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Xbox will block third-party controllers to "preserve the console experience"

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Re: Xbox will block third-party controllers to "preserve the console experience"

#61

Post by harry8 »

wernercd wrote: post #58
harry8 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> why can't it be spun as Law & Order Law & Order is neither profit making nor competition destroying.

and a cartel isn't made to have a level playing field fighting cheaters. Cartels are made to make money. you want to cut the Law and Order angle then you need to also cut the "cartel" angle. Fact is that if XBox doesn't take steps then their platform becomes less valuable meaning less people want to play there. "it's only about money" is a short sighted and overly simplistic answer just like "M$ is a cartel".

Microsoft's only motivation for anything is the maximisation of shareholder value.

There are things we in society don't allow corporations to do in their pursuit of profit. We codify those things in law. This thing they want to do is one of them.

Re: Xbox will block third-party controllers to "preserve the console experience"

#62

Post by hsbauauvhabzb »

wernercd wrote: post #60
hsbauauvhabzb wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t play online games. Are you telling me what I can and cannot do in a single player game?

To be fair, I think the vast majority of this is about online. Keeping a clean and hack free experience isn't just about selling proprietary controllers - it's also bout blocking cheating and keeping things sane. (and single player games have Trophies which is online so... depending on how much you value pixelated trophies? those would be affected by "cheating in single player") Remember... this is Microsoft. The sam…

You’re literally talking about creating a walled garden around what is currently an open ecosystem in which devices already purchased by people - including people with limited financial resources - will no longer work. All under the justification of ‘it solves cheating’. PC games have cheaters since forever, they’ve worked around that problem despite having less operating system and hardware control.

Not to mention the fact that eventually any hardware based controls will be circumvented - this is a device which converts mechanical actions to digital, so there’s nothing to stop physical control modifications.

The whole thing is either lazy, incompetent, or greedy, and won’t solve anything anyway.

Re: Xbox will block third-party controllers to "preserve the console experience"

#63

Post by jack1243star »

falcolas wrote: post #51
landr0id wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a terrible experience for people who desire to sit on a couch with a controller. People specifically use devices that spoof their keyboard and mouse a controller so they can get in queues with controller players and retain auto aim. Some games allow native keyboard and mouse support, but then they’re queued with KB/mouse players.

How hard is it really to have two queues based on your input type? Not to mention, there will always be a huge overlap between ok kb/mouse players and good controller players. This leads me to believe that normal skill based matching would be enough to keep the games interesting and challenging, regardless of which control scheme you decide to use.

> How hard is it really to have two queues based on your input type?

Basically impossible. Some players will always try to spoof it, either for an advantage or the challenge.

Re: Xbox will block third-party controllers to "preserve the console experience"

#64

Post by happymellon »

0x500x79 wrote: post #7

I think that this is a response to the rising usage of the Cronus and/or other controller modification tools that give players advantages (cheats). For example one of these "Mods" for Cronus state that they are: a dynamic, fully-automated Anti-Recoil system that transforms your in-game character into a laser-guided juggernaut we've affectionately dubbed as [BEAM] Battling cheaters in video games is a never-ending cha…

This doesn't stop you using custom controllers.

It just means you have to pay Microsoft for the ports (which is available to anyone) rather than a 3rd party.

Re: Xbox will block third-party controllers to "preserve the console experience"

#65

Post by jeffreygoesto »

0x500x79 wrote: post #7

I think that this is a response to the rising usage of the Cronus and/or other controller modification tools that give players advantages (cheats). For example one of these "Mods" for Cronus state that they are: a dynamic, fully-automated Anti-Recoil system that transforms your in-game character into a laser-guided juggernaut we've affectionately dubbed as [BEAM] Battling cheaters in video games is a never-ending cha…

Like QuickShot Joysticks with an automated NE555 fire?

Re: Xbox will block third-party controllers to "preserve the console experience"

#66

Post by anonymousab »

jack1243star wrote: post #63
falcolas wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How hard is it really to have two queues based on your input type? Not to mention, there will always be a huge overlap between ok kb/mouse players and good controller players. This leads me to believe that normal skill based matching would be enough to keep the games interesting and challenging, regardless of which control scheme you decide to use.

> How hard is it really to have two queues based on your input type? Basically impossible. Some players will always try to spoof it, either for an advantage or the challenge.

Isn't the problem de facto solved by matchmaking? The player that aims better will quickly win more and be elevated to the level of opponents on par with them. From the perspective of the player that loses to them, it's no different than losing to a regular player who aimed really well; you're quickly separated from them in the queue.

This wouldn't apply to games with only a few hundred active players but I think most proponents of this change aren't really thinking of those games.

Re: Xbox will block third-party controllers to "preserve the console experience"

#67

Post by einr »

Waterluvian wrote: post #9
0x500x79 wrote: post #7

I think that this is a response to the rising usage of the Cronus and/or other controller modification tools that give players advantages (cheats). For example one of these "Mods" for Cronus state that they are: a dynamic, fully-automated Anti-Recoil system that transforms your in-game character into a laser-guided juggernaut we've affectionately dubbed as [BEAM] Battling cheaters in video games is a never-ending cha…

Heuristics that identify inhuman inputs.

In the speedrunning community there are plenty of players who can fairly reliably perform frame-accurate inputs (i.e. press a button exactly on a specific 1/60th of a second) so it seems to me that you would have a very, very hard time distinguishing the best legitimate players from cheaters.

Re: Xbox will block third-party controllers to "preserve the console experience"

#68

Post by lawn »

This is one reason the Steam Deck model of being an open console system is the future.

Some dinosaurs wants to preserve the old locked-down console experience, where you have exclusive games, controllers and digital stores. But its just worse for the customer in every way.

Re: Xbox will block third-party controllers to "preserve the console experience"

#69

Post by Dylan16807 »

VincentEvans wrote: post #37
donatj wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think this is even going to stop the Cronus. The Cronus already requires an OEM controller plugged into it to authenticate. If it does, a Cronus firmware update will probably figure out a way around it as it has an OEM device to work with. For what it's worth, I own a Cronus and it's not nearly as much of an advantage as they sell it as. I bought it just to use as a fightstick adapter and it's kind of mediocr…

[flagged]

You think even most cheaters will claim it's a fightstick adapter in particular?

Re: Xbox will block third-party controllers to "preserve the console experience"

#70

Post by tentacleuno »

rtpg wrote: post #46
0x500x79 wrote: post #7

I think that this is a response to the rising usage of the Cronus and/or other controller modification tools that give players advantages (cheats). For example one of these "Mods" for Cronus state that they are: a dynamic, fully-automated Anti-Recoil system that transforms your in-game character into a laser-guided juggernaut we've affectionately dubbed as [BEAM] Battling cheaters in video games is a never-ending cha…

I generally agree with the accessibility arguments against doing anything for this, but if you are going to do something, I feel like "give dev's a way to opt into this check, limit to online play" feels like a reasonable system. That would allow fighting games in particular to not opt in. Sony has something like this setup with screen recording, where some parts of games (cutscenes in some stuff) can't get recorded.…

> give dev's a way to opt into this check, limit to online play

In theory, that would have less of a PR risk / impact, too -- if they provide it as a configuration option, they can shift the blame onto third-party devs. who change a value in some XML file somewhere.

(Not that I particularly care about Microsoft's PR, just thought it to be interesting commentary.)

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