deal, XBLA trials live on with full retail games.
 

BibiMaghoo

Member
Cboat said the situation was worse than we knew, so I can believe it.

But if it was true, MS have some monster balls of steel. The outrage at the way they explained it compared to how it would have worked would have been special.
 
IF the 45 minute thing is accurate, this is no great loss. But it doesn't make much sense; there's no real reason why they couldn't just let you still do the family share thing but base it on games you've played on your system. If the thing was always going to essentially be a demo, why not just let people do it anyway?

Before this random, uncited source I was pretty upset about the loss of the family share thing, because unless MS were explicitly lying there was no room for interpretation and, at the very least, one person could play one of your games at any one time. If that was the situation, we've lost a great thing, something far more appealing to me than "oh hey you can lend a disc to a friend". Never mind the fact we're back in the stone age with disc swapping. This situation makes Xbox One a whole lot less appealing to me, not that it had much appeal anyway after it's E3 showing.
 
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