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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

#141

Post by DominikR »

katbyte wrote: post #136
DominikR wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 los…

> I sometimes play games that are many decades old Thats one thing steam is actually pretty good for, its got lots of older games (some from the early 80s!) that generally just work on pretty much any modern PC.

That is true, but I also pay much less for a Steam game on average, than I would pay for a Xbox One game (usually 69.99€ in Europe, which is ~90$), which also reflects that I buy a (possibly short lived) license.

Also, it's probably much easier to backup and play your Steam games on a PC, even if Steam wont be there forever, than it would be with such a locked up system like the Xbox One.

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

#143

Post by workbench »

gcb0 wrote: post #2

Microsoft remembered it sells (mostly) console, not (mostly) games. pleasing the pirates sells wonders. If you only lived your teenager years in the US or Japan, then you will not understand. But Sony et al sold millions of consoles to other countries where the market probably bought 1 game per 10 consoles sold (numbers vaguely remembered from a playstation1 analysis i read a long time ago)

Worked out great for the PSP… oh hang on

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

#144

Post by iddqd »

proland wrote: post #34
NZ_Matt wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The digital sharing would've only allowed for one user to play at a time.

Not if everyone phoned home, then cut the cord every 24h.

The ones who borrowed from others had to check in every hour.

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

#145

Post by jbri »

just2n wrote: post #140

What a terrible article. First, the analogy is completely wrong. Second, Microsoft is realizing people are getting seriously tired of the bullshit "always on" concept. It's hard to justify and is widely rejected as a valid technical limitation on platforms where you expect to always have an internet connection (and is only accepted when the gameplay itself REQUIRES a connection, unlike the late SimCity). It's complet…

In general, making up security schemes off the top of your head doesn't go so well.

Case in point: You forgot to ensure that Console A actually finds out that a particular game has been disabled.

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

#146

Post by iddqd »

sp332 wrote: post #135

I have no idea how MS backpedaled so fast. Suddenly no region restrictions? Can't sell downloaded games? All the licensing deals with publishers & GameStop reneged? How the heck did they pivot to a completely different business model in just a few days?

I'd guess that it's from the, allegedly, very low amount of preorders compared to the PS4. Seems like the people complaining actually backed it up with voting with their wallets, which is pretty rare in the gaming community.

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

#147

Post by jbri »

gngeal wrote: post #121
lelandbatey wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You still have a choice! "Can play Game X" is a feature of the platform just as much as as its hard-drive space or lack of DRM or whatever. Luxuries always have an element of consumer choice involved.

It's only, in fact when you start talking about essentials such as food, housing and basic services where you can claim you're forced to buy something. And I'm not even sure where you were trying to go with that music comparison (It's not like I can buy an album but choose to give the money to a different record company).

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

#148

Post by just2n »

jbri wrote: post #145
just2n wrote: post #140

What a terrible article. First, the analogy is completely wrong. Second, Microsoft is realizing people are getting seriously tired of the bullshit "always on" concept. It's hard to justify and is widely rejected as a valid technical limitation on platforms where you expect to always have an internet connection (and is only accepted when the gameplay itself REQUIRES a connection, unlike the late SimCity). It's complet…

In general, making up security schemes off the top of your head doesn't go so well. Case in point: You forgot to ensure that Console A actually finds out that a particular game has been disabled.

Not really, I just didn't include obvious details for brevity. Of course you verify cryptographically that the transferring console has received the disable notification and has marked the game as disabled before continuing the process. We can simplify this and call it sending the console a message that it needs to disable the game.

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

#149

Post by ctdonath »

Maybe sharing their libraries with their friends wasn’t something they were looking forward to. Maybe they liked having to bring all their physical discs along wherever they went. Maybe they didn’t care about having the ability to sell their digital games after they’re done playing. I don’t know.

I really despise conversations that take this turn, to wit: "maybe the people I'm treating like idiots really are massochistic morons out to hurt themselves any way possible and don't want anything to improve." It shows no interest in the possibility that there is a very real valid concern they're having trouble expressing to someone who doesn't want to hear it.

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

#150

Post by [deleted] »

DrStalker wrote: post #38
infrec wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not entirely. For one Steam has offline mode which is certainly better than what MS was proposing.

To be fair, Steam became popular back when offline mode was really buggy and problematical; it's a lot better today, but back then is was not uncommon for it to just forget what it was doing until you could reconnect.

[deleted]
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