Xbox goes down. You can't play games you own on disc • Hacker News Board

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

#171

Post by pjmlp » Tue, Aug 04, 2026, 2:01 PM UTC

grumbel wrote: post #132

glimshe wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the one reason I don't use Steam. I'm not saying Valve is evil or anything like that. But GOG's transparency and commitment to DRM-free games should be the market standard.

DRM-free was a nice idea 20 years ago, the problem is that it doesn't scale. There is just way to much media out there to keep track of and especially with games you are looking at frequent updates and patches, that your DRM-free backup won't get, unless you turn backup up a full time job to keep track of it all. If GOG went down tomorrow, those games would be gone just the same as the Steam ones, since I gave up try…

You mean Windows games thanks to Proton.

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

#172

Post by mawadev » Tue, Aug 04, 2026, 2:01 PM UTC

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…

You know whats the cherry on top? I got it working today and you have to download the actual halo 1 campaign as a DLC from inside or outside the MCC game. Even if I got it working yesterday, I'd have to wait for another download. What the 30GB MCC does initially is still a mystery to me.

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

#173

Post by unfocso » Tue, Aug 04, 2026, 2:02 PM UTC

The absurdity is that back in gen-7 we had everything figured out: PS3 used the (free) servers only for matchmaking and all online games were hosted on the consoles themselves. The matchmaking servers are still up and working, and everybody plays with better latency thanks to the prominence of fast fiber.

No internet? Games work offline and support LAN if you have a switch and a couple of consoles.

In 2026 I can still insert any used disc I bought in my ps3 and it will generate a (offline) client-side license for me and let me play and update the game with the disk inside just as a "proof" of still owning it.

If I'm online I'll get patches, else I'll just get served the version on the disc.

(Btw, ps3 also has a print spooler and can natively rip CDs and serve them while acting as a NAS. Or, you can stream games to your psp with remote play. It was truly a "let's cram everything we can inside" era and more like a proper pc with a mediacenter interface)

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

#174

Post by darren_ » Tue, Aug 04, 2026, 2:03 PM UTC

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…

[flagged]

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

#175

Post by pjmlp » Tue, Aug 04, 2026, 2:03 PM UTC

jeroenhd wrote: post #7

> All I'm saying is it's all digital on the PC side of things, and has been for ages, but we have means of maintaining access to the games we love over here, and it's one of the reasons I've gravitated to the PC for quite a while now. It all depends on where you buy your games of course; GOG will let you download DRM-free installers, but if Steam goes down, your libraries goes down with it. They have made a vague pro…

Also there is a vibrant retrogaming community, with lots of games much more interesting than yet another COD or FIFA.

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

#176

Post by jabroni_salad » Tue, Aug 04, 2026, 2:03 PM UTC

anilakar wrote: post #167

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…

Average Ubisoft game experience on Steam.

I was gonna say, this is every time the gang feels like firing up a round of Uno.

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

#177

Post by dd8601fn » Tue, Aug 04, 2026, 2:03 PM UTC

egeozcan wrote: post #134

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…

My son and we as his parents really love Bluey, but it's impossible to buy a DVD set here in Germany, with German dub, because Disney distributes it exclusively through their plus platform. There are many more examples like these. Very sad state of affairs.

Netflix does that too. It’s very annoying to know some things will never have a Dvd/Blu-ray release.

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

#178

Post by pelagicAustral » Tue, Aug 04, 2026, 2:04 PM UTC

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 the same effect of wanting to watch an old film... If you want to do it the legit way, you will have to face all kind of hurdles, starting from finding a service provider that might have the film, then forget about all the modern audience "edits" they put on these things, at times the quality isn't even good, the audio tracks are messed up...

So you either give these jackals at least 30 to 60 minutes of your life (plus money) for the luxury of using their crap services and obtaining a half-assed version of what you want, or you just go to good old Forum McTorrent and get what you actually want for free.

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

#179

Post by queenkjuul » Tue, Aug 04, 2026, 2:05 PM UTC

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…

Silly, you should've paid $60 for the re-re-remake of halo one (which would still need a login i guess...)

Sorry though, i just reinstalled MCC yesterday to play Halo 1 myself, and lucky me my Microsoft account worked fine

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

#180

Post by reaperducer » Tue, Aug 04, 2026, 2:05 PM UTC

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.

When you try to save a short-term buck by offshoring your workforce, you end up with long-term problems and brand damage.

And now vibe coding is the new offshoring, so we can make things worse at scale!