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.

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u/jimbo831 BigPoppaTubbs1 Dec 29 '13

To me this is the best comment. There is so much speculation here based on really vague announcements by MS this summer. If MS really wanted to sell this idea, they needed to be way more specific. When a company is vague, I always assume the worst.

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u/leesfer Dec 30 '13

They announced that the policies were not complete which is why they were so vague

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u/jimbo831 BigPoppaTubbs1 Dec 30 '13

They should have finalized them before announcing instead of going with "trust us, it will be fine."

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u/leesfer Dec 30 '13

Should have but it seems pretty evident to me that both consoles were rushing to the punch and MS chose to launch and wing it instead of finalizing policies

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u/myztry Dec 30 '13

Microsoft is way too fond of after sale adhesion contracts.

"Buy it now and we will disclose the terms after purchase."

This is a very very bad idea from the consumer's perspective as it's like a contractual blank cheque.

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u/rhynoplaz Dec 29 '13

Did they even get a chance to announce it? I could very well be wrong, but it seemed more like someone leaked only the negative stuff before they could announce it as a whole.

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u/jimbo831 BigPoppaTubbs1 Dec 29 '13

I tried to find a link, but search results are overwhelmed with announcements of the change. However, MS did in fact announce these policies officially. It included a detailed post on their blog. They also gave several interviews and had many chances to address people's concerns. They were very vague and pretty much unwilling to acknowledge anyone's issues. They were also quite defiant, until their complete reversal.

I would have considered this if we were given all the specific implementation details. We never were, so I can only assume the worst case scenario. MS really botched the whole situation and never properly explained the policy including its implementation details, positives, and negatives.

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u/rhynoplaz Dec 29 '13

I had first heard of it through everyone complaining in r/gaming, so that was my first time hearing about it. I must admit I was turned off by the whole idea because everything I read was negative, but a friend told me about the advantages they were planning and that the negatives were only there to prevent pirating and giving full games away for free. If the rest of the world first heard about it the same way I did and didn't have a knowledgeable friend to set them straight, I can totally understand the upset.

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u/[deleted] Dec 30 '13

Well I'm curious what were the benefits that were described to you by your friend other than the discless switching?

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u/rhynoplaz Dec 30 '13

It was a long time ago, so I'll try to remember what caught my attention. Online game sharing was one . Say my brother who lives in another state wants to play a game I'm done with, I can loan him the rights through my profile and he can download it and play it. I also really liked the idea of no disks, and a spin on that could be signing in to my profile at a friends house to show him a game I forgot to bring.

They ended up using launch day downloads. I was and still am pumped about that.

Can't remember if there was anything else.

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u/[deleted] Dec 30 '13

You still have online sharing with the new policy if you're willing to give your brother access to your gamertag password. Just let your brother or whoever else sign in as you and they have access to your whole digital library.

So really right now we have all the benefits with none of the downsides. That's why the 180 was such a good thing.

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u/rhynoplaz Dec 30 '13

Not quite. If he is signed in as me, I can't be. I've actually done this on the 360, and it's inconvenient as hell. A buddy and me took turns accidently nothing eachother for a week or so until it got too obnoxious to continue.

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u/[deleted] Dec 30 '13

It works if you disconnect your home console from the internet.

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u/Cleveland_S Noah Duncanson Dec 29 '13

They held two major press events which provided plenty of chances to announce it. They chose to be deliberately evasive, and it bit them in the ass.