Xbox One Catch-all

working for me now. In case not for others:

Spoiler:

Last week at E3, the excitement, creativity and future of our industry was on display for a global audience.

For us, the future comes in the form of Xbox One, a system designed to be the best place to play games this year and for many years to come. As is our heritage with Xbox, we designed a system that could take full advantage of advances in technology in order to deliver a breakthrough in game play and entertainment. We imagined a new set of benefits such as easier roaming, family sharing, and new ways to try and buy games. We believe in the benefits of a connected, digital future.

Since unveiling our plans for Xbox One, my team and I have heard directly from many of you, read your comments and listened to your feedback. I would like to take the opportunity today to thank you for your assistance in helping us to reshape the future of Xbox One.

You told us how much you loved the flexibility you have today with games delivered on disc. The ability to lend, share, and resell these games at your discretion is of incredible importance to you. Also important to you is the freedom to play offline, for any length of time, anywhere in the world.

So, today I am announcing the following changes to Xbox One and how you can play, share, lend, and resell your games exactly as you do today on Xbox 360. Here is what that means:

•An internet connection will not be required to play offline Xbox One games – After a one-time system set-up with a new Xbox One, you can play any disc based game without ever connecting online again. There is no 24 hour connection requirement and you can take your Xbox One anywhere you want and play your games, just like on Xbox 360.

•Trade-in, lend, resell, gift, and rent disc based games just like you do today – There will be no limitations to using and sharing games, it will work just as it does today on Xbox 360.

In addition to buying a disc from a retailer, you can also download games from Xbox Live on day of release. If you choose to download your games, you will be able to play them offline just like you do today. Xbox One games will be playable on any Xbox One console -- there will be no regional restrictions.

These changes will impact some of the scenarios we previously announced for Xbox One. The sharing of games will work as it does today, you will simply share the disc. Downloaded titles cannot be shared or resold. Also, similar to today, playing disc based games will require that the disc be in the tray.

We appreciate your passion, support and willingness to challenge the assumptions of digital licensing and connectivity. While we believe that the majority of people will play games online and access the cloud for both games and entertainment, we will give consumers the choice of both physical and digital content. We have listened and we have heard loud and clear from your feedback that you want the best of both worlds.

Thank you again for your candid feedback. Our team remains committed to listening, taking feedback and delivering a great product for you later this year.

I don't know why I spoiler tagged that.

Last week at E3, the excitement, creativity and future of our industry was on display for a global audience.

For us, the future comes in the form of Xbox One, a system designed to be the best place to play games this year and for many years to come. As is our heritage with Xbox, we designed a system that could take full advantage of advances in technology in order to deliver a breakthrough in game play and entertainment. We imagined a new set of benefits such as easier roaming, family sharing, and new ways to try and buy games. We believe in the benefits of a connected, digital future.

Since unveiling our plans for Xbox One, my team and I have heard directly from many of you, read your comments and listened to your feedback. I would like to take the opportunity today to thank you for your assistance in helping us to reshape the future of Xbox One.

You told us how much you loved the flexibility you have today with games delivered on disc. The ability to lend, share, and resell these games at your discretion is of incredible importance to you. Also important to you is the freedom to play offline, for any length of time, anywhere in the world.

So, today I am announcing the following changes to Xbox One and how you can play, share, lend, and resell your games exactly as you do today on Xbox 360. Here is what that means:

An internet connection will not be required to play offline Xbox One games – After a one-time system set-up with a new Xbox One, you can play any disc based game without ever connecting online again. There is no 24 hour connection requirement and you can take your Xbox One anywhere you want and play your games, just like on Xbox 360.

Trade-in, lend, resell, gift, and rent disc based games just like you do today – There will be no limitations to using and sharing games, it will work just as it does today on Xbox 360.

In addition to buying a disc from a retailer, you can also download games from Xbox Live on day of release. If you choose to download your games, you will be able to play them offline just like you do today. Xbox One games will be playable on any Xbox One console -- there will be no regional restrictions.

These changes will impact some of the scenarios we previously announced for Xbox One. The sharing of games will work as it does today, you will simply share the disc. Downloaded titles cannot be shared or resold. Also, similar to today, playing disc based games will require that the disc be in the tray.

We appreciate your passion, support and willingness to challenge the assumptions of digital licensing and connectivity. While we believe that the majority of people will play games online and access the cloud for both games and entertainment, we will give consumers the choice of both physical and digital content. We have listened and we have heard loud and clear from your feedback that you want the best of both worlds.

Thank you again for your candid feedback. Our team remains committed to listening, taking feedback and delivering a great product for you later this year.

Good on them. Glad to see they're capable of listening.

Now to wait and see who lost their job

so the disappointment is:
Downloaded titles cannot be shared or resold. Also, similar to today, playing disc based games will require that the disc be in the tray.

They didn't specify what will happen to the family plan, but it sounds like that is out now.

Man, while I think that's probably the right thing to do, I'm sad to see the family sharing feature go. And the install and forget about the disc. I still think most sales will end up being on physical copies of games via Amazon, etc.

Those features would have really been cool, but the whole transference of licenses was at the core of the complexity that ticked everybody off.

Oh well. Guess we'll see if that changes over the term of this console generation, or if we just wait for next gen to go true digital.

Gumbie wrote:

These changes will impact some of the scenarios we previously announced for Xbox One. The sharing of games will work as it does today, you will simply share the disc. Downloaded titles cannot be shared or resold. Also, similar to today, playing disc based games will require that the disc be in the tray.

Of course. The two things I was looking forward to most.

MannishBoy wrote:

if we just wait for next gen to go true digital.

I wouldn't put it past any of the hardware manufacturers to try and pull a PSP Go strategy part-way into this generation.

shoptroll wrote:

Good on them. Glad to see they're capable of listening.

Yeah, I don't want to be naive here, but a huge corporation listening to their customers and changing like this is a pretty cool thing. It's the way things should work, but usually don't.

I'm sad to lose some of the new functionality, but it's good to see day one digital releases confirmed. Now I just need to confirm that I can re-download those on other consoles and play them when I'm logged in with my account.

Really hope they find a way to make the family sharing thing work; I liked the idea of that.

Also, somebody's started a #Xbox180 hashtag on Twitter. Best. Nickname. Ever.

Thin_J wrote:
Gumbie wrote:

These changes will impact some of the scenarios we previously announced for Xbox One. The sharing of games will work as it does today, you will simply share the disc. Downloaded titles cannot be shared or resold. Also, similar to today, playing disc based games will require that the disc be in the tray.

Of course. The two things I was looking forward to most.

I wonder if they'd have actually truly sold those benefits instead of this bungled mess of restrictions, if this might not have gone a different way. For ME personally, the family sharing was shaping up to be a great deal. It was just complex, and MS didn't even communicate the benefits very well. Even those of us here that really follow this stuff couldn't make full sense of it.

shoptroll wrote:

I wouldn't put it past any of the hardware manufacturers to try and pull a PSP Go strategy part-way into this generation.

After seeing this situation and seeing how the Go went, it won't be Sony sticking their neck out.

These changes will impact some of the scenarios we previously announced for Xbox One. The sharing of games will work as it does today, you will simply share the disc. Downloaded titles cannot be shared or resold. Also, similar to today, playing disc based games will require that the disc be in the tray.

The Luddites won.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

I'm sad to lose some of the new functionality, but it's good to see day one digital releases confirmed. Now I just need to confirm that I can re-download those on other consoles and play them when I'm logged in with my account.

I'd imagine if you buy stuff digitally, it will mirror 360 functionality. Purchase console anyone can play, on a different Xbox, only the purchasing account can.

Fedaykin98 wrote:
shoptroll wrote:

Good on them. Glad to see they're capable of listening.

Yeah, I don't want to be naive here, but a huge corporation listening to their customers and changing like this is a pretty cool thing. It's the way things should work, but usually don't.

But the only reason MS made this change is because Sony didn't announced that they were not doing the DRM that MS was. So it's part listening to customers and part realizing how many sales they might lose to their direct competitor if they kept the DRM.

MeatMan wrote:
Fedaykin98 wrote:
shoptroll wrote:

Good on them. Glad to see they're capable of listening.

Yeah, I don't want to be naive here, but a huge corporation listening to their customers and changing like this is a pretty cool thing. It's the way things should work, but usually don't.

But the only reason MS made this change is because Sony didn't announced that they were not doing the DRM that MS was. So it's part listening to customers and part realizing how many sales they might lose to their direct competitor if they kept the DRM.

I guess I'm not too naive then, because I already reckon that when a company listens to its customers and changes course, they have sales in mind. I mean, they have profits in mind at all times.

Yeah, i'm disappointed. i was willing to give up a few things to make the digital sharing and discless future happen. The future just got farther away.

And they said Angry Internet Men don't accomplish anything.

This is a shame. Microsoft blinked. If they'd messaged it better, this wouldn't have happened.

Jayhawker wrote:

The Luddites won.

Not even that, 'cause you can bet your ass a lot of people complaining have huge Steam collections.

Faceless Clock wrote:

Not even that, 'cause you can bet your ass a lot of people complaining have huge Steam collections.

These are the ones that blow my mind. It's so spectacularly hypocritical. Amazing.

I'm kind of disappointed too. I know I'm likely to end up with both a PS4 and a XO at some point in the next few years. Now there is a lot less to differentiate the 2 systems.

MannishBoy wrote:
Fedaykin98 wrote:

I'm sad to lose some of the new functionality, but it's good to see day one digital releases confirmed. Now I just need to confirm that I can re-download those on other consoles and play them when I'm logged in with my account.

I'd imagine if you buy stuff digitally, it will mirror 360 functionality. Purchase console anyone can play, on a different Xbox, only the purchasing account can.

I'm wondering (hoping) if you will be able to register multiple xboxes to the master account since a single Gold membership can cover multiple people.

Chairman_Mao wrote:

so the disappointment is:
Downloaded titles cannot be shared or resold. Also, similar to today, playing disc based games will require that the disc be in the tray.

They didn't specify what will happen to the family plan, but it sounds like that is out now.

I feel like there was a great middle ground here that Microsoft could have done and that was to say if you buy the game digitally we have this nifty family sharing thing and other stuff as a way of easing the digital change over. I think the biggest issue with all this was they did not need to mess with physical disks in the first place. They tried to apply a digital model to the physical world and there was just no reason for that. Microsoft is a very forward thinking company but they have a history of not knowing how to ease people into change and Windows 8 was a good example of this along with their prior stance on the xbox one. People hate change and with Windows 8 and the Xbox one they just dropped this huge change into the mix and said deal with it, its the future and we don't care if you like it or not.

Agreed, breander. They could lead us to the future with a carrot instead of a stick.

Faceless Clock wrote:

This is a shame. Microsoft blinked. If they'd messaged it better, this wouldn't have happened.

Jayhawker wrote:

The Luddites won.

Not even that, 'cause you can bet your ass a lot of people complaining have huge Steam collections.

And get this:

Steam may soon allow game-sharing with friends

I will laugh when Valve decides to backtrack now.

From skype: "Xbox 180 confirmed!"

In unrelated news, UI comparison between the PS4 and XBO:
http://www.theverge.com/2013/6/19/44...

EvilDead wrote:

I'm wondering (hoping) if you will be able to register multiple xboxes to the master account since a single Gold membership can cover multiple people.

I'm betting that's also gone. I'm betting a Gold fee per account now.

Hopefully I'm wrong.

This comic came out on the 17th, apparently Scott Johnson is some kind of strange internet oracle

http://www.myextralife.com/comic/tur...

shoptroll wrote:
MannishBoy wrote:
shoptroll wrote:

I wouldn't put it past any of the hardware manufacturers to try and pull a PSP Go strategy part-way into this generation.

After seeing this situation and seeing how the Go went, it won't be Sony sticking their neck out.

PSP Go was also 4 years ago. Digital services like Steam are a lot more entrenched now than they were then. Plus all the hardware manufacturers have dramatically improved their online stores since then, so a pure-digital system should be a lot more viable now than when the Go launched. Not to mention the fact that we've seen some outstanding digital-only titles since 2009.

Tell that to MS.

Jayhawker wrote:

And get this:

Steam may soon allow game-sharing with friends

I will laugh when Valve decides to backtrack now.

Don't hold your breath.

Jayhawker wrote:
These changes will impact some of the scenarios we previously announced for Xbox One. The sharing of games will work as it does today, you will simply share the disc. Downloaded titles cannot be shared or resold. Also, similar to today, playing disc based games will require that the disc be in the tray.

The Luddites won.

I wouldn't go that far. I think MS lost because they really marketed themselves poorly. I know I was, and continue to be, on board - but I buy new and keep games, so I had no skin in the literal game(with regard to used sales). I would have liked to see a progression towards a more steam-like console experience, as the world is moving towards a digital future - but alas, maybe next time.

That said, I am really disappointed that this will basically negate any possibility of the sharing plan.