Xbox Used Games Statement as reported by GiantBomb & Polygon

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$h@d0w

Junior Member
Take two articles commenting on the same statement from Major Nelson:

http://www.giantbomb.com/articles/microsoft-digs-bigger-hole-over-used-games/1100-4647/
Patrick Klepek said:
Why, though, would Microsoft decide to stick its foot into the used games discussion without specific answers for consumers? There’s no room for half measures with used games.
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Patrick Klepek said:
The statement itself is a joke, too.
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http://www.polygon.com/2013/5/24/43...uire-regular-authentication-checks-used-games
Brian Crecente said:
The Xbox One will not require gamers to pay a fee to reactivate a used game, but it will require a regular online spot check to verify the authenticity of games being played, according to sources familiar with the system.
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Brian Crecente said:
Our sources also said that there are no plans to charge gamers a fee to sell or reactive a used game.
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I had an open mind about Polygon and was even optimistic when it was announced. I thought the team and environment they built would mean we would get some quality articles and tough questions would get posed.

Instead of articulating an opinion and intelligently putting out a discussion point like Patrick did, I get a regurgitated mess of marketing spiel and half hearted promises. I'm asked to put stock into "sources" that are more likely to be a backhander from Phil Harrison himself than a whistleblower on the inside.

This is appalling.

I will not be reading Polygon in the future.
 
They know which side their bread is buttered. Although if the recent rumors are correct, Crecente is right, GameStop will pay the fee.

Actually GameStop are already paying:
t
 
Every time I've went to a game site this gen besides Neogaf/Giant Bomb I basically regret it instantly.

Your own fault for going to LOLGon.
 
They know which side their bread is buttered. Although if the recent rumors are correct, Crecente is right, GameStop will pay the fee.
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Much like with taxation, the fee will hit both Gamestop AND consumers, even though on paper Gamestop only pays the fee.
 
Wasn't Brian Crecente the guy from Kotoku that fell for CAG forum rumour test and then whined about how the CAG forum had lost all credibility for posting fake stuff on a forum?
 
The Polygon news article was not centered on Major Nelson's comment, but based on original reporting that happened to have Hryb's useless statement included in it. News articles on the site are not editorials and are almost always free of editorializing.
 
Polygon thinks very highly of themselves and they seem to be trying way too hard. The image they project feels very forced and the personalities on the site are very off-putting. They come across as people who one would like to see kicked in the face. These are clearly people that you should not be relying on for honest game journalism. I imagine that they have a lot of ironic t-shirts, thick rimmed glasses and cans of PBR laying around their offices.

Did you happen to catch the 'CRIBS' series of articles they placed on the site? The articles were littered with artsy pictures of their living rooms in which every item carefully placed for the maximum doucheiest effect.

I really think these guys live in their own cloud of douchebaggery and feel as though they are changing the industry with their joke of a website. It is really sad in a way. I wonder if Arthur is going to pay all of those people back that he scammed money out of to get a computer. Has there ever been a case of someone leeching on to a group of people in a realm he had no business being in to get ahead?
 
Yep, they defended SimCity and the obvious PR smokescreen just like they are doing here. The more I see from Polygon, the more I feel they lack any journalistic integrity and are only interested in being part of the cool-kids-club of the "gaming industry." They're just an extension of corporate PR - if I want to read a shill, I'd follow Major Nelson on Twitter.
 
Doesn't there have to be some sort of fee for reactivation? I mean, everyone just downloads the game to their hard drive, right? So what would stop people from just trading in their discs?

If MS was just going to shut their game off once the disc was traded in and used again, that doesn't work. It could be months before someone buys their specific disc and then "checks in" online.
 
So MS is implementing DRM on their system to stop their games from being pirated.

Wow, so they chose to alienate core gamers in NA, most of world, and lower income folks for the sake of solving a problem that barely existed in the first place.

Figures, Xbone screams of a system that offers solutions still in need of problems.
 
The idea that consumers don't pay the fee is ridiculous. A retailer like GameStop isn't going to sell a used game at a loss. If Microsoft charges a fee, then that fee will get passed onto consumers one way or another. You'll get less when trading a game in, and get charged more when buying a used game. Game journalists need to understand this before parroting Microsoft's "gamers don't pay" line. (talking about Crecente here, not Klepek.)
 
kirblar said:
Much like with taxation, the fee will hit both Gamestop AND consumers, even though on paper Gamestop only pays the fee.
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I don't disagree.

It also seems like it amounts to a degree of price fixing on further thought. I'm not sure how well that jives from a legal standpoint.

KarmaCow said:
Wasn't Brian Crescente the guy from Kotoku that fell for CAG forum rumour test and then whined about how the CAG forum had lost all credibility for posting fake stuff on a forum?
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He also essentially told a GAF user to fuck off and die for pointing out a mistake in a story iirc.
 
LuchaShaq said:
Outside of bad reporting on serious issues like Fox News and politics, the way Polygon handled Sim city is probably something that would be used in a journalism class as an example of what not to do.
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Everyone should have cut EA some slack. People who have never made a game really had no right criticizing how EA fucked up Sim City.
 
Goon Boon said:
This is generally a good call at any time for any reason.
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Their news and reviews departments seem worth ignoring usually, but they have done some very good articles. For example, this one on Platinum, or this piece on Lost Planet 3.

I had to hit page down about 40 million times to get to the first feature article, though. They waste most of their times on reporting news poorly. If they only did the features, it'd actually be an awesome site.
 
Geek said:
The Polygon news article was not centered on Major Nelson's comment, but based on original reporting that happened to have Hryb's useless statement included in it. News articles on the site are not editorials and are almost always free of editorializing.
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I think it was the headline that set me off the most:

"Xbox One games will require regular authentication checks, used games won't have a fee"

This sentence had me thinking - clicking on this will bring me to some official statement that Microsoft have just made.

I'm lead into the article by the same statement but this time it's ended with a caveat. The article is peppered with quotes by Major Nelson.

I feel that the intent of article was to mislead, written to fill in the blanks of the original statement with bits of favorable fluff.
 
People say that Polygon is on the take. I don't think thats true. I just think that they have some people over there that are legit terrible at their jobs. They don't seem to have standards or a process, they just kind of write shit and post it on a over-styled website and call it a day. It's not everyone on the site that does this, just enough to drag the whole site down.
 
$h@d0w said:
I think it was the headline that set me off the most:

"Xbox One games will require regular authentication checks, used games won't have a fee"

This sentence had me thinking - clicking on this will bring me to some official statement that Microsoft have just made.

I'm lead into the article by the same statement but this time it's ended with a caveat. The article is peppered with quotes by Major Nelson.

I feel that the intent of article was to mislead, written to fill in the blanks of the original statement with bits of favorable fluff.
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In the case of a representative from a company going on record about something, we'd usually put that in the headline, like "Xbox One used games won't carry a fee, Microsoft says." This is not from a person at Microsoft, but a reliable source, because the company's messaging is in tatters.

The only quote from Hryb is at the end, Microsoft's official statement that's supposed to ... I don't know... attempt to provide some clarity when it really doesn't.

There's no favorability in there, from my perspective, but a presentation of facts and Microsoft's official statement on the matter. There's no intent to mislead or present Microsoft's conflicting, confusing messaging as anything but.
 
Our sources also said that there are no plans to charge gamers a fee to sell or reactive a used game.
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Isn't this because they plan to charge the retailers the fee?

I want to hear them say that there is no fee at any point charged to use a game that was already activated on another user account that is in no way connected to the new user account.
 
ttech10 said:
Isn't this because they plan to charge the retailers the fee?

I want to hear them say that there is no fee at any point charged to use a game that was already activated on another user account that is in no way connected to the new user account.
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It makes no sense. The game is downloaded to your hard drive. So why wouldn't you just trade back in the disc? There has to be a reactivation fee of some sort.
 
The documentary funding was a fun source of Polygon jokes, but I wonder how [if it happens at all] Microsoft asks for a skew in commentary.
 
I'm confused here. Wasn't Polygon right? Gamers aren't the ones paying the used game fee. I'm not familiar with all the other stuff people are bringing up, but in this case their reporting was accurate
 
Talk about your storm in a tea cup.

If someone is buying a used game, it means they're not buying the game at launch.

If they're not buying the game at launch, it means they're happy to wait for thew game so they can buy it at a cheaper price.

Since the price of used games will most likely go up, why not just wait that LITTLE bit longer and wait for the NEW game price to drop?

I waited a whole 3 months and saved $50AU on God of War Ascension. Bought it new. It's really not that big of a deal. Just don't buy used anymore if it's such a problem. Used games are generally a rip off anyway. It's barely a saving over new.
 
squicken said:
I'm confused here. Wasn't Polygon right? Gamers aren't the ones paying the used game fee. I'm not familiar with all the other stuff people are bringing up, but in this case their reporting was accurate
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You will get next to no trade in value, and you won't be able to lend or make a private sale. I say they are paying for it one way or another.
 
squicken said:
I'm confused here. Wasn't Polygon right? Gamers aren't the ones paying the used game fee. I'm not familiar with all the other stuff people are bringing up, but in this case their reporting was accurate
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there is no correct information anywhere. there is no truth. everything is speculation.

now, they are probably right though. it sounds dickish to say, but it's an important distinction to make.
 
Satchel said:
Talk about your storm in a tea cup.

If someone is buying a used game, it means they're not buying the game at launch.

If they're not buying the game at launch, it means they're happy to wait for thew game so they can buy it at a cheaper price.

Since the price of used games will most likely go up, why not just wait that LITTLE bit longer and wait for the NEW game price to drop?

I waited a whole 3 months and saved $50AU on God of War Ascension. Bought it new. It's really not that big of a deal. Just don't buy used anymore if it's such a problem. Used games are generally a rip off anyway. It's barely a saving over new.
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I only buy new, and only at prices I deem worthwhile as well.

The counter-argument is that in controlling used prices, one can control the rate at which the price of a game, new or used reduces. Under the current system, the option of used games at a cheaper price may drive the price of new lower in a race to the bottom.
 
Radec said:
And funded by MS.
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Well, to make this clear, Microsoft is just one company that has purchased ads on Polygon. Other ad buys include PlayStation, Speed Stick, Head & Shoulders, Qualcomm, Ford and others that I can't remember. I think some publishers like Deep Silver and maybe Capcom also have purchased ads? None of those companies "funded" Polygon in the sense that it's accused of.

To the best of my knowledge, Microsoft's ad buy was related to videos. Whatever money they spent in advertising was mostly shown in front of and after video features like the Human Angle series and Press Reset. It's an advertising deal like thousands of other advertising deals related to websites.

The real funding of Polygon comes from its parent company, Vox Media, which also owns The Verge and SB Nation. Vox Media itself was funded through various investments. These are, according to Wikipedia:

The Washington, D.C.-based company raised about $40 million in total funding, the Series A having been led by Accel Partners in 2008, Series B by Comcast Interactive Capital in 2009, Series C by Khosla Ventures in 2010, and all three participating for Series D in 2012. Other funders are Allen & Company, Providence Equity Partners, and various angel investors, including Ted Leonsis, Dan Rosensweig, Jeff Weiner, and Brent Jones. According to sources, the latest round, in May 2012, valued Vox at $140 million.
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