The Official Xbox One Thread

[Todd33]

How does the PS4 handle Digital copies of the game? Wouldn't that need to call somewhere to verify that the game wasn't just copied over from a thumb drive?

Tied to the console, not the account (any account can play content on a registered console), that is why you have to unregister your console when you sell it or it breaks. You can do it via a webpage. You cannot copy any game data other than saves to a thumb drive.

 

[smackababy]

Tied to the console, not the account (any account can play content on a registered console), that is why you have to unregister your console when you sell it or it breaks. You can do it via a webpage. You cannot copy any game data other than saves to a thumb drive.

There used to be some saves you couldn't even copy, which was rather frustrating.

 

[torpid]

Steam came about mostly in a void. There wasn't another way to digitally download large, mainstream games at the time. The same is not true of XB1. XBLA existed for the 360 and systems similar to steam are prolific now.

I think the model is fairly well proven. I don't have an issue with the XB1 focusing on that. I just think that their execution (or, at least, their PR) is weaker than we had hoped.

Also, a huge swath of services became unavailable when PSN was down after the break-in a while back. I am surprised to hear that you don't have to be logged in to play games because my experience is that nothing outside of playing disc-based games seems to work when PSN can't be contacted.

 

[American Gunner]

Tied to the console, not the account (any account can play content on a registered console), that is why you have to unregister your console when you sell it or it breaks. You can do it via a webpage. You cannot copy any game data other than saves to a thumb drive.

I'm pretty sure it ties to your account. That was why I was able to go and redownload all my old plus games on my new console. I just went to my download history for my account.

 

[Aikouka]

There used to be some saves you couldn't even copy, which was rather frustrating.

Yep, and that's true for both consoles. It was rather annoying when I wanted to migrate to using a thumb drive for my profile + saves on the 360. I lost a few saves because I wanted to avoid using the console's HDD, but I couldn't move them off it.

I'm pretty sure it ties to your account. That was why I was able to go and redownload all my old plus games on my new console. I just went to my download history for my account.

In my experience with the PS3, he's correct; however I think you may have misunderstood what he was trying to convey. What he means is that each PlayStation Network account is allowed to activate two PlayStation 3 consoles. When that console is activated by the account, it is able to use the content purchased by that account. So, he wasn't saying that it's locked to your account when you buy it, but rather authenticating your console allows you to use the content regardless of the account.

It is a bummer though if you have more than two PS3s.

 

[Pheran]

Had to repost this from the Hume thread. This pic is 100% real, I tested it myself.

 

[purbeast0]

Had to repost this from the Hume thread. This pic is 100% real, I tested it myself.

we know, the sony camp has already used it as ammo in the other thread

 

[HeXen]

MS has 97,811 employees worldwide. Over 57,000 in the U.S. alone. That tells me that confusion and lack of detailed information about any specific thing at MS is very rampant amongst each individual employee, likely that even the PR guys and their boss's can't answer questions for that which they are unsure of. Too many boss's on top of boss's with a CEO who probably never played a video game in his life being pressured from investors who only know how to work a calculator.

They need a solid leader, one with passion for what the company is making, not a herd of yes men.

For a positive outlook, here are 13 facts about Xbone you may have missed. Also read the responses to the article.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/josephbernstein/13-little-things-you-may-have-missed-about-the-xbox-one

 

[Skel]

Tied to the console, not the account (any account can play content on a registered console), that is why you have to unregister your console when you sell it or it breaks. You can do it via a webpage. You cannot copy any game data other than saves to a thumb drive.

Yep, and that's true for both consoles. It was rather annoying when I wanted to migrate to using a thumb drive for my profile + saves on the 360. I lost a few saves because I wanted to avoid using the console's HDD, but I couldn't move them off it.



In my experience with the PS3, he's correct; however I think you may have misunderstood what he was trying to convey. What he means is that each PlayStation Network account is allowed to activate two PlayStation 3 consoles. When that console is activated by the account, it is able to use the content purchased by that account. So, he wasn't saying that it's locked to your account when you buy it, but rather authenticating your console allows you to use the content regardless of the account.

It is a bummer though if you have more than two PS3s.

Thanks for the info. Could you have two accounts active on the PS? For example could my room mate have a PS3 then I have an account on it. Would I be able to buy games myself and then also have access to his games?

I realize this is becoming thread drift a bit, but while I'm not attempting to say it's better or worse then MS' new direction I'm trying to get an idea how PSN will be handling downloaded games. For me personally the idea of not having a ton of disks sitting around collecting dust works better for me. I also rarely sell games as I never know when I want to come back around and play them again which has happened in the past.

And once again before I'm pegged into the "MS employee" category that seems to happen to anyone not screaming FUCK Microsoft, I really do think the physical disk should be handed differently this gen. The next gen I'd be surprised if they even have disk drives.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Thanks for the info. Could you have two accounts active on the PS? For example could my room mate have a PS3 then I have an account on it. Would I be able to buy games myself and then also have access to his games?

I realize this is becoming thread drift a bit, but while I'm not attempting to say it's better or worse then MS' new direction I'm trying to get an idea how PSN will be handling downloaded games. For me personally the idea of not having a ton of disks sitting around collecting dust works better for me. I also rarely sell games as I never know when I want to come back around and play them again which has happened in the past.

And once again before I'm pegged into the "MS employee" category that seems to happen to anyone not screaming FUCK Microsoft, I really do think the physical disk should be handed differently this gen. The next gen I'd be surprised if they even have disk drives.

On my PS3 I have two accounts. I have games I purchased on my main account that are playable by my second account. You just cannot access the saves from the first account.

So lets give a situation. You and a room mate have a single PS3. You both have a PSN account. You buy Last of Us on PSN and download it. He can then play it via his PSN account on the same console and he cannot mess up your save game since he cannot access your save. If you were to purchase a second console and put your PSN account on it as well, you could then download the game on that console and play it there too. Only two consoles though.

PSN+ games that are offered as a bonus to subscribers are tied to the PSN+ account holder.

In summary, purchased content on PS3 is tied to the console it is downloaded on, but accessable by any PSN account created on that console. Your downloades are saved in a download history and you can go back and re-download them on another console if you need.

 

[BladeVenom]

For a positive outlook, here are 13 facts about Xbone you may have missed. Also read the responses to the article.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/josephbernstein/13-little-things-you-may-have-missed-about-the-xbox-one

This one sounds like a big negative to me:

5. Some of the the games will need Microsoft’s servers to run.

The 300,000 servers Microsoft will be dedicating to Xbox Live are necessary to handle all of the streaming data that will be generated by the new consoles, but it will also be a place for game designers to offload processing duties. This will free up the processor in the Xbox One to handle more tasks on its own. This one is potentially a mixed bag, though.
​

How long do you think MS will keep those 300,000 servers for the Xbox One running after the Xbox One is no longer profitable?

 

[Durvelle27]

As of this morning, GameStop management has confirmed that they are not currently taking reserves on Xbox One. No official explanation has been given for the removal of the SKU at this time, and GameStop has not clarified whether or not they will re-open the reserve list at a later time. PlayStation 4 is still available for reserve, and Sony recently announced that GameStop has pledged to buy every PlayStation 4 they can get their hands on.

http://gengame.net/2013/06/gamestop-...ne-pre-orders/

 

[Skel]

On my PS3 I have two accounts. I have games I purchased on my main account that are playable by my second account. You just cannot access the saves from the first account.

So lets give a situation. You and a room mate have a single PS3. You both have a PSN account. You buy Last of Us on PSN and download it. He can then play it via his PSN account on the same console and he cannot mess up your save game since he cannot access your save. If you were to purchase a second console and put your PSN account on it as well, you could then download the game on that console and play it there too. Only two consoles though.

PSN+ games that are offered as a bonus to subscribers are tied to the PSN+ account holder.

In summary, purchased content on PS3 is tied to the console it is downloaded on, but accessable by any PSN account created on that console. Your downloades are saved in a download history and you can go back and re-download them on another console if you need.

That's really helpful, thanks!

This one sounds like a big negative to me:

5. Some of the the games will need Microsoft’s servers to run.

The 300,000 servers Microsoft will be dedicating to Xbox Live are necessary to handle all of the streaming data that will be generated by the new consoles, but it will also be a place for game designers to offload processing duties. This will free up the processor in the Xbox One to handle more tasks on its own. This one is potentially a mixed bag, though.
​

How long do you think MS will keep those 300,000 servers for the Xbox One running after the Xbox One is no longer profitable?

I see what you're doing here, but there's a ton of factors. There's nothing to say that just because the One is killed off means they're going to shut everything down screwing all it's users. Odds are it'll follow the Zune and the service will be pushed over to another service, like the Zune was moved into Xbox music. If and when the last light goes out odds are it'll be a very long time, it may not be called Xbox anymore it'll be under something else. It will however one day end up dead tech like a lot of other consumer devices. By that time it's more likely someone will hack it up allowing it to live on like those MMORPG.

 

[Pheran]

This one sounds like a big negative to me:

How long do you think MS will keep those 300,000 servers for the Xbox One running after the Xbox One is no longer profitable?

Yup, the entire Xbox One "cloud computing" thing is a terrible idea, because any game that uses it will cease to work after a relatively small number of years. Not to mention that network latency will make it very difficult to use in a meaningful way in the first place.

 

[Topweasel]

Yup, the entire Xbox One "cloud computing" thing is a terrible idea, because any game that uses it will cease to work after a relatively small number of years. Not to mention that network latency will make it very difficult to use in a meaningful way in the first place.

The thing people aren't thinking of is that this isn't "Xbox live" servers. It's Microsofts global cloud services servers. Servers they use to host and handle cloud services for hundreds of Fortune 500 companies. They keep the servers profitable and as Microsoft continuously upgrades and strengthen this farm the less and less of an impact these servers will have one them. These services might literally become the light switch at the death of Microsoft. All the blinking lights all going off as Microsoft closes the door and is eaten up by scavengers.

 

[smackababy]

The thing people aren't thinking of is that this isn't "Xbox live" servers. It's Microsofts global cloud services servers. Servers they use to host and handle cloud services for hundreds of Fortune 500 companies. They keep the servers profitable and as Microsoft continuously upgrades and strengthen this farm the less and less of an impact these servers will have one them. These services might literally become the light switch at the death of Microsoft. All the blinking lights all going off as Microsoft closes the door and is eaten up by scavengers.

I would wager in the event of a MS collapse, their cloud offering would be sold off to Akami or someone interested in the profitability of such a service. Whether they keep the Xbox servers on, is questionable, but not unlikely. The ability to scale up and down your servers fast, gives it the advantage of in 15 years when there are literally 3 or 4 players using the Xbox One at a time, they are using very minimal server resources.

 

[Arkaign]

As of this morning, GameStop management has confirmed that they are not currently taking reserves on Xbox One. No official explanation has been given for the removal of the SKU at this time, and GameStop has not clarified whether or not they will re-open the reserve list at a later time. PlayStation 4 is still available for reserve, and Sony recently announced that GameStop has pledged to buy every PlayStation 4 they can get their hands on.

http://gengame.net/2013/06/gamestop-...ne-pre-orders/

Has anyone else confirmed this? I would love it if it's true, but it appears to be FUD at the moment, gamestop web site still has Xbox One listed on there. It does look to be doing very very poorly indeed vs. PS4 in preorders, but I see no indication that it's pulled.

Edit : the web site let me add both the Xbox One and PS4 as pre-orders.

 

[Tweak155]

Has anyone else confirmed this? I would love it if it's true, but it appears to be FUD at the moment, gamestop web site still has Xbox One listed on there. It does look to be doing very very poorly indeed vs. PS4 in preorders, but I see no indication that it's pulled.

Where are you getting pre-order numbers? Just curious.

 

[smackababy]

Has anyone else confirmed this? I would love it if it's true, but it appears to be FUD at the moment, gamestop web site still has Xbox One listed on there. It does look to be doing very very poorly indeed vs. PS4 in preorders, but I see no indication that it's pulled.

They are no longer taking pre-orders because they sold out of what they were slated to get. How does that show they are doing poor exactly? Of course though, you are so anti MS, them selling out means they are failing.

 

[Pheran]

The thing people aren't thinking of is that this isn't "Xbox live" servers. It's Microsofts global cloud services servers. Servers they use to host and handle cloud services for hundreds of Fortune 500 companies. They keep the servers profitable and as Microsoft continuously upgrades and strengthen this farm the less and less of an impact these servers will have one them. These services might literally become the light switch at the death of Microsoft. All the blinking lights all going off as Microsoft closes the door and is eaten up by scavengers.

It doesn't even matter if their cloud servers stay up for the next 300 years. It's not like a generic server can accomplish anything. Those servers have to run code to do whatever calculations the game wants. And I can 99% guarantee you that each game will have specific server code dedicated to it. Unless someone is maintaining the particular piece of server code associated with each game, it will eventually quit working, and so will the game.

EDIT: I should note that I'm talking about games that specifically take advantage of Microsoft's "cloud computing" offload feature here. I'm not just talking about the 24-hour checkin.

 

[Arkaign]

Where are you getting pre-order numbers? Just curious.

Their top seller preorders are listed in 'most anticipated', which has :

#1 PS4 Bundle
#2 PS4 Bundle
#3 PS4 Bundle
#4 XB1 Bundle
#5 PS4 Bundle
#6 XB1 Bundle

Any way you cut that, it's clear dominance by PS4 in preorders.

They are no longer taking pre-orders because they sold out of what they were slated to get. How does that show they are doing poor exactly? Of course though, you are so anti MS, them selling out means they are failing.

Herp, derp. You can STILL reserve XB1 on Gamestop. I just checked. It's simply not generating enough interest to be #1, #2, or #3.

 

[Durvelle27]

Has anyone else confirmed this? I would love it if it's true, but it appears to be FUD at the moment, gamestop web site still has Xbox One listed on there. It does look to be doing very very poorly indeed vs. PS4 in preorders, but I see no indication that it's pulled.

Edit : the web site let me add both the Xbox One and PS4 as pre-orders.

Nope no confirmation maybe they got more in stock or something

 

[Topweasel]

That is irrelevant. It's not like a generic server can accomplish anything. Those servers have to run code to do whatever calculations the game wants. And I can 99% guarantee you that each game will have specific server code dedicated to it. Unless someone is maintaining the particular piece of server code associated with each game, it will eventually quit working, and so will the game.

No that's what I am telling you, its not. This isn't dedicated hardware and MS has been talking about it forever. You use a very highend fluid VM setup that shrinks and grows with your required connection rates. The code is in the VM's not embedded into the hardware.

 

[smackababy]

No that's what I am telling you, its not. This isn't dedicated hardware and MS has been talking about it forever. You use a very highend fluid VM setup that shrinks and grows with your required connection rates. The code is in the VM's not embedded into the hardware.

What he is saying is, at some point, the code will be removed and the servers will no longer have it. We can assume that will happen. In 20 years, people probably won't be playing Halo 5 online (unless it is just something amazing and sells 100million units). If some server code used for calculations in the matchmaking or something is used, at some point it will no longer be available.

That is a problem for everything requiring any kind of server interaction. At some point, it is possible every Steam game won't be able to authenticate (in the event Steam shuts down and doesn't patch it out). At some point, WoW will no longer be accessible and the servers will be shut down. We have seen this happen before in PC gaming and some companies have patched it out of the games while others have just said "Oh well, buy a new game." and hackers have "patched" it out for them.

While I don't think MS is in any danger of shutting down Xbox Live in 10 years and the scalability making it easy to not have a real impact on costs in the future should provide a long life, it is inevitable at some point it will be turned off. Possibly they could keep a single instance online for historical purposes (like the very first website still being hosted on the first webserver), but I don't think the historical significance of XBL is high enough to do that.

 

[Dari]

Wait, so EVERY xbox one game needs to be authenticated with a server in order to play? Even if you don't copy it to the HDD? Why? That's not good. Not good at all, especially if you want to gift it to someone from a different country or if you don't have internet access. I had no idea but, if true, this sucks.