For the first time in the history of Xbox, Microsoft took a beaten. This new 'system' aka DRM they announced for the Xbox One was slowly revealed by snippets by the press and Microsoft's reps. The internet kicked off big time, Sony listened and Sony attacked it big time at their Conference. The internet rallied behind Sony and now Xbox One's reputation is damaged beyond repair for the moment. They could have done this a lot better. First of all, the 24 hour requirement was extreme. They should have put in a bigger tolerance for lack of internet connectivity. A week would be a fair point. I'd like longer but I would assume they would like a lot shorter. I believe the main reason they put this limit in is to stop you from either trading a game in at a store and keep playing it, or to avoid you putting your console offline and logging into your profile elsewhere so you have access to your games on two devices at the same time. They do need to re-balance and I reckon they will before launch due to the backlash they received. They should have come clean from day one, explained the system in full detail at one of their announcement trailers. Letting it trickly out bit by bit has made the internet go wild and rumours go out with lack of information. They hire PR teams, they hire public speakers why on earth was this not controlled and released in a better manner. Any news of DRM like systems NEVER go down well with people, but being honest from day one and explaining the system in full would have worked a lot better and stopped the press and rumour-miles going wild. But that moves onto Point Three, when announcing this system they should have talked about the benefits of having it in place to out-weigh the fact its a DRM system. No Disc Swapping needed. We saw in Video's that you can be playing a Single Player Game while matchmaking in another game then swap between the games on the fly and have multiple games running. On a Disc Based system this would become a nightmare, so having all your games on your hard drive unlocked is a great benefit for hot swapping between games Being able to walk other to a friends house, login to your profile and have instant access to your game library. Think of it like the current XBLA games on 360, your friend has the game downloaded but doesn't own it so its a trial / locked version. You walk over and sign into Player 2's controller and the game switches to full allowing you to play it with friends. Yes for one game you could just walk over with the disc, however I think having instant access to every single Full Game you own via the cloud is pretty useful. Especially if your visiting someone else's for an extended period of time where you would want access to more of your games. Having one System instead of Multiple. Maybe not at launch, but over time you will see that Sony's answer of 'DRM is up to Publishers' will leave a worse experience. You will no doubt in time see Origin Store come to PS4 for EA games only, Steam for Valve games and more. Suddenly, having one consistent system which all publishers use sounds a lot better than a mixed bag. I hate how on PC I have to load up Origin to play Battlefield or Sim City, then go to my preferred Steam to play my other games. One system is better than multiple. Sales and Free Weekends. The fact is, Steam is a DRM system for PC very similar to how Xbox One is going to work. They won over gamers by showing you the benefits of having one controlled system. That's amazing sales where publishers can lower the costs for a day or two (not really viable in Retail shops as theres so many different stores and they can't all reduce costs at the same time for a set period). Then theres Free Weekends. Say 343 want to Push Halo 5 after the first month's big sales are done, they can suddenly unlock the game for the entire Xbox Live Community for one weekend and suddenly everyone can try the game out, play multiplayer with owners of the games. Steam's free weekends have introduced me to games I never thought I'd like or buy, then at the end of the free 48-hours the game locks and you get a chance to buy it for a reduced price. This would instantly win over a lot of gamers as proved by Steam UNLIKE Steam, Origin, Xbox 360 Games on Demand, Windows Marketplace, Google Play Store or Apple AppStore, you can trade your games to friends, or trade them in at a Shop. So Xbox One already goes above and beyond what most other DRM systems do. They are clearly trying to give you your rights back, in this digital store environment which no one else has. Last but not least, it means that games won't be limited just to Retail. Current Games on Demand on 360 doesnt include every title, and there not usually there at launch. By merging online and disc based into one for Xbox One means you can buy any game either in a Retail Store or Online to suite your needs. Why do you need a disc when your game is in the cloud? You could just pre-purchase Halo 5 or COD: Dog Edition and on launch day it will be downloaded and unlocked sitting on your dashboard ready to play. No waiting for the mail delivery or having to walk into a shop and hope there is still stock. There is a lot of benefits to having this new system in Xbox One, but I think the biggest failure of it is Microsoft's ability to communicate. Whoever is in charge of PR for Xbox has done a terrible job. There are disadvantages of course to the new system, however there are a lot of advantages to which are not being communicated. Sony are having a field day and have instantly won over the hearts and minds of a lot of hardcore Gamers, yet is their system really any better? The Xbox team need to re-group, fix the 24 hour requirement and then come out fighting on all the benefits of the Xbox One system.
I agree with you on the most the points, overall the Xbox One has some great technology behind it. I think the shared games library has really great potential in particular, i really do think that is a great innovation. As you say that's not even possible on Steam or any other platform to date. As for the sales, ill honestly be amazed if anything like the Steam sales ever happen. Even the 360 games on demand games on sale at the moment are more expensive with 50% knocked off the price then it is to buy new on a disc. Microsoft are too greedy when it comes to the pricing of Xbox content and micro transactions. That's one of my worries of them going totally digital and even controlling the used game market now. It has been handled badly since it was announced, they needed to address the questions before they were even asked at the Xbox Reveal event. Not ignore them all the way to E3, then fail to have the concerns addressed at E3, which they had a chance to do before Sony then destroyed them on stage. Then to put the nail in the coffin Don Mattrick comes out with the buy a 360 if you dont want to be online. I really dont think the last few weeks could have been handled any worse if Microsoft tried, personally i love a lot of what ive heard except the DRM stuff. Like you say if the console could be offline for a week it would be a good compromise, i would personally want longer but it has to be better than the extreme 24 hours we have at the moment.
you know about that trading you mentioned i thought a EU ruling was digital platforms would have to include some form of online trades i know steam has marketplace but its not really for games
Yes it will be possible. You can basically take your game in to a supported shop who has Microsoft's trade in system, the shop will deactivate it, the game can then be re-sold. You can also give games to any Xbox Live member, and share your game library with up to 10 other Xbox Live members. The only downside is this puts an end to purchasing cheap Xbox games on Ebay / Amazon. In the UK anyway most shops that take trade in's sell second hand games at almost the same price as new... so your honestly better paying £5 and getting a new copy. (Although I guess as all your really purchasing is a code to use the game it wont really matter now.)
Pretty much same here in AUS. A pre-owned game can be anywhere from $60 to $80 (usually about $60) when most new games these days are around $80-$90, meaning you're only paying $20-$30 more for a new copy, guaranteed that the game isn't completely screwed up when you buy it.
first off all sorry if i write something wrong im from mexico, but i think you're very right there's a lot of good things in the xbox one i live next to frontier so i can easily buy an xbox one in the relese date of usa and about the trade games you say they can be trade,and its a good thing if you can do that,but most of the time i keep my games because gamestop offers you very little when you trade you'r games even if you bought them new so i dont see a bad thing in not to trade them and most likely all my fiends have the same games. so im very exited to the relese of the xbox one not to exited about the price but most likely in goin to buy one