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[Satchel]

Only on NeoGAF could you find people willing to complain about something as awesome as this.

Come back to me when the disc you lend to someone gets lost, broken or scratched. This is an awesome feature. Even with physical discs, the majority of people who do lend, don't lend to 10 different people, and the number of people who would, would be tiny anyway.

Either way, digital borrowing > physical borrowing. Any day.

 

[Pug]

This would only work with games like Skyrim where you spend like hundreds of hours on it.

Games like Bioshock? Most people finish those in a day or 2.

This is more damaging then the traditional model of lending games.

This is more damaging then having used games.

What if you have two mates who want to share your PS4 Killzone disc, you've been best mates for years with both. You lend it one, they other one gets will pissed with you and slams you one on the chops. I suggest this is/would be far more damaging than MS lending system.

By the way I'm just pointing out the ridiculous angles people are coming up with to negate the MS lending.

 

[Klocker]

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.

. Why? You can't play two instances of one disc game

 

[LyleLanley]

Games like, say Uncharted or the last of us will cease to exist then. Buy the game finish it, add it to the shared folder and tell your mates to knock themselves out, whilst you complete some of your friends games.

It sounds completely unworkable to me and rife for abuse.

Isn't this a big problem with single player games already? I can finish Uncharted, pass it on to a friend who can do the same and so on.

 

[ultron87]

Why would anyone want to put themselves through this bullshit when they can just get a PS4 and be done with it?

I can't buy one PS4 game and share it with my brother who lives 2 hours away and have us both be playing it at the same time like I can with this system.

So that's one advantage.

 

[koryuken]

No. It very clearly states one person + the original owner of the game can play at the same time.

IMO this is not 100% clear yet.

The twitter account for XBOX Support says this, but I will need to hear it from someone higher up in MS before I believe it.

The quote i posted earlier can still be interpreted as only one person at a time.

 

[JetBlackPanda]

2-3 people chipping in for a brand new copy of a game is better for the publisher than someone buying a used game.

2-3 people chipping in for a brand new copy and sharing it is worse then 3 people buying their own copy.

this entire thing is missing a piece of the puzzle.

 

[GashPrex]

The problem is - they can change this policy at any given time - they explicitily stated this. With all the other stuff surounding xbox one I have a bad feeling about this...



It's extremely inconvenient to do this with friends not living near you?

Isn't that the value of a digital age? Some restrictions (aka 24 check in) but some benefits? I mean this is nothing that can't be done today, it just too inconvenient apparently.

 

[Alx]

What are the odds that you need the same credit card on each account in the 'family'? That would be enough to put me off entirely.

Er, zero. What kind of "family" shares a credit card among 10 people, especially spread in different homes ?

 

[Zoe]

What? I was agreeing with that statement. When I said 'currently' I was referring to Xbox 360/PS3 physical discs. I know about Xbox One's policy on this, read my earlier posts.

Sorry, so many people are thinking that's still the case under this system that I got mixed up...

Everyone don't have to download the game. All games you install on your system the digital copy is stored in the cloud, that is why all games must be installed. After that you can access your library on another xbox at a friend or family house. They explained this in the doc running up to e3.

The all-powerful cloud is not a game streaming service like Gaikai. You will have to install the game locally. They do have it where you can start playing the game before the full thing is downloaded, but you can be assured that eventually you will download the entire thing.

 

[Miles Quaritch]

How is that any different than lending a physical game between your friends?

It's not. It's actually more restrictive in that you're limited to only sharing with 10 people and you can't resell/trade your game after you and your friends are done with it. You'll all likely need a gold sub too.

Trade-offs, I guess.

 

[bidguy]

JESUS!!! Guys, only ONE can play AT A TIME. There's no two people playing at the same time! The other 9 can't play the game while you are playing it. If one of the guys plays it YOU + 8 others can't play it.

ONE AT A TIME!

it says 2 at a time on xboxwire

 

[Success]

Megaton!
If adding and removing family members is like adding and removing a friend on Xbox live then sharing is a true and titanic megaton. You can play games simultaneously and can share with ANYONE! This makes the XBONE quite the competitor!

-
Success

 

[ElTorro]

What are the odds that you need the same credit card on each account in the 'family'? That would be enough to put me off entirely.

I am pretty sure that you have to share the account login. That is, you have to enter it once and reenter it sometimes thereafter on consoles that you share games with.

Your credit card would be attached to that login you "give away". That's how it works on iTunes. And this would keep sharing "in the family" because nobody would give their login to strangers.

 

[Papercuts]

JESUS!!! Guys, only ONE can play AT A TIME. There's no two people playing at the same time! The other 9 can't play the game while you are playing it. If one of the guys plays it YOU + 8 others can't play it.

ONE AT A TIME!

The original owner has full access. It's one person playing it from the shared list, so 2 people can play it at the same time. But not 2 that both don't own it.

 

[statham]

Where are the "Xbox Family Creation Threads on GAF" That he is referring to?

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=579201

 

[jagowar]

Nope. It clearly says you can play whenever the fuck you want because it's your game, and it also says that the others can play at A GIVEN TIME. If it would've been "at ANY given time" then yes you are right. But it's AT A GIVEN TIME (GIVEN that you are not playing).

Nope.... its very clearly states

Give your family access to your entire games library anytime, anywhere: Xbox One will enable new forms of access for families. Up to ten members of your family can log in and play from your shared games library on any Xbox One. 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.

Key word is bolded.

also from the pa article.

The question is how many people can play the game at the same time. Spencer told me he believed that two people can play one copy of a game concurrently, but he urged me to check Microsoft's official wording on the matter to be sure. This is what the licensing page states:

 

[tickling]

10 people in your family group
if you buy the game you can play it anytime
if you are part of the family group you can access the games in the group
only one person apart from the owner can access the games libary at the same time
you cant play the same game at the same time

 

[WhyIsTheRumGone]

I can't buy one PS4 game and share it with my brother who lives 2 hours away and have us both be playing it at the same time like I can with this system.

So that's one advantage.

Stop doing this to yourself. It doesn't work that way.

 

[K1ng P3n]

To be fair, I can't think of a single time where I lend a game to more than two people.

Same here. Never been big on lending games.

 

[SeaOfMadness]

This blows my mind , why go through all the DRM shit and try to control the 2nd hand game market , then turn round and let 10 people play 1 game.

Surely that's more damaging than any hypothetical loss of sales from people trading in games.

Because maybe, just maybe, that isn't the reason for the DRM?? Maybe it's there precisely to allow features such as this?

I know, crazy, right?

 

[Nafai1123]

Then that would invalidate the clear example they gave about lending a disc to someone. If I lend you game A, that doesn't invalidate me being able to lend Game B,C,D,E,F to other people.

It's a family share. You can add 10 people to the list. At any point in time, you and one other person could be playing different games. If you aren't playing, two family member (1-10) could be playing different games. If you are playing, ONE family member (1-10) could be playing a different game.

 

[3rdamention]

"The only limitation, it seems, is that only one person can be playing the shared copy of a single game at any given time."



Seems like they have all their messages mixed up again, one person says its the owner and a member, he says its only one person. Who knows anymore.

 

[stuminus3]

IMO this is not 100% clear yet.

It's not clear because WhyIsTheRumGone is correct but Microsoft want to confuse everybody into thinking they're getting a better deal. It's the oldest trick in their playbook, not just in the videogame sector.

Key word is bolded.

You're right, that's key word. A carefully placed key word. It may not mean what you think it means.

 

[Jomjom]

What is MS doing, they should have mentioned this feature at least 10 times on stage. That would have done a lot to win the hearts of gamers.

 

[coldfoot]

I am SERIOUSLY considering running my own Gamefly with this. Buy every game with a different XBL account and rent the account out via the family system daily/weekly for a fee.

 

[jmdajr]

Only on NeoGAF could you find people willing to complain about something as awesome as this.

Come back to me when the disc you lend to someone gets lost, broken or scratched. This is an awesome feature. Even with physical discs, the majority of people who do lend, don't lend to 10 different people, and the number of people who would, would be tiny anyway.

Either way, digital borrowing > physical borrowing. Any day.

I don't know a lot of hardcore gamers in my age group so it's plenty really. Most don't even have time to game anyway, myself included :\

 

[LiquidMetal14]

it says 2 at a time on xboxwire

Kind of limited to share it with 10 but only 2 can play then.

In the end I guess I would take it but to be able to share with 10 would take a ton of coordination like talking to each other and saying, "I got dibs on the game Wednesday at 10pm to 12am. Player 2 can have it from 12am-2am. Etc".

I'm trying to figure this out to a tee but it seems like 10 can share but 2 can play at the same time?

 

[damaph]

How is that any different than lending a physical game between your friends?

Much easier to lend to family or friends who live farther away.

 

[Scofield94941]

Why on earth would they let 2 people play at the same time? The whole point of DRM is to make more money from used games. They would be out of a sale immediately if 2 people could play for the price of one

 

[zeopower6]

Only on NeoGAF could you find people willing to complain about something as awesome as this.

Come back to me when the disc you lend to someone gets lost, broken or scratched. This is an awesome feature. Even with physical discs, the majority of people who do lend, don't lend to 10 different people, and the number of people who would, would be tiny anyway.

Either way, digital borrowing > physical borrowing. Any day.

It's just very fishy.

Doesn't the ability to buy a game once and then essentially get ~10 digital copies~ for people on a list sound way too good to be true?

 

[Zoe]

IMO this is not 100% clear yet.

The twitter account for XBOX Support says this, but I will need to hear it from someone higher up in MS before I believe it.

The quote i posted earlier can still be interpreted as only one person at a time.

This is from the official "How Games Licensing Works on Xbox One" page:

One will enable new forms of access for families. Up to ten members of your family can log in and play from your shared games library on any Xbox One. 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.

 

[WolvenOne]

This is probably why they're calling 'family' sharing because it is indeed suited better to families or very small groups of people who can agree who will play what when. Otherwise, as you say, it becomes a fucking bun fight as to who gets access to a game.

Probably also a big reason why MS wouldn't go region free. In theory, you could hook up with someone in a different timezone and share games without ever getting in each others way.

*nods*

As big as America is, most people live within a time zone or two of each other. Even people on opposite coasts likely have overlapping prime gaming hours. Start figuring in Europe and Asia however, and suddenly the overlap starts disappearing.

 

[GashPrex]

It's not. It's actually more restrictive in that you're limited to only sharing with 10 people and you can't resell/trade your game after you and your friends are done with it. You'll all likely need a gold sub too.

Trade-offs, I guess.

What do you mean you can't trade it in? I thought it was pretty clear you can trade in games for credit.

 

[Rad-]

They need to make a big announcement about this and clear this up because this is a feature that could sell the system for them if it really works like this.

 

[Ballistik]

So this used games policy basically halts how many people get their hand on one disc, and sharing is a way to alleviate that. Right now, a used games goes through a lot of people as its sold and resold, but I think this could work..?

I mean, release date, even the first week or month for a AAA title, everybody in your circle of 10 will want to play the game. Unless it's extremely coordinated, someone will be hogging the game the entire time, making others wait.. Pushing them to just go and buy it.

 

[BlazeGaj]

"The only limitation, it seems, is that only one person can be playing the shared copy of a single game at any given time."



Seems like they have all their messages mixed up again, one person says its the owner and a member, he says its only one person. Who knows anymore.

Key word is shared copy. The owner can play any time.

 

[ari]

So they want to block / fully control used games because they 'hurt' game sales, yet they make every game available for sharing freely between ten people without any form of restriction? I don't really see the logic in this. I'm fully preparing for 'You need Gold for your Xbox One to work'. Would also explain CBOAT saying it would get 'much worse'. Call me a pessimist, but I just don't see this happening without some sort of catch.

I'm sorry, but if internet is a requirement anyhow, why would your logic is to NOT get live? Totally pointless in getting angry about that.

 

[keyrat]

Game sharing on the PS3 allowed, what, 5 activated boxes? And they went ahead and curtailed that to two presumably because it was being exploited too much.

I suppose it might work for MS if they don't have a used game market, but it also might prove too much to bear.

 

[statham]

edit: he edited

 

[WhyIsTheRumGone]

Nope.... its very clearly states



Key word is bolded.

also from the pa article.

key word is AT A GIVEN TIME. This doesn not mean simultaneously it means separately

 

[Truelize]

This is EXCELLENT news. This is the type of thing that pushes the industry forward.

If you and one other person in your "family" can play a game together then I'm the happiest guy ever. This means I can play coop weigh my kids. Or they can play coop using the two different TVs setup in our gaming area. Or two people could both be playing the same single player game and be at different spots in the same game. Helping each other. Enjoying the game together.

This could be huge.

Obviously this means you would have multiple subs to Xbox Live Gold. Probably why they got rid of the family plan and then created Xbox Live Gold sharing (if the console has a Gold sub on it a users have access to it regardless to which profile is logged in).

 

[Bgamer90]

Heh, already more posts than my thread on this.

More attractive thread title though

 

[daebo]

Knee jerk post I made I admit.

However this family thing seems like a great deal only good between two "family" members. The owner and the sharer. Anyone other members involved will be restricted completely from playing the game whenever they want.

which would mean they would have to buy a copy and share with a potential other family member. So, the publishers are still going to get copies bought.

the way i envision is that if you have a family of 10. The hopes is that five of the folks will buy copies of it. But with a bigger pool of accessing games. we may have to communicate a bit more and see who will be playing off whose shared game but that's a small trade off.

it 'seems' too good to be true, but with the numbers of only you and 1 other person can play at any given time off of the original bought game - the multiplayer games people will have to buy multiple versions - so you in theory will still get your sales.

 

[reKon]

this is an awesome twist. I'm very interested int MSOFT's next steps from actual pricing/policy to PR statements

 

[Wario64]

This actually sounds pretty decent. Question is if it's worth accepting MS's DRM strategy for this sharing convenience. I think we need more details though

 

[tfur]

Sounds like a not really well thought out damage control carrot. It will work for those that need it to work.

 

[herod]

Because maybe, just maybe, that isn't the reason for the DRM?? Maybe it's there precisely to allow features such as this?

I know, crazy, right?

Then why is it only coming out now? An unfettered lending scheme as so far described would be your lead thing in any presentation.

I want to see some EA, Ubisoft and Activision comments on this.

 

[waxer]

This family share sounds to good to be true. After all the other restrictions it seems strange.

-I get 10 people and create a group.
-We all buy a game each so we can get a circle of sharing going
-We can then all share whatever games we own within that group as long as only one person is playing that game at a time?
-Then on neogaf there are two families in which we are friends for 30 days.
-Group a buy game 1
-Group b buy game 2
-Once game 1 is finished passing around the first 10 people after paying for just 1 copies it is passed to groups b for a one time give. Game 2 is passed back in Opposite direction.
-They then get played 20 times off just 2 sales? Assuming you have the patience.

Each person buys 1 game each and plays 20? Or do I suck at math.

 

[RebornYeti]

But I didn't say lending, I meant vs. used game sales. This is seemingly more damaging

Plus physical lending means I actually have to know and trust you. Now i can just split stuff with 10 internetizens

I know with the sharing thing I won't be adding "internetizens" into my "Family". I'm only going to choose the friends I hang out with in real life.