MS eliminates its best new feature: 10 person, 60 min Family Sharing plan for Xbone

Not wanting the convenience of digital but the rights and freedom of physical? Why wouldn't people want this?

I'm not saying its not a good idea in theory but thats not how digital works. If I want to own my stuff, I go physical. When I go digital (Steam, iOS) then I acknowledge I'm giving up my tangible item for a much more convenient way of life.
 
Are you shitting me? Did you read a single word I wrote? I would've been able to get the digital games BY BUYING THE SAME DISC YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT.

The cheap-asses are the ones renting and buying everything used.

So whats stopping you now, most have asked you this

You will still get Day 1 Digital release of all Xbone titles

I don't understand what is pissing you off?

So you want the Disc to give you access to the digital version which in turn gives you the family share plan access
So you really want to subsidize your gaming purchasing habit

Now you are stuck with a $60 game with many option to resell, but you want that digital freedom of subsidization
 
Every single game, disc or not, sold for the Xbox One would've been digital with the old plan. Now only those sold by MS on the official Xbox Marketplace will. I would have had hundreds of stores to choose digital Xbox One games from and buy where it was cheapest. Now it is just one.

Sounds like you're making a lot of assumptions.
 
I have a suspicion the Family Sharing thing was about as real as 14 Day Buy and Play.

Something that showed up out of somewhere to salvage a situation and disappeared thereafter without so much as a whisper.
 
Would prefer them keep the DRM so my games can roam and can share digital copies. Hope they can bring it back. Sucks for those of us that had no problem with a ping every 24 hrs. Damn internet ruining it for everyone else.

I suspect that xbox digital prices won't have great deals now. They could have had them under the old system, now not so sure.
 
I'm not saying its not a good idea in theory but thats not how digital works. If I want to own my stuff, I go physical. When I go digital (Steam, iOS) then I acknowledge I'm giving up my tangible item for a much more convenient way of life.

It's not how it works because it can't or it's not how it works because nobody has done it yet? It's the latter.

In fact, movies are the closest thing that lets me do it all. I have a physical movie that I can do whatever I want with; lend, sell, back up, rip, and then a digital version in the cloud. I can rip it so I don't have to use the physical version and even port it to whatever device I want to play it on. I have complete freedom to enjoy my movie however I want.

There's no reason to not want both when I've already experienced it with my current movies.
 
They could re-add family sharing for all games purchased digitally. Incentivize the digital purchase (and loss of resale option) by allowing you to pool games with a group of 10 friends/family. Keep physical discs for people who want to go that route.

Win/win.
 
I plan on buying my games digitally anyway. So no big deal. I don't want to swap discs. Call me lazy.

Well that's great, hope you enjoy your Xbone Games and features

Others in this thread are just having a fit with the potential of what might have been offered, nothing was fully known, so most overshot the moon in choice that MS would let them have... LOL
 
They could re-add family sharing for all games purchased digitally. Incentivize the digital purchase (and loss of resale option) by allowing you to pool games with a group of 10 friends/family. Keep physical discs for people who want to go that route.

Win/win.

Yep, They certainly could. Except what publisher would allow it?
 
Sorry, my mistake. This was the last comment I saw:

Yeah, I definitely understand how one could misinterpret that. I meant that in terms of if the Xbox One still had the restrictions, therefore keeping that feature.

I would say it's premature, in terms of exclusives. There are more trade shows to come and I highly doubt what's been shown is all the PS4 is launching with.

That's true I guess. It would seem though that they would have showed the majority of first year (2013-2014) games at E3 though.

So far, I'm very interested in Forza 5, Killer Instinct, Titanfall, Sunset Overdrive, and Quantam Break. Outside of Driveclub and The Order: 1886 there's really nothing on PS4 exclusive wise that interests me right now.
 
This doesn't have to be the end of that dream. They can sell two SKUs. Or allow retailers to sell codes for the digital download version. I'm not saying they'll do it, but it's silly to think that Internet bullies have ruined this when its clear that Microsoft has options in terms of how to proceed.

"Internet bullies"... Yes, let's frame this entire situation with MS as the innocent victim of oppressive bullying instead of it actually being the legitimate largescale voiced disapproval of their customer base who said that they would rather not purchase their console/games with draconian DRM attached. How vicious of them. It's as if they were stomping on a defenseless child on a playground. Poor Microsoft. I bet Steve Ballmer is weeping into the lap of his comforting mother at this very moment.
 
Not wanting the convenience of digital but the rights and freedom of physical? Why wouldn't people want this?
That isn't what Microsoft was offering.

They weren't adding rights and freedoms to digital, they were simply imposing the restrictions of digital onto physical.

They were in fact adding further restrictions to digital in a 24-hour authentication.

Because regardless of the PR platitudes, it wasn't about your cloud library or letting you share anything.

It was about controlling what you do with your physical purchases after you purchase them. And by consequence controlling "lost revenue."

And now that they can't do that, there's no point in doing any of the other stuff to try and make the control more palatable.

Again, if Microsoft still wanted to implement cloud libraries etc. they would. If they had a well-thought out plan for digital sharing and really wanted to implement it, they would. If they really wanted to sell the equivalent of install discs alongside status quo console retail games, they could. But none of that was the intention.
 
On gaf and reddit there is a Gamestop b*tchfest every other day, but in the end gamers sure do love dat generous $5 credit Gamestop gives them on the trade in. Welcome back to being on their leash, thanks gamers!

idiots

For those of us that never trade in games and don't buy used games it isn't. Family sharing would've allowed you to share with 10 people almost simultaneously, sure only two people could play at once but when one of those jumps off another jumps on straight away without having to worry about where the disk is. It would've been so much easier than it is now but people can't deal with change so now we're stuck in 2005. Thanks internet.

YOU people are to blame

tumblr_mkagun8Zrd1qcaa41o1_500.gif
 
They could re-add family sharing for all games purchased digitally. Incentivize the digital purchase (and loss of resale option) by allowing you to pool games with a group of 10 friends/family. Keep physical discs for people who want to go that route.

Win/win.

Buy 1 digital game and just pass it amongst your friends.

The system only works when you have every game there, so it creates an artificial scarcity.
 
Microsoft didn't create a digital only console, and no you wouldn't have had your pick of prices, given Microsoft could control the pricing of the secondary market, which affects pricing of the primary market.

You're talking about buying a physical item and pretending it's a digital one. Not buying digital only.

Again, if you want digital-only Xbox 180, buy digital. No one is stopping you.

Nothing is stopping Microsoft from also selling digital install discs in stores either, by the way.

This post is a bit more to go on so thanks for giving me points to answer.
Microsoft didn't create a digital only console, and no you wouldn't have had your pick of prices, given Microsoft could control the pricing of the secondary market, which affects pricing of the primary market.
Your logic is at least partly flawed, any store sets their own price based on the price they purchase a game for. They buy from publishers, not MS.
You're talking about buying a physical item and pretending it's a digital one. Not buying digital only.
I'm buying the physical item yes but by doing so I would have gotten the digital one by activating the physical game on my account. I would then be free to shred the disc knowing the game would be tied to my account and I would be able to download it at any time.
Again, if you want digital-only Xbox 180, buy digital. No one is stopping you.

Yes I could still go digital only on Xbox One but my point was that I could've purchased the digital games by proxy of purchasing the physical ones. Something I would've if they were cheaper than the current MS marketplace price.
Nothing is stopping Microsoft from also selling digital install discs in stores either, by the way.

No nothing is stopping them. I would definitely like them to.
 
Ok so now for MS all they have to do is drop mandatory Kinect, and give a better GPU and Ill buy it.
While MS look like they are following Sonys lead, at least they had the balls to back peddle and say "yeah we got it wrong and we are going to make it right". You have to give them props for that.
Still going PS4 this gen but those people who are going to go x1 will sleep a little bit better with their decision.
 
It's not how it works because it can't or it's not how it works because nobody has done it yet? It's the latter.

In fact, movies are the closest thing that lets me do it all. I have a physical movie that I can do whatever I want with; lend, sell, back up, rip, and then a digital version in the cloud. I can rip it so I don't have to use the physical version and even port it to whatever device I want to play it on. I have complete freedom to enjoy my movie however I want.

There's no reason to not want both when I've already experienced it with my current movies.

Yea but thats not how it was gonna work on XB1. It was going to be when you brought home your physical game that will get tied to your account and the disc forever after is useless. This was only a stepping stool to get people hooked in digital so that later this gen or next gen they can go completely disc-less. The only reason they imposed all this shitty DRM was to cater to both digital and physical demands. If they took one step more and went ALL digital we would not have seen any physical games but they didnt because they knew it was too soon.
 
"Internet bullies"... Yes, let's frame this entire situation with MS as the innocent victim of oppressive bullying instead of it actually being the legitimate largescale voiced disapproval of their customer base who said that they would rather not purchase their console/games with draconian DRM attached. How vicious of them. It's as if they were stomping on a defenseless child on a playground. Poor Microsoft. I bet Steve Ballmer is weeping into the lap of his comforting mother at this very moment.

I was being facetious there. My position is that game sharing as described was a pie in the sky dream that was never going to happen. I don't actually blame consumers for any of this.
 
That's true I guess. It would seem though that they would have showed the majority of first year (2013-2014) games at E3 though.
You sure? I didn't do the count, but I think we didn't saw 20 first party games at E3 and 12 new IPs. Because that's the amount of games PS4 will be getting in its first year.
 
Some hope maybe for Microsoft buyers ?

"One of the things we were very exicted about was 'wherever we go my games are always with me.' Now, of course, your physical games won’t show up that way. The content you bought digitally will. But you’ll have to bring your discs with you to have your games with you. Similarly, the sharing library [is something] we won’t be able to deliver at launch."

That means that two features are being cut, at least for now, from Microsoft's Xbox One plans.

Source : http://kotaku.com/xbox-one-drm-reversal-cuts-features-requires-one-time-514419715
 
I can't believe my friends and I were the only ones who saw the potential for this family plan. Those awesome single player experiences but no real MP component are generally skipped by us (or obtained by err not very legal means) because paying even $35 for a used copy for a 6 hour SP experience is insane when we pay $15/mo for WoW and $50 for the Orange Box 3 years ago and I still play TF2 almost every day.



So you're admitting to that you wanted family sharing because it was an easier way to take more money away from publishers?
 
You know what's bullshit? An internet collective denouncing any form of innovation, in terms of moving towards the future, because they don't completely understand it.

I'm ready for a digital future. I'm ready for disks to be phased out. I'm ready to share a game with multiple people without having to worry about the disk getting fucked in the process, not to mention sharing with someone on the opposite coast.

I'm also ready to "gift" games digitally after I'm done with them. But now? If I download something, It's mine. Forever. Stuck in my fucking hard drive, unable to share or disperse.

When I download something, I understand I can't resell it or get any cash back for it. But the potential to share it or give it to someone is fucking awesome. And now because the internet bitched their asses off, I'm unable to do this. I'm stuck in 2010.

Thanks, guys!

You're welcome.
 
Yep, They certainly could. Except what publisher would allow it?

It's very safe to assume they were on board with the previous DRM scheme. You don't announce stuff like they did at E3 without a lot of agreements already inked. Except for 1st party games, MS is just the console version of Netflix.

Buy 1 digital game and just pass it amongst your friends.

The system only works when you have every game there, so it creates an artificial scarcity.

How would this have been any different than the system we woke up to this morning? There were limits about how many of your friends could access your library in the "old" system. Those of you saying "haha suckers...that would have never happened" have constructed a straw man that never existed. No one was under the illusion that 10 people could play one digital game ALL AT ONCE.
 
Every single game, disc or not, sold for the Xbox One would've been digital with the old plan. Now only those sold by MS on the official Xbox Marketplace will. I would have had hundreds of stores to choose digital Xbox One games from and buy where it was cheapest. Now it is just one.

^ this is a perfectly valid reason to be disappointed. I call it like it is. Personally I am glad that the changes have occurred, but as Steve points out, being able to buy physical copies of steamworks for cheaper than steam are selling them is something I have taken advantage of on more than one occasion and is a good benefit of the way Steam works.

it's too late now, obviously, but you actually found a positive in MS's old system, which is something the PR heads at Microsoft didn't seem capable of.

I'm genuinely impressed.
 
It's very safe to assume they were on board with the previous DRM scheme. You don't announce stuff like they did at E3 without a lot of agreements already inked. Except for 1st party games, MS is just the console version of Netflix.

I don't think that's a certainty. There is no reason to assume that the hubris Microsoft engaged in at E3 wasn't extended to publishers as well.
 
Unless MS' new DRM and this were connected at the hip for publishers, I don't see why MS is doing this. If anything a digital lending library between "family members" would be the one perk that made all that other shit worth dealing with.

And this would still promote digital sales! Taking this away is just weird and nonsensical regardless.
 
If used games are such a threat to new games and ascending new IPs what is a family share then?
i think its even worse than what they are thinking. 10 people share games with eachother which 9 of them didnt pay for.
most positive case scenario...one buys, one of the 9 can play it, the library is still open for the rest to play other games. worst case, 2 are playing and the whole library is closed...BUT even in the worst case scenario those are 9 lost sales of a game.
lets say its not a big title , not a "must have" the dev and publisher just lost 1 sale at best and 9 at worst.
 
Sounds like you're making a lot of assumptions.

Actually I'm not. Physical games were going to be glorified installation devices for the digital games. Physical games are sold in stores. Stores compete by lowering prices. This would allow me to buy an essentially digital game by purchasing a disc.

Access your entire games library from any Xbox One—no discs required: After signing in and installing, you can play any of your games from any Xbox One because a digital copy of your game is stored on your console and in the cloud. So, for example, while you are logged in at your friend’s house, you can play your games.

http://news.xbox.com/2013/06/connected
 
It's very safe to assume they were on board with the previous DRM scheme. You don't announce stuff like they did at E3 without a lot of agreements already inked. Except for 1st party games, MS is just the console version of Netflix.



How would this have been any different than the system we woke up to this morning? There were limits about how many of your friends could access your library in the old system.

Nothing was made official at E3 about game sharing. Every person interviewed had a different answer. When that happens can safely assume it was not even remotely finalized. Even 3rd parties claimed they had no idea on the DRM before it was anounced. The game sharing was never going to happen people. It is used games on the juice. If it was they could still do with digital titles. Instead dropping it completely because no one would sign on.
 
Every single game, disc or not, sold for the Xbox One would've been digital with the old plan. Now only those sold by MS on the official Xbox Marketplace will. I would have had hundreds of stores to choose digital Xbox One games from and buy where it was cheapest. Now it is just one.

^ this is a perfectly valid reason to be disappointed. I call it like it is. Personally I am glad that the changes have occurred, but as Steve points out, being able to buy physical copies of steamworks for cheaper than steam are selling them is something I have taken advantage of on more than one occasion and is a good benefit of the way Steam works.

it's too late now, obviously, but you actually found a positive in MS's old system, which is something the PR heads at Microsoft didn't seem capable of.

I'm genuinely impressed.

Yeah absolutely. Thanks man.
 
This feature only existed because Microsoft was pretty much making everything all digital. Now that DRM is back to the way it used to be. I don't see why they should have kept that feature... Be happy that the consumers won. People will find anything to complain about...
 
Some do. Others just wanted the benefit of being able to benefit from stores competing with each other's prices on a digital version. See Steamworks games on the PC. I don't have to pay Steam's price to activate a game into my Steam collection.
As if moving to a Steam-like access to a terminable non-exclusive license is in some way preferable to actually owning and controlling the games you buy? So would your Steam based standard also apply to trading or selling games that you "own" as well? The ONLY reason Steam's terminable non-exclusive license is accepted is because they have huge sales. And you assume that the same closed market of retailers currently selling $60 console games now are suddenly going to switch to a PC-like marketplace and start slashing prices on $60 releases to $10-20? Based on what exactly? The fact that the PC market exists as it currently does and so might the Xbox One? That seems quite delusional and unfounded.


I was being facetious there. My position is that game sharing as described was a pie in the sky dream that was never going to happen. I don't actually blame consumers for any of this.
Ah, ok.
 
Nothing was made official at E3 about game sharing. Every person interviewed had a different answer. When that happens can safely assume it was not even remotely finalized. Even 3rd parties claimed they had no idea on the DRM before it was anounced. The game sharing was never going to happen people. It is used games on the juice. If it was they could still do with digital titles. Instead dropping it completely because no one would sign on.

What? It certainly was official. I don't care if the PR mouthpieces couldn't get their shit together...they still published this info:

http://news.xbox.com/2013/06/license (ignore the 6/19 revision, of course)
 
Seriously? You don't say shit like that and surprise publishers. No way.

It's been done before. Apple announced Facetime and iMessage without telling the carriers ahead of time. They were furious.

There's no other valid reason to backtrack on sharing for digital content. Physical, sure, but how do today's announcements change anything about digitally purchased content? It's the one feature nobody was complaining about. Nobody on the consumer side of the fence, anyway.
 
This feature only existed because Microsoft was pretty much making everything all digital. Now that DRM is back to the way it used to be. I don't see why they should have kept that feature... Be happy that the consumers won. People will find anything to complain about...

So.. leave it enabled for digital copies. Encourage people to buy digital. They still could have kept this feature without a 24 hour check in. You would have had to sign in to start the lending process anyway.
 
Yeah if there needs any more example of "companies just want monies", here it is. The game sharing is a nice idea, but we can't get it now apparently because....we have too many convenience or something. Still, the end result is better as it implies less control on MS' side.
 
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