Support NeoGAF

[Deified Data]

The more I think about this the more I realize that there's no way this is their official policy. There's a catch. No question about it.

 

[joe2187]

I love how Microsoft gives us good news and people still hate. This is so much better then having to give a friend a disc, and lets be honest, who lends games to more then 10 people?

Extremely vague, unconfirmed, barely talked about policy with very little detail is not good news.

It's confusing.

 

[AltogetherAndrews]

I sort of predicted that MS would turn into Nintendo (the bumbling Nintendo) for this generation, and sure enough.

 

[rdrr gnr]

That's an incredibly cool feature. Therefore, I'm worried about the catch.

 

[watership]

How about I just buy a PS4 and share my games with how many fucking people I want to.

This includes digital purchased games.

 

[Pug]

Dude, this means I could buy a Xbox One and never buy a game, because I may have a family member that is loaded and I just play his games in my console whenever I want.

This is too good to be true.

Someone please explain.

Can I join your family member?

 

[BigDug13]

I have sincere doubts about this being able to do any concurrent gaming with a single game license. It would basically knock 50% off all game sales on the system. I firmly believe that you will have the option of buying additional licenses of each game to allow concurrent gaming with other members of your "family".

Microsoft allowing one license to be used on two machines at the same time? Microsoft? Licenses? No way.

 

[Hana-Bi]

I think MS wanted to really be digital only, always online this gen. DRM is there because they needed retail disks. Next-Gen after the X1 will see no Bluray drive in the Xbox console.

 

[entremet]

I still can't go on to Amazon and just buy a game used, therefore, still a bunch of bullshit to me.

Why buy used; support awesome devs.

Spoiler

JK

 

[paperboywriter]

Sony did something similar on ps3 and never told anyone. Ms might use this strategy

 

[GasProblem]

The fact that you cant play the game at the same time still makes this kind of shitty.

Would be amazing if I could just add 9 other people, and every time a game comes out we just pay 6 euros each and share the license between us. But not being able to play the game at the same time makes this kind of meh though.

 

[JoeyJungle]

This seems really complicated...

 

[Quentyn]

There has to be a catch. Imagine a game like Bioshock Infinite, people would just get together in groups of ten and finish the game one after the other. Publishers would never allow that.

 

[ArchangelWest]

Translation: "We not only will limit how many people can play our games, we also can gain in depth information on who you associate with and cross reference it with where we see them pop up at on other XBone's"

Not that it matters for me at this point, because they've already made it clear for me that I want no part of their new console direction.

 

[semiconscious]

Yeah, it seems too good to be true. The system can be exploited and there is no way publishers would risk losing sales when they tried so hard to implement DRM in the first case. There has to be a catch.

I thought the catch to this was that they all had to have physical access to the same console? Another words, it's even less than what you can already do to begin with?

that would definitely explain this. anything else = completely self-defeating...

 

[Archaix]

Just like today, a family member can play your copy of Forza Motorsport at a friend’s house. Only now, they will see not just Forza, but all of your shared games. You can always play your games, and any one of your family members can be playing from your shared library at a given time.

http://news.xbox.com/2013/06/license



The way it sounds here is that only one of those ten can access your library at all at one time. So if you have 20 games shared, and somebody is on there playing Peggle 2, then everybody else (the rest of the "family" group, not yourself) is presumably locked out from the other 19 games.

 

[Biff]

This is so confusing. There's no way this was their original plan (just as how Sony was rumoured to have changed its DRM policy last-minute as well).

So, developers were supportive of X1 because of its DRM on used game reselling.... Now they have to exist in a future where you can easily share your game with 10 people the moment you buy it?

What the fuck. That will do WAY more damage to publishers than used gaming ever could.

 

[JetBlackPanda]

If I only have to buy one copy of Halo 5 and COD 12 ( or whatever) instead of 2 every year so my partner and I can play together on separate boxes, that pays for the 2nd Xbox easily. We have multiple copies of at least 20 games this gen, most at full price. 20 games x $50 average = $1000 saved.

It pays for BOTH X1's.

think about what you are saying.

 

[DR3AM]

I usually buy 3-4 games a year, now I will buy only 1 and share it

 

[Ramma2]

10 today, 5 tomorrow, 1 after that. But I'm sure we can trust Microsoft to keep our best interests in mind...

 

[LTWheels]

Can someone adopt me? I'm an orphan.

 

[Miles Quaritch]

Lol so we need to get 10 people together, have each person buy a game (we'll decide on a list) and share it with everybody else, and then we're all only paying for every tenth game we get.

What's the flaw in my logic?

Each one of you will need a gold subscription? That's $600 in MS's pocket, some of which will undoubtedly be going to developers if this really is their policy going forward.

 

[JonathanPower]

So what about when your kids are grown and live in a different city like mine? I guess you'll ship the game back and forth?

This is definitely a cool feature...

Unless you can download the game, you'll still be forced to use the disc to install it.

 

[Hot Coldman]

The family system would be an awesome feature to go on top of a normal system.

It just looks like a dumb compromise here.

 

[CambriaRising]

Don't need the disk everything is digital.

There is no way in hell that your games are going to show up in a "family members" account download list, sorry.

 

[Papercuts]

I thought the catch to this was that they all had to have physical access to the same console? Another words, it's even less than what you can already do to begin with?

They said this works even if people are thousands of miles away. The 'family' can be anyone from anywhere.

 

[darkside31337]

The more I think about this the more I realize that there's no way this is their official policy. There's a catch. No question about it.

Yeah thats what I was thinking. Something like each account has to pay a fee for each additional family member they're sharing games with?

Did they actually ever say this feature would be free?

 

[BigDug13]

This is so confusing. There's no way this was their original plan (just as how Sony was rumoured to have changed its DRM policy last-minute as well).

So, developers were supportive of X1 because of its DRM on used game reselling.... Now they have to exist in a future where you can easily share your game with 10 people the moment you buy it?

What the fuck. That will do WAY more damage to publishers than used gaming ever could.

This further solidifies that it was all Microsoft's idea with the DRM. Microsoft only cares about getting you into their ecosystem. They don't give a crap about money making it into publisher hands.

 

[bidguy]

I assume you'd have to download the bluray game for this to work? Then it'd get deleted when you stop playing or after 24 hours?

yep thats probably true
but i think the last of us showed us that games can be played while its still downloading so im not worrying about that too much.

 

[xbhaskarx]

I have sold none of my 360/PS3 games and bought maybe 1-2 used games... I'd totally prefer sharing between 10 people to the current system.

 

[dragonelite]

This is no way teh way is going to work, if its is then is a fucking huge thing, like megaton of epic proportions huge.

Hey i mean EA and Ubisoft are so against right now DRM right, right?

 

[RyudBoy]

Being able to share a game with 10 people and have them all play it simultaneously just sounds ridiculous. Can't see this being true.

 

[SystemsGo]

If this is true, then why would anyone want to wait 30 days to gift someone a game and never get it back? There's gotta be something to this like same IP address requirement or same credit card info for all sharing accounts.

 

[jmood88]

Extremely vague, unconfirmed, barely talked about policy with very little detail is not good news.

It's confusing.

What's unconfirmed? This comes out of the mouth of the guy who confirmed the online check. It's not like this comes from the Xbox support twitter account.

 

[Bumblebeetuna]

I wonder if publishers can disable this like PSN sharing?

Either way, sounds way too good to be true. If it's this good, why the fuck aint MS marketing the hell out of it? I would have closed E3 with this.

 

[Allforce]

http://news.xbox.com/2013/06/license


The way it sounds here is that only one of those ten can access your library at all at one time. So if you have 20 games shared, and somebody is on there playing Peggle 2, then everybody else (the rest of the "family" group, not yourself) is presumably locked out from the other 19 games.

This explanation perfectly shows how the other shoe will drop.

 

[beast786]

Can you sell it?

 

[marc^o^]

I assume you'd have to download the bluray game for this to work? Then it'd get deleted when you stop playing or after few hours? If you have to download a full bluray game before you can play it, and you have to do it each time, here is the catch.

 

[Crisco]

You + one makes the most sense. Only you and one other person in your group can be playing a shared game at the same time. 10 a time is laughable, no way that's going to happen.

 

[BlazeGaj]

This is how I'm understanding it as well:

1) The person who paid for the game plays it any time.

2) Any one of the 9 people on that person's share list can play it but never at the same time as the other people on that share list.

Yea, that's pretty much it. That is good but I think the question would be can the list of friends be changed on the fly to add new people. That would be the key. If that is yes I'm so going to use this.

We could make a neogaf family thread lol

 

[Boy Wander]

The benefit of this system is that you don't have to even be in the same room to share your games. No disc swapping necessary. Your 'family friend' would have access to your entire shared game library instantly because it's all in the cloud. Also you can still play your game concurrently whilst one other of your 10 family members does, something you can't do with a single physical copy of a game.

So, it sounds fucking awesome. But also too good to be true. Anxious to find out the catch.

?? This policy was already on their site before E3.

No you can't play at the same time. One person can play each game at any one time.

I like this idea and to be honest, if Microsoft didn't implement the 'have to connect every day' policy, I'd be pretty much ok with it. If you remove the need to be online each day, it basically becomes a physical vs digital choice.

Does this 'sharing' apply to digital purchases as well as physical? Because if it does, it's actually a better proposition than either Nintendo or Sony's digital approach.

 

[Pug]

PS3 supported something similar back in the day.

http://www.joystiq.com/2006/10/20/ps3-drm-downloads-support-five-systems/

Publishers didn't like it and they took it off. It will be a very restrictive policy if it's implemented.

I'm sure publishers are pretty unhappy with Sony's DRM stance, theres little they can do about that either.

 

[paperboywriter]

http://news.xbox.com/2013/06/license



The way it sounds here is that only one of those ten can access your library at all at one time. So if you have 20 games shared, and somebody is on there playing Peggle 2, then everybody else (the rest of the "family" group, not yourself) is presumably locked out from the other 19 games.

Better not share your games

 

[see5harp]

PS3 supported something similar back in the day.

http://www.joystiq.com/2006/10/20/ps3-drm-downloads-support-five-systems/

Publishers didn't like it and they took it off. It will be a very restrictive policy if it's implemented.

That was more likely because there was no system in place for authentication. Always online requirements for each one of the parties would enable a solution. I'm still hesitant but there was a big reason the game sharing on PS3 was shut down.

 

[JaggedSac]

Interesting. Sounds like I need to get some gaf family members, lol.

 

[Monty Mole]

I have sincere doubts about this being able to do any concurrent gaming with a single game license. It would basically knock 50% off all game sales on the system. I firmly believe that you will have the option of buying additional licenses of each game to allow concurrent gaming with other members of your "family".

Microsoft allowing one license to be used on two machines at the same time? Microsoft? Licenses? No way.

It wouldn't be 50% though, let's be realistic here. It also requires a Gold sub. And they'll be getting rid of used sales without a cut. Perhaps it all balances out. Who knows.

 

[Iced_Eagle]

What I bolded above is not referring to this, correct?

Yeah, that's unrelated.

I imagine for loaning they will have a system like Amazon has for digital books where you could loan someone a game for 2 weeks to anyone on your friends list, which would be awesome because since it's digital, you could loan a game to your friend 3,000 miles away.

The family plan is all 10 people have a unified games library that they can share with each other.

 

[StopMakingSense]

http://news.xbox.com/2013/06/license



The way it sounds here is that only one of those ten can access your library at all at one time. So if you have 20 games shared, and somebody is on there playing Peggle 2, then everybody else (the rest of the "family" group, not yourself) is presumably locked out from the other 19 games.

Yes, this has been fairly clear since they posted their policies page. Don't understand why its getting all muddled up. The language is clear.

 

[Pungza]

Have to wonder why they didn't mention at the conference, they must have known about all the uproar about used games and DRM, they could't even give 10 minutes to address this.

Just makes it seem like there's a catch now.

 

[dionysus]

So any console? and 2 playing at the same time. Sounds way too good to be true. There has to be some limit to this.

That's like the old days of PC gaming and CD keys where the entire school grade would be playing from one CD key.

Edit. Ah, so if someone is accessing the "family license" then every game under that family license is locked out except that one game.