Floyd The Barber
Member
I think that's just a date they put on their website until Sony officially announces when it will be.
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I personally do know people that couldn't connect for daily check-ins. It would affect people. They may not the majority of Xbox fans, but they do exist.
And "more gracious than PC market" is an iffy argument. The PC market is a load of nonsense in the way that so many publishers use the grounds of "we're licensing you access to the game, not selling you a copy of it" in order to avoid First Sale Doctrine. It's stupid. Even the EU courts declared that software licenses should be able to be re-sold the same as physical copies.* That Microsoft's proposed used game control was less restrictive than Steam licensing, for example, ignores the part where it's dealing in legal loopholes that evade the intent of the law in the first place.
Still, the problem with both issues was far less a matter of practical implications than it was a matter of Microsoft needlessly claiming more control over consumers being able to do what they please with the things they purchase. I fail to see at all (though this could be my fault for not investigating the matters more thoroughly) how daily check-in benefits the consumer. The control over the used market, even if it turned out to be functionally insignificant in the long run, is still a matter of giving up freedoms (and getting nothing that I'm aware of in return). Arguments can be made that used game sales take away from publisher profit and ultimately hurt gamers, but I'm too much a fan of freedom to get behind that argument as a reason to give up freedoms.
*Switched the link to the Eurogamer article I first read about the matter on. I went on to read EU docs on the matter too. I think Eurogamer even links to one of them.
I've been deployed to several places where daily check ins would be a problem. But it doesn't matter... Microsoft just did an about face on the whole issue. It's gonna kill a bunch of the features people were looking forward to but it's what the vocal fans wanted.
You know the 20 second "how to play used games" is still funny even if it whiffs as an anti-Xbox jab now.Actually, what this DOES do is change PS4's mostly anti-Xbone presentation into a pretty solid "meh."
I think it does matter and it will always matter. If we let companies get accustomed to having their way, they'll keep pushing the envelope until the rights of the consumers are jeopardized (the XBone will still watch you if you use it to play a DVD...).
The fact that Microsoft went so far as to publish the XBone limitations regarding (1) used games, (2) once per 24 hours check-ins, and (3) always online DRM shows how certain they were that they just sell gamers something new and shiny and that they wouldn't have to worry about gamers being concerned about the violations of privacy.
I'm not one to hold a grudge, but this one is worth remembering.
Cheaper games. Easier sharing. The end of discs. The Xbox One would have been just fine despite the chorus of haters, would have been a better system for ignoring them. Microsoft losing its nerve on this isn't just disappointing for the features we lose. It's unfortunate because it shows just how heavy an anchor we can be.
PCs have abilities that set them far apart from consoles. PCs can do so much more than consoles can, including hacking and reproducing game files.
On a side note, do you read XBone as X-bone or XB-One? I think it's funny I've been reading it as X-Bone.
So let me get this straight, XionTawa. You're actually comparing XBox to Steam? Okay, let's see how that stacks up:
- Steam does not charge you $60/year to buy a game or use Netflix or any of the other inane things Microsoft does...then blast you with ads.
- Steam offers MUCH better pricing
- Steam offers a service you wouldn't otherwise have - a library function and achievements
- Steam never had any regular check-in for offline games
- Steam is good for Indie devs, Microsoft is pretty terrible here.
I'm not knocking anyone's console of choice, and I especially understand why 360 users might buy an XBone. I know it would take a lot for me to give up my PSN collection (which is vast, thanks PSN+!). I also think the online functionality was better on the Live than PSN.
But I would not use the word "gracious" to describe this move by Microsoft. They got their faces collectively stomped in by bad PR and had to weakly recant. It's not the "same thing" as Sony because Microsoft is not exactly choosing this course of action; one does not win brownie points for such a move.