Next Xbox won't let you play used games?
If you enjoy playing used or borrowed games on your gaming console – such as the Xbox 360 – prepare to pay all the time.
According to a gaming website, Microsoft's next iteration of the Xbox won't let you play borrowed or second-hand games.
Instead, they're going to push online game delivery and digital downloads as a way of getting your gaming fix.
That's not to say you can't buy physical games anymore. The Edge-Online.com report, citing unnamed sources, says games will still ship on 50GB Blu-Ray discs with activation codes that only the initial gamer can take advantage of.
The implications for game developers are huge. If Microsoft actually moves ahead with this reported change, gamers will have to pay the developer for each copy of the game used.
As it is now, used game sales at resellers such as GameSpot or EB Games don't send any cash back to the companies that first made the games.
And this could hurt them – Forbes is reporting that EB Games' stock slid almost 7 per cent. But then again, game publishers and developers would theoretically get a bigger cut of revenues.
What would you think if you couldn't buy used games?
- Maurice Cacho, MSN Tech & Gadgets
Comments
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Posted by: Troy | Feb 8, 2013 12:50:10 PM
Then I won't buy these consoles. If it was a case of them offering the money 'saved' in digital delivery and cutting down on 'piracy' back to the consumer, then I'd consider. But they won't. It's business, after all. They want to make more money, not 'throw it away'.
I can't help buy be baffled how they can make these kinds of decisions, especially in the US. It's illegal to modify the console 'you' have bought to do anything other than what the manufacturer intended you to do with it. What if these same restrictions were applied to an often-used model, cars? What kind of outcry would there be if it were suddenly illegal to use any type of oil or parts in your car but those approved by the manufacturer (and the attendant price increases that would entail)? What if suddenly, you weren't allowed to sell your car at the end of it's life? Any car would have to be bought 'new', or with a sizable chunk of the purchase price given to the car maker, and not the person selling?
I've mentioned before, but more and more we seem to be swung back towards the 'baron and serf' model. If you're not rich enough to own, then you never will, because you'll be kept renting for generations by the rich.
Posted by: Mike | Feb 9, 2013 1:23:47 PM
Then Microsoft, Sony and the rest can go to hell. I don't have to pay a publisher for a used book, so I sure as hell won't pay a company for a used game.
Posted by: ben | Feb 10, 2013 3:25:04 AM
I hate to be the one to say this but in my experience there's been console mods and hacks since playstation one. Its technology not a piece of steel. Whatever reads the serial on the disk will be bypassed. Microchips and hard drives read ones and zeroes. It'll be awhile until companies make a hack proof device. Unfortunately with a mod there are cons too. This just seems obvious so I posted it.
Posted by: Muaz Patel | Feb 14, 2013 9:43:53 AM
alll these companies are trying to max profitability and are going to loose customers like this. rethink your new console or i will go with the new ps4 or the wii u
Posted by: Ken McGovern | Feb 17, 2013 12:58:32 PM
we own multiple xbox 360s and like to play games on different floors of our home and take one console on vacation. I insist on owning hard copy disk versions of games in the event that systems become corrupted or die. if you do this then you will be losing our business forever. I need to know that I can plug my game into any xbox console, call up my profile and play.
Posted by: Andrew S | Feb 19, 2013 1:54:57 PM
Buying used games from places like EB are usually not very good discounts. It takes a long time for popular games to get reduced to a very good used-deal. Plus, used games for online multiplayer do not come with the online activation code, so part of the money that you would have saved from buying it used, goes into the activation code.
However, places like Amazon can sell new, hard copy games for better prices only a few months after release (sometimes). So hard copy purchases will always be available.
But buying the games doesn't bother me. What bothers me is that you can't borrow games. This isn't about making/spending money, it's about being nice to your friends and lending them your game or receiving one from them. I think that is ridiculous if you take that ability away.
I understand that developers want to increase profits by stomping on the used-game market. That makes total sense. The problem is that the cost of games will remain the same or increase while the value of the game will be zero after you play it once.
I suggest go to the library and take out a book. It's free, time consuming and depending on the detail and the book itself, full of nice images and graphics.