GeekwithEnvy

Used Games

Xbox One Offline Gaming Only 24 Hours

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If there was any uncertainty about whether or not Xbox One would be an always-on console, it’s pretty much clear now.

It’s not technically online “all of the time” but Xbox One will only allow you 24 hours of offline gaming and anything after that you will only be able to watch movies and television. If you are on another console besides your own, you will only get one hour of offline gameplay. This will likely rub gamers the wrong way and many who are already on the fence may choose the Wii U or Playstation 4 instead, based on this feature alone.

With Xbox One you can game offline for up to 24 hours on your primary console, or one hour if you are logged on to a separate console accessing your library. Offline gaming is not possible after these prescribed times until you re-establish a connection, but you can still watch live TV and enjoy Blu-ray and DVD movies.  ” -Microsoft

Xbox One games will be tied to your console but you will be able to trade in disc based games, that is, if the publisher allows it and they are likely to charge you a fee. You will also be able to give disc based games to your friends as a gift but they must be on your friend list for at least thirty days and you can only do it once.

One plus about the console is that you will be able to buy games online or in-store on day one of a game’s release. I’m hoping that this particular feature becomes the standard for all consoles.

It’s also important to note that Microsoft may change things up in the future, especially if things go sour with sales or complaints. So remember it’s still early and we have yet to see how this all plays out.

You can get full details on Xbox One game licensing here and you can also see the online requirements here.

No Charge for Used Xbox One Games

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There has been a lot of buzz going around on whether or not Microsoft’s new next-gen console, the Xbox One, will charge a fee to “re-activate” used games on other consoles. If this were to happen this would likely send most gamers into a frenzy and likely lead to many angry emails and maybe even console boycotting. Let’s not forget about businesses who basically exist because of used games, like GameStop, they wouldn’t be very happy either.

Thankfully, it seems that there will NOT be a fee, at least according to Polygon who also mentions that the games will still need to be authenticated from time-to-time through random checks done online. The system is said to authorize and de-authorize systems once the disc is loaded up in to a console. That means one specific disc for one specific console, period, until someone hacks it.

It’s pretty easy to get all up in arms over things, especially when we don’t get all of the details and when it involves something that’s close to our hearts like our games, but we don’t know everything just yet. Microsoft still has a lot more to talk about before the actual release of the console and we won’t truly know what this or any console will be like until it’s in our living rooms.

Playstation 4 Will Stick To Blu-Ray

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As the popularity of digital downloads has increased over the years many of us were wondering if the next-gen consoles will focus less on actual discs. We keep seeing more and more content available for download and some games aren’t even shipping manuals anymore, instead they are available in a digital format.

However, the Playstation 4 will still rely on Blu-Ray as it primary game delivery medium. In a recent interview with IGN, Sony’s Jim Ryan mentions this about the format.

Clearly, and this applies not just to games but to pretty much every form of entertainment, there is a trend to increased digital consumption, and that is happening now on PS3 and will continue and will probably accelerate on PS4, but the primary delivery mechanism for the big games on the PS4 platform will continue to be Blu-Ray discs, for the foreseeable future.

I’m not surprised by this at all and actually I’m quite thrilled to hear that they are sticking with Blu-Ray. First of all, our broadband still lacks the bandwidth that’s necessary to make digital downloads attractive. With some games possibly being as large as 40 gigabytes and up, something Jim Ryan says he’s encouraging developers to do, there’s no way you can download that in a reasonable amount of time. The Blu-Ray disc is still reaching it’s peak potential and has plenty of years ahead of it.

I’m still quite fond of having the case and actual game disc. I never feel like I should have to pay full price for a digital download, it feels like I’m not getting the whole game. It’s a strange thought to imagine that one day we may not be using discs at all. Let’s not forget to mention that if we go all digital that will also be the death of the used game business.

At least for now we will be living in a hybrid world of both digital and physical content for not just our games, but movies and music as well. One thing I am wondering about now is whether or not Microsoft will be using Blu-Ray or some other type of proprietary media.

 

The Used Game Business Could Disappear

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In my last podcast I discussed the possibility of next-gen consoles being released without optical drives, this is something that doesn’t sit well with businesses that rely on used games to keep the lights on.Blank DVD Cases

Just a decade ago, it would have been laughable to imagine that anyone would consider removing optical drives from a gaming console. We have changed the medium many times since the first true gaming console hit the market back in 1972, but we have never seriously considered completely removing physical media until recently. The idea is simple, the gaming industry asks that we download all of our content digitally and then they can control the pricing of the game over time as it eventually gets older.

So how will consumers feel about this move? Based on the recent reaction to the new Apple desktop line up, which no longer includes an optical drive, it would seem that there are still quite a few people out there who would be very upset at the removal of an optical drive in next-gen consoles.

Can you blame them for wanting a disc? Unfortunately, there are many people out there who have a poor connection to the internet, some people are still under a 1 Mbps. Slow internet speeds combined with overall much higher internet traffic could lead to consumers having to wait days before they can complete a download of their favorite game.

There is more to this story though, it’s not just about the optical drive. Even if console makers decide to stick with physical media, the used game business may still suffer. Although it’s still just speculation at this point, there are multiple reports that mention next-gen consoles moving to a system that will only allow you to play your game if you’re connected to the internet and logged into your account. If this idea ever comes to fruition it will permanently lock a game to a particular console, therefore making it impossible to trade in later.

This is clearly a good way to keep software piracy at bay, at least until they figure out a way around it. What impact will this have on the industry? I can tell you one thing for sure, gamers will be unlikely to play along. There has to be some compromise here and it could likely appear in some type of registration system. Perhaps we could simply activate and deactivate a particular game to work with our specific hardware and maybe the ability to do this would be limited to a certain number times in a month or year. This is a system that is already in place for many software titles in the desktop/laptop world. For instance, Adobe software enables you to activate and deactivate the software which allows you to move a product between separate machines, a feature that works really well.

Using the in-store credit system at one of my local used game vendors, I was able to go a full year without ever having to pay more than $10 for a new game title. Granted I only bought a few new games that year, about five, but that’s still a heck of a deal. I kept playing games, beating them and the turning them in before they lost a lot of value. After awhile I was able to keep a stockpile of points that allowed me to get any title for dirt cheap. This all would disappear in a heart beat if the industry takes a rigid approach towards digital downloads.

The success of an all digital system or an online-only system will depend greatly on its implementation. Clearly there should be a way for users to re-sell their games, even if it means redeeming points through Xbox Live Arcade or The Playstation Network. Maybe we could have some type of online used games channel that would allow us to swap games with others right on our consoles. We will just have to wait and see what happens, hopefully we can meet somewhere in the middle.