Welp, Microsoft Just Blew Their Foot Off

[Cobra]

I had a small collection on my iPhone before it died, and I never was able to recover them.  It just drove home the exact concern I have for the XB1, and keeps me invested in 3DS as opposed to mobile.

I have to ask, why couldn't you reclaim your iPhone games? You should be able to just log in and redownload any purchases onto any other iPhone. Moreover, everytime you synced it to iTunes it made a backup of the entire phone so you could restore everything at any point back onto the same iPhone or a new one.

[Cobra]

Microsoft's new policy for only keeping digital offerings in your history for 3 years is going to seriously bother me as well. They already had 0 history for Zune purchases on the phone, but now I'm going to lose most of my delisted arcade games now when I transfer consoles?

Now that is a load of BS! Having a time limit on your redownloads is total crap. They might as well call it a game rental rather than a purchase.

[techwizard]

Microsoft's new policy for only keeping digital offerings in your history for 3 years is going to seriously bother me as well. They already had 0 history for Zune purchases on the phone, but now I'm going to lose most of my delisted arcade games now when I transfer consoles?

Now that is a load of BS! Having a time limit on your redownloads is total crap. They might as well call it a game rental rather than a purchase.

that's what all digital games are essentially...the server infrastructure won't run indefinitely.

[The Metamorphosing Leon]

That's what all multiplayer games are. Unless you get fans really dedicated putting up servers, the devs aren't going to run them indefinitely.

[techwizard]

That's what all multiplayer games are. Unless you get fans really dedicated putting up servers, the devs aren't going to run them indefinitely.

that too, but at least multiplayer only games aren't that common (not counting MMOs).

[Cobra]

Yeah, but even if a company some day goes bust you'll still have a good run, 3 years is a very short time though. I mean heck, I still use redownload services all the time on things I've purchased well over 3 years ago. I just can't believe they have actually imposed a lifespan on people's purchases... I just find it out right outrageous.

[Izret101]

I have doc I bought more than 3 years ago and still haven't even loaded

[Link41]

Yeah, but even if a company some day goes bust you'll still have a good run, 3 years is a very short time though. I mean heck, I still use redownload services all the time on things I've purchased well over 3 years ago. I just can't believe they have actually imposed a lifespan on people's purchases... I just find it out right outrageous.

You don't "own" anything on Xbox One, you just have permission to play the games from Microsoft. They should've just called it the Redbox One.

[Tynstar]

http://www.gamesindustry....n-why-did-microsoft-do-it

[Addicted]

http://www.gamesindustry....n-why-did-microsoft-do-it

Thanks for posting the article. I agree a digital future is inevitable but enforcing the same DRM policies on the physical copies is not the answer. We have recently seen Microsoft back peddle on Windows 8 (Windows 8 Blue) due to consumer complaints. I wonder if they will do the same for the Xbox One.

[Raidou]

Interesting, although it does make you wonder what will happen with the first "digital-only" consoles (which may eventually be the PS4/XBone).  The article stated that consumer acceptance of digital restrictions are due to the option of physical releases balancing the intransigent nature of digital.  When physical ownership is gone so is that balance.

[smith45885]

Local Gamestop had signs and were pushing the PS4... No mention of xbone

[Link41]

Local Gamestop had signs and were pushing the PS4... No mention of xbone

I was in EB Games yesterday and I was advised against an Xbox One pre-order during their PS4 pre-order speech.

[bombatomba]

I have no idea what is going on in the heads of those in the digital space in "pure console land."  I believe what happened on the PC was partially out of necessity as PC was seen as more and more niche, so more did the retail options for purchasing games disappear.  The other part is the Steam platform (which is my opinion is a pure fluke) which has made the "pure digital" option (and it is still an option) actually palatable.  I mean, Far Cry 3 was on sale for less than $30 during one of the Christmas Steam sales just last year...  less than a month after its release.  This will NEVER HAPPEN on the console digital platforms.  But then when you buy a console you are pretty much signing up for that companies DRM anyways before you even get any software.

While we're crapping on MS's bad choices, I just learned that Microsoft was the first corp to jump on board with the United States' PRISM data collection tool.  Nice way to grab ahold of that wang early, guys!

[The Metamorphosing Leon]

Local Gamestop had signs and were pushing the PS4... No mention of xbone

I was in EB Games yesterday and I was advised against an Xbox One pre-order during their PS4 pre-order speech.

I've been by three gamestops with PS4 signs.

I have no idea what is going on in the heads of those in the digital space in "pure console land."  I believe what happened on the PC was partially out of necessity as PC was seen as more and more niche, so more did the retail options for purchasing games disappear.  The other part is the Steam platform (which is my opinion is a pure fluke) which has made the "pure digital" option (and it is still an option) actually palatable.  I mean, Far Cry 3 was on sale for less than $30 during one of the Christmas Steam sales just last year...  less than a month after its release.  This will NEVER HAPPEN on the console digital platforms.  But then when you buy a console you are pretty much signing up for that companies DRM anyways before you even get any software.

While we're crapping on MS's bad choices, I just learned that Microsoft was the first corp to jump on board with the United States' PRISM data collection tool.  Nice way to grab ahold of that wang early, guys!

"pure digital" is not a niche or a fluke. It's the way things are going to be...Steam was not a fluke at all, it was just a bit ahead of its time.

With the rising costs of fuel and the expanding of hard drives, there's no good reason game distributors SHOULD be producing and shipping by now archaic metal discs all over the world. Cutting that aspect out alone should drive down the costs of games dramatically. Of course it won't really  because the console companies think they have the market cornered, and hell they kind of do, but as this whole Xbone debacle has shown, the consumers have teeth.

That's why what Steam does with it's sales is the absolute best DRM. They offer people the products they want for an affordable price. That way people are inclined to pay for it, to support the developers, to do it all from the comfort of their chairs.

This is the way the music industry went, and this is the way the movie industry has been heading, albeit kicking and screaming, for years! There's no reason games shouldn't too.

I do understand that a lot of us here collect or collected physical games, but those days are undoubtedly, if not a little sadly, numbered. That does not mean we have to cover our ears and shake our heads at the advancement of technology.


I would wager that in a few years you'll be streaming games a la netflix. It just makes complete sense with the way technologies are headed.