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The Internet Just Made Microsoft Kill a Car for a Faster Horse

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Re: The Internet Just Made Microsoft Kill a Car for a Faster Horse

#121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> WE WERE NOT GIVEN A CHOICE As consumers, we are rarely given a choice.

Well, we're always given a choice in the end: buy it or don't buy it. It's what I've done in the past, and it's what I'll do now. I'll just not buy it. Because if you complain, but buy it anyway, you're really saying that it's still worth while to you.

Well, we're always given a choice in the end: buy it or don't buy it.

That works with grocery, baked goods, music, perhaps even computers (if you opt not to look at the CPU inside), but game consoles? You can hardly say "fuck Sony, I'm going to buy Final Fantasy for Wii". This only works on a free market, which is a rare sight these days.

Re: The Internet Just Made Microsoft Kill a Car for a Faster Horse

#123
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like everyone in this thread, including the author of the blog, is retarded except for you. People calling the XBox 1 a car, not realizing that consoles are the horse and Steam/online digital gaming is the car, since you can buy a functional new gaming computer (laptop!) that can play any modern game for $400 or less, a $499 price point on the XBox makes no sense at all.

People don't want the hassle of owning a gaming PC vs a laptop for many reasons. It's much easier to just buy a console that will last for 8 years rather than worry about your computer getting out of date in 3 years. It's easier for groups of friends to play on a console because there is local multiplayer support on console games. Many gamers want to game on their couch and use their game console for other media (vid…

I play video games on my tv on my couch with a wireless xbox controller and use my game console for other media.

My "game console" being my pc.

Is it really that hard to run an hdmi cable in 2013?

Re: The Internet Just Made Microsoft Kill a Car for a Faster Horse

#124
post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure Microsoft did all the good things you said they should have done. However, on most tech sites there is a huge anti-Microsoft bias. So instead of the tech sites talking up all the good things Microsoft is doing, all they focus on is the negative things. Then, surprise, everyone is up in arms about all the bad things Microsoft is doing.

The XBOX 360 is arguably the most popular console of its generation. After the PS4 launch event all my friends didn't really care. They were waiting for the XBOX event. XBOX's reputation and popularity, even with its RROD issues was massive. It is amazing how quickly this can be destroyed. Microsoft didn't clearly present what you could and couldn't do with the XBOX ONE. They hadn't worked out every caveat. This mean…

> The XBOX 360 is arguably the most popular console of its generation.

Is it, though?

http://vgchartz.com/embeds/worldwide_totals.png

Re: The Internet Just Made Microsoft Kill a Car for a Faster Horse

#125
As I've already said a couple of times, the dependency on the cloud is troublesome for lots of reasons. I don’t want to “wait for authentication” every time I go play offline single player games, I just want to play the game! Why should I care if it authenticated.

And Microsoft could have made the whole program opt-in. Then some would have their digital future, and I wouldn't. In that case everyone wins.

DRM always presents a problem for a paying user. When you pirate games, you have 0 problems and excellent, if not better, experience than regular, paying users.

Re: The Internet Just Made Microsoft Kill a Car for a Faster Horse

#127
Oh come on now, those "features" are terrible and were just a bit of ketchup on a shit sandwich. Speaking as someone who moved house and had to wait a month for a phone company and ISP to get their internet up and running. If I'd had a XBone I would have just be sitting there with an expensive brick for a month.

Re: The Internet Just Made Microsoft Kill a Car for a Faster Horse

#128
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It's incredible how the Xbox team thought, "Look at that money over there. Let's take it!" What's next, Wal-Mart charging Ralph Lauren every time a customer comes in wearing a Polo shirt (because why should other clothing companies get free advertising in their store)? Could you explain this analogy because it makes zero sense to me. >The other issue? For the author to be completely honest, every "benefit" mentioned…

"How is it different than Steam, other than speculating that Microsoft would never aggressively discount games as much as Steam does now (even though it took them several years for their store to be well-liked by gamers)?" The main difference is that Steam is an OPTION, not the ONLY WAY. I can get most of the games on Steam off the shelf, either used or new, as a physical copy, or from another digital source (even in…

Is STEAM an option?

Only if I do not wan to buy certain games. Two games I bought in a big box store REQUIRE a Steam account to play. Perhaps you have heard of the Civilization series?

More than once when Steam had a problem or I had one with my provider I could not play certain games off line. I don't like Steam, I do not like the idea I have to have their permission to play a game I paid fifty bucks for and have the physical media for. If I had known it would not let me play without an internet connection I would never have bought it. When the label stated "Requires an Internet connection" I figured it was for multiplayer only.

Re: The Internet Just Made Microsoft Kill a Car for a Faster Horse

#129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How is it different than Steam, other than the point than speculating that Microsoft would never aggressively discount games as much as Steam does now They don't allow developers to self-publish, and Valve is privately owned by a benevolent dictator who won't be prone to public investor pressure for short term quarterly profits. People trust Valve to do the right thing. Microsoft on the other hand has a history of…

> Microsoft on the other hand has a history of just shutting down their DRM servers without making it right for the customers who bought into their DRM'd products. Source? Microsoft is incredibly well known for supporting products int he long term. They only shut down Xbox Live for the original Xbox in 2010. And Windows XP is still infamously supported.

They turned off the MSN Music DRM Servers! People that bought there lost the ability to transfer their music away from their device.

I sometimes play games that are many decades old, and as anyone that collects games knows, consoles tend to live shorter than physical game copies.

So what am I going to do with a Xbox One in 20 years after the DRM Server were turned off?

Hope that the console never fails so I don't lose my complete collection? (If the failure rate for the last two Xbox generations is any indicator, chances are slim)

Re: The Internet Just Made Microsoft Kill a Car for a Faster Horse

#130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"How is it different than Steam, other than speculating that Microsoft would never aggressively discount games as much as Steam does now (even though it took them several years for their store to be well-liked by gamers)?" The main difference is that Steam is an OPTION, not the ONLY WAY. I can get most of the games on Steam off the shelf, either used or new, as a physical copy, or from another digital source (even in…

Is STEAM an option? Only if I do not wan to buy certain games. Two games I bought in a big box store REQUIRE a Steam account to play. Perhaps you have heard of the Civilization series? More than once when Steam had a problem or I had one with my provider I could not play certain games off line. I don't like Steam, I do not like the idea I have to have their permission to play a game I paid fifty bucks for and have th…

"Is STEAM an option?"

It is.

If certain games require it, then it is something forced by those games, not by the service itself.

Just as those "off the shelf" games that are account tied, as Diablo 3 or Starcraft 2, it does not imply that all physical games are account tied.

An exception does not a rule make, while in the case of Microsoft that would have been "the rule".

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