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Xbox goes down. You can't play games you own on disc

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Re: Xbox goes down. You can't play games you own on disc

#661

Post by tombert »

fryanyway_swe wrote: post #368
thewebguyd wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their products/services are ubiquitous not because they are good but because they got where they are today by abusing monopoly power and shady tactics. On the business side, with M365, they use lock-in tactics and extremely aggressive bundle pricing. The only competitor is Google Workspace, and it's missing features you get bundled with something like an E5 license. So your choice becomes: just pay Microsoft $60/user…

>extremely aggressive bundle pricing I mean it's a good deal. As you say, when a company goes above a certain size, it does not make sense to pay for GSuite + Slack + Zoom + RMM/MDM + Zscaler Windows is still good for gaming PCs, and it will now handle and update itself reliably. No I don't need to hear anecdotes, I work in the IT desktop space. IT janitor monkey if you will. There is no way an enterprise will conver…

It decidedly does not “update itself reliably”. Windows Update is still broken garbage that will break your computer.

Re: Xbox goes down. You can't play games you own on disc

#662

Post by genewitch »

epistasis wrote: post #302
keiferski wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is strange to me that people are re-discovering this today, in 2026. Microsoft has always been half-baked, even in the 80s and 90s. Heck, my parents basically raised me (20+ years ago) by running a business fixing problems with Microsoft products for their clients.

I was able to take a 25 year break from Microsoft, from 2000 to 2025. Yet I was drawn back in because my son wanted to play Minecraft. This was the worst account process of any system ever invented, as far as I can tell. Plus in 2025 I had some interesting clients that are large corporations that use Microsoft as their core IT practice. The escape to the relative simplicity and consistency of AWS interfaces, from MS…

worse than minecraft is minecraft dungeons, there's a bug in the login page that hits the backend more than 100 times if, for some reason, something is incorrect, which will trigger anti-whatevers on your microsoft account, which means you can potentially lose your microsoft account.

I had to, for an hour, go through hoops logging into this microsoft service and update my recovery email so i could log into another service that wanted the recovery email as an auth factor, and even then: it happened again when i wanted to play my character on my switch instead of my PC.

i sincerely doubt i'll pay for minecraft dungeons 2, even though i do like the game, very barebones diablo-feeling.

Re: Xbox goes down. You can't play games you own on disc

#663

Post by genewitch »

ryandrake wrote: post #391
fouric wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft stole my copy of Minecraft. I had bought Minecraft before Microsoft bought Mojang, and eventually I was forced to migrate my Minecraft license to a Microsoft account. After I had successfully created the account, logged in, and transferred the license, and ONLY after I had transferred the license, I was suddenly locked out of my account until I provided a phone number. I will never buy a Microsoft product a…

I tried to simply purchase some Minecraft thinggy for my kid and Microsoft sent me through what seemed to be a 70 step process of logging in, captcha, authenticating, verifying, logging in again, trying to buy, getting blocked, captcha, authenticating again, E-mail verification, online verification, blocked again, contacting support, authenticating, talking to their fraud team, re-logging in, captcha, authenticating,…

this was my experience (described in this thread elsewhere) of getting minecraft dungeons to work between PC and Nintendo Switch. Log in, captcha, email 2fa, recovery email, repeat

Re: Xbox goes down. You can't play games you own on disc

#664

Post by genewitch »

ryandrake wrote: post #408
cautiouscat wrote: post #9

Gaming is heading in the same direction that TV, movies and music are. It’s a shame. I can invite my friends over, boot up my GameCube to play some Mario Kart Double Dash. As long as the console and disc are okay, I can (hopefully) do that until I pass away. These days? Not so much. I’ll never be able to be sure I can play GTA VI in twenty years. It just sucks not owning anything anymore. I know why they do it, it’s…

This idea that you should have to log into an online account, in order to use a device that is otherwise entirely offline, is the root of all evil in consumer electronics today. Not just game software and game consoles, but PCs, TVs, smartphones, home automation... Everything requires a totally unnecessary tether to the manufacturer, and only allows you to use it if the manufacturer is 1. still listening to the conne…

i don't own or use anything that requires me to log in to use it other than games. So it is possible. I don't even use apps or give my cellphone number to corporations.

Re: Xbox goes down. You can't play games you own on disc

#666

Post by bmitc »

epistasis wrote: post #159
mawadev wrote: post #151

I wanted to show my gf the halo 1 campaign, so I downloaded the 30GB Masterchief Collection via steam. When I launched it, I was greeted with a black box. After 1 Minute it was a microsoft login screen that looked eerily like a browser inside the game. Since I couldn't do anything else, the game was stuck at a sub 720p resolution. I said fine Ill just create an account. Yea so mail, firstname, lastname, birthday, cou…

This is my experience with all Microsoft software. The worst thought out, buggy, untested pile of crap. There's something seriously wrong in Redmond. At least with linux, you can search on the web and find a forum post telling you the magic incantation. With Microsoft, you will be forced to consume some second-rate engineer's unmanaged, barely workable, edge case until it might or might not work. Office on the web is…

> This is my experience with all Microsoft software. The worst thought out, buggy, untested pile of crap.

That's not all true. .NET/C#/F# are all technical marvels.

Re: Xbox goes down. You can't play games you own on disc

#667

Post by choo-t »

gozucito wrote: post #518
paxys wrote: post #224

The fight should never have been about physical vs digital, but about ownership. If I buy a game/movie/book/song, regardless of where or in what format, I should be able to: 1. Keep it forever without the risk of remote deletion. 2. Use it while offline, unless internet connectivity is strictly required for the experience. 3. Move it between my devices. 4. Backup and archive it. 5. Resell it. 6. Pass it on to my chil…

Nintendo Gamekeys check all of these boxes save one. Namely 1,2,3,5 and 6. 1. Keep it forever without the risk of remote deletion. 2. Use it while offline, unless internet connectivity is strictly required for the experience. 3. Move it between my devices. 5. Resell it. 6. Pass it on to my children. No backup and archive is the exception. I can live with that. We'll see if Sony and Microsoft follow Nintendo or not.

You need to be online and Nintendo servers to still probide you the file tied to the uID of the cartridge for that.

And Nintendo can remote delete your files, ban your uID or even disable your device.

And GameKey are tied to a specific hardware that will be discontinued in the future.

Re: Xbox goes down. You can't play games you own on disc

#668

Post by sitzkrieg »

fryanyway_swe wrote: post #368
thewebguyd wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their products/services are ubiquitous not because they are good but because they got where they are today by abusing monopoly power and shady tactics. On the business side, with M365, they use lock-in tactics and extremely aggressive bundle pricing. The only competitor is Google Workspace, and it's missing features you get bundled with something like an E5 license. So your choice becomes: just pay Microsoft $60/user…

>extremely aggressive bundle pricing I mean it's a good deal. As you say, when a company goes above a certain size, it does not make sense to pay for GSuite + Slack + Zoom + RMM/MDM + Zscaler Windows is still good for gaming PCs, and it will now handle and update itself reliably. No I don't need to hear anecdotes, I work in the IT desktop space. IT janitor monkey if you will. There is no way an enterprise will conver…

i agree, but only because i’m on a windows 10 LTSC install with no store, defender neutered and updates disabled. these installs work forever

Re: Xbox goes down. You can't play games you own on disc

#670

Post by eleveriven »

mawadev wrote: post #151

I wanted to show my gf the halo 1 campaign, so I downloaded the 30GB Masterchief Collection via steam. When I launched it, I was greeted with a black box. After 1 Minute it was a microsoft login screen that looked eerily like a browser inside the game. Since I couldn't do anything else, the game was stuck at a sub 720p resolution. I said fine Ill just create an account. Yea so mail, firstname, lastname, birthday, cou…

The hardest part of the Halo 1 campaign is apparently defeating Microsoft account creation
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