The PS4 (Orbis) and XBOX720 (Nextbox) Mega thread!

[JamesC]

What's wrong with the XBLA model of ownership? You can download as many times as you like once you've paid - and there's no reason usb devices and external hard drive couldn't be supported for backup saves and profiles.

[Professor Bear]

I do not like the XBLA form of ownership.

[Recrewt]

The whole second hand thing is a hard-media problem.

When you buy a disc you feel like you own it and should be able to do with it as you please - including selling it on or loaning it.

What the developers are saying is that you're actually paying for a service that is exclusive to you - the disc is just a delivery method of that service. If the delivery method was digital download no one would complain - they wouldn't have the expectation of passing it on to a friend or selling it as they have no physical object to 'own'.

Product: An article or substance that is manufactured or refined for sale.
Service: The action of helping or doing work for someone

Games are products, whether they are delivered on disc or via download.  Developers are trying to tell me that this product is now actually a service to justify the new business model they are trying to push on us.

I do not believe them! 

[JamesC]

Well the game itself is a product - allowing you to play it is (or could be in the furture) a service.

Just like Eastenders is a product but BBC1 is a sevice.

[Recrewt]

Eastenders is a product, but BBC1 is a product as well.  I pay my tv licence to receive the terrestrial channels (lets ignore freeview for now) and the programs within.  In order to watch them, they need to broadcast them through the relays and such out to my tv aerial - the broadcasting is the service but this is tied to the product i.e. I cannot watch the tv if they do not send it out to me.

This is the madness of what the software developers are saying that the game and playing it in the future are separate, they are not.  Once I have bought the game then I should be able to play it without unnecessary restrictions, including if I want to pass that on to someone else. 

[JamesC]

I guess time will tell. I agree that in an ideal world you would own a copy and then be able to play it in the future.
I'm quite into the retro scene and love the fact that I can trawl ebay for old Megadrive games that I never got the chance to play years ago. Emulators and modern versions aren't the same as putting the cart in my old machine.

RE: The BBC thing - I seem to remember that in the early days of VCRs it was actually, strictly speaking, illegal to record certain programmes (certainly films at any rate). Not sure if the rules were ever officially changed.

[HdE]

Well, I'm giving up video games and reading those new fangled comics things.

In another decade, I foresee that this is what ALL the cool kids will be doing.

[Steve Green]

Heh.

The whole mandatory subscription/kinect/penalise used games/it's all about the TVVVVV stuff has really put me off this.

Ah well, will save me money at least.

[HdE]

Hahaha! That GIF really made me laugh! Where the hell do you guys find this stuff?!

[Professor Bear]

I saw that one on Neogaf earlier.

[Steve Green]

A friend posted it on fb, but there are a bunch knocking around on gaming sites - this seemed like the best one.

[Professor Bear]

Hilarious if it turns out to be true (for obvious reasons, I have my doubts): One won't work without connecting to the internet once a day or the camera being connected, because it has to upload snapshots it takes of your room whenever you watch a film to see how many people are watching it.

[WhizzBang]

It seems to me that MS have taken a gamble here that may knock retailers out of the game.

The disc restrictions mean that you are only really paying for a delivery method and the disc itself will never have much resale value. They will not become collectible because they will be unplayable for anybody else by the time the next generation is underway.

To me this means that if I had a XBox One then I wouldn´t bother buying discs anymore and I would switch to download purchases only. The discs would only become clutter and eventually useless and worthless.

If it pays off for MS it could mean a reduction in price for online purchase games in the future once MS control the XBox market entirely without any retailers. As things stand now, MS can not risk undercutting retailers and upsetting them.

[J3D1]

Microsoft blew it as far as i'm concerned. They pissed me off so much with this reveal that there is no turning back.

[Rog69]

As 90% of the big titles are designed to run on the pretty ancient hardware of the 2 main consoles and then ported across to the pc (with a few minor improvements if you're lucky), the only positive thing I can glean from the two big console announcements is that it will now be worthwhile upgrading my aged PC.

The second hand games thing is a show stopper for me. From the perspective of a PC gamer, console games are just too expensive, I only ever buy used or budget titles for my consoles as new games are generally 30% -40% cheaper on the PC and drop in price sooner too. If the price of the second hand game + MS tax is equal to current used prices then I might consider it, but I have a feeling it won't be.