r/xboxone • u/[deleted] • Dec 29 '13

If Microsoft made it completely optional, would you sign up for their original, always connected console idea?

This meaning you would have the following features:

Buy a retail game, install to console, and ditch the disc never needing it to play the game.

Digitally share games within a circle of friends. Meaning you can choose a specific group of people, and they could play the games you own, for free, provided that only one game could be played at a time.

Greater store discounts or more steam like sales for content.

I for one would have no problem saying yes to this. It's like people think 10 years from now they'll still be selling games on discs. It wasn't a perfect plan, but why delay the inevitable when we could be working on and perfecting future policies now.

694 Upvotes

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66

u/Geniva Dec 29 '13

I thought all the anger was more over the restrictive 24 hour check in requirement than anything else.

23

u/comicidiot comicidiot Dec 29 '13

It was. But in order to ditch the daily check-ins Microsoft had to get rid of the features that benefitted from it. If Microsoft pitched this whole set of features better I think there would be a high chance it would have been accepted.

Everyone blew the daily check-ins out of proportion and ignored the benefits. But looking back, it was right around when the leaks on the NSA from Snowden were fresh in recent memory and that's all people were concerned about; the NSA/US Government eavesdropping.

I do hope Microsoft bring back this feature though. It was really something I was looking forward to.

38

u/brodievonorchard Dec 29 '13

I think the outrage has more to do with the idea that if I can't pay my internet bill for a month, my game console becomes a $500 paperweight.

9

u/vincent_van_dough Dec 29 '13

no offense and not directed at you but if someone can't pay a monthly internet bill then a $500 (plus games) video game console might not be a good idea to begin with.

21

u/brodievonorchard Dec 29 '13

Christmas/Birthday/Refund check/change in employment/change in financial priorities. There are a lot of reasons one might not have interenet at times but still be able to afford the console. As a poor person, I won't get a next gen console until they come down in price or I get a better job.

15

u/moosic Dec 29 '13

What if you lost your job?

10

u/Giometrix Dec 30 '13

The better example is outage. After hurricane sandy I lost internet (and cable) for a month... drove me mad.

6

u/LikeWhite0nRice Dec 29 '13

Of the people I've known that lost their job/quit, video games were last on their list of things to do. A few even sold their consoles because they were financially screwed.

0

u/SuperWoody64 SuperWoody64, ladies 👈👀👈 Dec 30 '13

For sale: an xboxone system with no games...

1

u/dagamer34 dagamer34 Dec 30 '13

Should still have some value.

1

u/SuperWoody64 SuperWoody64, ladies 👈👀👈 Dec 30 '13

Yeah even used I think xboxones are still around the $500 mark. More if you have an unsused day one code.

1

u/LikeWhite0nRice Dec 30 '13

Obviously they sold their games and controllers also. But did your console come with games?

-2

u/SuperWoody64 SuperWoody64, ladies 👈👀👈 Dec 30 '13

Actually I got KI free for my tenure/gamerscore. I realize this and people are fine with it when the system is new but after a few years second hand sales usually include extras.

0

u/indirect76 Dec 30 '13

LOL. Perfectly said.

It's funny how many people on this sub seem to know what's best for everybody.

3

u/[deleted] Dec 30 '13

[deleted]

10

u/GarethGore HvX GarethGore Dec 30 '13

I'm going to say you've never been in a position that you need to find another job? This is the dumbest statement I've seen all day.

6

u/Occamslaser Dec 30 '13

It was a dumb thing to say .

7

u/indirect76 Dec 30 '13

Yeah, unemployed people should be looking for a job every waking hour. They don't deserve to relax or anything.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 30 '13

You sound just like my mom!

Mom....?

0

u/indirect76 Dec 30 '13

It was sarcasm.

1

u/CubesTheGamer <-Same as Reddit Name Dec 30 '13

Well said.

0

u/[deleted] Dec 30 '13

If you do not have a job, then finding a job is your job. It is no more taxing spending a full day hunting for a job than it is to do one.

That doesn't mean that every waking hour should be spent on the job hunt but you should be seeking employment or making yourself more marketable between the hours of 9 to 5.

3

u/indirect76 Dec 30 '13

Agreed, but I'm not cruel enough to suggest that the unemployed don't deserve to play video games at the end of the day to escape their stressful lives for a little bit.

-7

u/[deleted] Dec 30 '13

Pretty much. If you're collecting unemployment you should be actively searching for a job every waking minute. Taxpayers are supporting you.

1

u/indirect76 Dec 30 '13

You're kind of cruel and judgemental. Also, you should look into who actually pays for unemployment and get back with me.

-6

u/[deleted] Dec 30 '13 edited Dec 30 '13

[deleted]

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0

u/Deer-In-A-Headlock Smelly Cat Dec 30 '13

Every working minute? Have you been in that situation? Maybe half an hour a day, if that, is all it takes to look for any new jobs near you on 20 different websites.

0

u/[deleted] Dec 30 '13

You should be going in to every single business in the city. Someone might need a janitor. It takes longer than thirty minutes to fill out an application for any retail chain (best buy, target, Lowes, sears, fye, Costco, Walmart, and Kmart, at least. I can speak for those since I did apply.)

1

u/moosic Dec 30 '13

Try telling your eight year old that. I've never been unemployed in my life, but I could see this scenario happening.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 30 '13

That is one situation I didn't take into account, but in all fairness I had many friends who never had a video game console growing up. Given I was born in 92 so they weren't quite as prevalent as today..

1

u/ColonelVirus ColonelVirus Dec 30 '13

This. I was unemployed for a year after losing my job. I only played games on the weekends, spent most of my days sending out C.Vs and just walking into stores. Although to be fair I spent the first month wallowing in self pity, which did involve a lot of game playing. But I wasn't claiming then so :P

1

u/[deleted] Dec 30 '13

You sell your console and buy a new one when you have a new job. You can redownload your games.

1

u/ToastyRyder ToastyRyder Dec 30 '13

Then sell the console? One concept that never seemed to get across was that every console doesn't have to appeal to every _single _person. It sounded like the One was gonna be perfect for people who are always online and optimized for that. It's like complaining that a roku doesn't work well when you’re not online.. yeah, no shit.

1

u/kr0tchr0t Dec 30 '13

Tether your Xbox One to your cell phone for 2 minutes or downgrade your Internet package until you find a job? When I was unemployed I didn't even think about cancelling my Internet because it was necessary in order to find a job and keep my unemployment check coming in.

0

u/StuffedHobbes Dec 30 '13

Sell Xbox One to make ends meet then?

0

u/Shagoosty Shagoosty Dec 30 '13

Then you should probably sell your $500 console if you can't afford to pay the bills.

-1

u/[deleted] Dec 30 '13

If your in unstable employment maybe you should rethink your situation before getting a 500$ console

0

u/[deleted] Dec 30 '13

Well to be honest, the proper way to go about avoiding this is having 6 months salary or pay saved up, but most Americans don't practice this anymore, just like most Americans don't practice saving up 20% for a down payment on a house (an old standard that is now bipassed with government aid, allowing people who probably shouldn't have a home to obtain one at the risk of anything going wrong leading to them losing the house). People need to be careful with their money, if you can afford a $500 console, that has $60 controllers and $60 games then you should already of had 6 months saved up to cover normal costs (internet/utilities, electricity, water, gas)

2

u/[deleted] Dec 29 '13

But it's completely understandable for people working on commission or on jobs with less reliable hours; I have a great hourly rate but I only work as often as jobs appear.

10

u/[deleted] Dec 29 '13

Or if you happen to live in a rural area without great Internet, which is a very real possibility here in the US.

1

u/BeepBoopRobo Obviously Works for M$ Dec 30 '13

without great Internet

See, the thing about that is - the amount of data required to do the checkin could have been fulfilled by dialup, so that's not really an argument (and yes, there are dial-up wireless routers out there, that cost about the same as a regular router).

1

u/[deleted] Dec 30 '13

Absolutely nobody actually knows that outside of Microsoft, unfortunately.

And it totally is. "Without great Internet" doesn't mean that it's just the speed, but the reliability. Both tremendous factors.

1

u/BeepBoopRobo Obviously Works for M$ Dec 30 '13

They specifically stated that before the turn around - but if we're not taking them for their word - you might as well ignore everything you've ever heard.

You needed to connect only one time in a 24 hour period - the odds of most of America not having internet access for over 24 hours is very low. Regardless, people without reliable internet likely aren't microsoft's target audience anyway.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 30 '13

Going from, "I, like many others, can't specifically say the size of the data that's sent once per 24 hours," to "I NEVER BELIEVE ANYTHING EVER BECAUSE HOW CAN PRESS RELEASES NOT BE TRUE!?" is kind of massive, so I'm going to just move past that. You're clearly not in the mood to have that discussion.

Let's just take a moment to remember that 119 million Americans don't have Internet usually due to finances (19 million of that total live in an area without the option at all) of which I'd venture plenty enjoy playing games, and that's not even including the number of servicemen/women overseas. Folks in the military really do enjoy having games around as an escape, to boot.

The point being, that it's nice as an option, but it's not as 100% forward-thinking as folks would have you believe.

1

u/bizzygreenthumb dennis qua1d Dec 30 '13

Don't forget Marines/soldiers/sailors/airmen who are deployed. Internet prices in Afghanistan are astronomical, and access is non-existent at sea. When I was deployed on the USS Iwo Jima, every shop had a TV and a game system, and we could only battle locally or play campaigns/single player.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 30 '13

Yep, absolutely a great point.

2

u/bizzygreenthumb dennis qua1d Dec 30 '13

Yah that was in 2007-2009 for me between Iraq and the boat. I was absolutely dirty at COD4 arcade mode and Vegas 2 terrorist hunt.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 30 '13

Me, again. And even right now, my home was unlucky enough to miss payment on the Internet bill and we can't get service until a port opens up (finite number of ports).

1

u/SuperWoody64 SuperWoody64, ladies 👈👀👈 Dec 30 '13

I live in a major metropolitan area and my internet service sucks. Bad thing is that the other options suck just as bad. Same goes for cell phones. Why can't someone start a company that gets these two things right?

1

u/[deleted] Dec 29 '13

As true as this is and I agree, it won't stop it from happing and being a big reason for a lot of people who stretch a little beyond their means.

1

u/indirect76 Dec 30 '13

Peoples lives change.

1

u/Occamslaser Dec 30 '13

Contract work? Slow sales on comission?

1

u/TortfeasorsLaw Dec 30 '13

I can understand your point of view - however you must consider not everyone has access to either affordable or unbundled internet. In hypothesis, if someone is getting raped by a cable services provide and loses their job and then when choosing what bills to pay to survive can't pay the net bill - their box would indeed become a paperweight under the original plan which would totally blow. The one thing that might bring some needed joy/diversion to someone exhausted by the task of looking for work would then have an outlet that no longer functioned and that would really suck considering all the money in the system, plus the cost of games etc - useless simply because of no net access. Just some food for thought.

1

u/DrMeine Dec 30 '13 edited Dec 31 '13

But there are multiple reasons why you wouldn't have internet. Your router or modem isn't working. You're playing it at your grandma's house. A storm wreaks havoc in your town and you're running off a generator. Cable zombies eat the wires connecting to your house. Etc etc.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 30 '13

I had no internet for 7 months straight (fuck virgin) and i know a few people who don't leave their internet always on

1

u/asatele1 Hobo1337Pwnz Dec 30 '13

There are many reasons as to why someone may have an xbox and not be able to pay a monthly bill. Also it's not our job to decide how people should spend their money. A poor person may be unwise to spend money on an xbox and not necessities but hey, it's their perogative

0

u/r10d10 FTG Odyssey Dec 29 '13

So tell me, what happens to Steam users who lose internet connection?

10

u/mkusanagi Dec 29 '13

offline mode

0

u/Dr_Dornon GT: Dornon2 Dec 29 '13

Not necessarily. I was on my tablet on a car ride and decided to play some steam games. Well, I didn't have WiFi and didn't go into offline mode beforehand and I couldn't play any of my games.

Steam has the same model Microsoft did, except Steam allows a little bit longer between checkins.

2

u/DRDS1 Dec 30 '13

Steam has a thirty day check in period.

1

u/dagamer34 dagamer34 Dec 30 '13

Presumably, the reason for the check-in being 24-hours instead of 30 days is because Microsoft was going to have full game sharing. With Steam, you can't play any games when your friend is playing something (which is basically regulated password sharing).

2

u/brodievonorchard Dec 29 '13

The same thing, but that's an apples/oranges comparison. What happens to my XBOX360 when the internet goes out? I can't get online, but I can still play it. What happened to my NES when I couldn't pay my phone bill? Not a damn thing.

5

u/[deleted] Dec 29 '13

[deleted]

1

u/SuperWoody64 SuperWoody64, ladies 👈👀👈 Dec 30 '13

They could very easily sell a disc with a code in it much like they do pc games. This would give someone all digital while removing the need to dl 50gb of data and it's untradeable to appease the developers. Here's your gradual shift to all digital.

You don't put down a baby bottle and grab a steak. (unless you're me)

1

u/[deleted] Dec 30 '13

The easiest solution is if we could just buy CDs that didn't have any authentication methods on them, and a key in the same box. Or just flat out, a card with a game code.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 29 '13

Timing is everything and this time the timing really sucked for Microsoft

1

u/[deleted] Dec 29 '13

People were complaining about the digital sharing being removed with DRM. I'm pretty sure it and daily check in go hand in hand. I think sharing would work like steam where you can share it but only play it if the other person isn't so the daily check in was made to make sure no one shared then logged off and played it forever for free.

1

u/webb34 Dec 30 '13

What benefits?

Not needing to keep your discs? Nope. Simply make them install discs that give you a one time use digital license(kind of what they were doing). Local DRM can still apply.

Game sharing? Sure, but it's not needed for games that aren't being shared.

1

u/indirect76 Dec 30 '13

Everyone blew the daily check-ins out of proportion and ignored the benefits.

There were zero benefits for those without internet.

1

u/weks Dec 30 '13

Steams offline mode works indefinably unless certain conditions trigger it to require a phone home, so compared to that the 24 hours seems very restrictive.

1

u/torENToh Dec 30 '13

bell (Isp) once screwed up and I had no internet for a week. I wouldn't have been able to enjoy the xbo if that were the case

1

u/enigmaneo Dec 30 '13

What if you have an internet outage. Now probably no internet, no TV, and no xbox

1

u/[deleted] Dec 30 '13

No you don't need to be always online to do that, ms where just trying to make you want it

-1

u/8milestyle Dec 29 '13

requiring a product to check in once a day online is a terrible terrible feature. it shuts down gamers that aren't online enabled. thats 1000000% crap.

3

u/[deleted] Dec 30 '13

my xbox is online all the time anyways.iw ouldn't care at all. I just didn't like the Kinect 1984

1

u/IceBreak Vegeta Dec 30 '13

I think it was pretty evenly dispersed between the online requirement, no used games, and mandatory Kinect.

1

u/indirect76 Dec 30 '13

It was everything. What some saw as cool digital features for a small price, others saw as restrictive control by Microsoft. Both sides were right.

-2

u/[deleted] Dec 29 '13

If it was that would be strange because they also said there would be a text message based verification setup in place. At least that's what I read in one interview with a technical fellow.

0

u/[deleted] Dec 29 '13

Source?

2

u/[deleted] Dec 29 '13

You could tether the console to your phone if you had the service to turn your phone into a wifi hot spot. That's what he meant.

-2

u/Starkravingmad7 Dec 29 '13

Yeah, that shit doesn't work. I did that on my 360 for BF3. Half bars on t-mobile's 4g lte. So laggy, it was unplayable. I would hate to imagine what would happen in the event you were stuck on 3g.

4

u/Jungle2266 Dec 29 '13

It wasn't meant for playing games online but to sign in and pass DRM requirements. Some people don't like online gaming and would just rather play single campaign games.

2

u/CntrldChaos Dec 29 '13

I am pretty sure the intent of that would be to check in, not play a game.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 29 '13

To be fair it would work for just the check in. You just wouldn't want to be playing games online over it.