We need a "Jump to Conclusions Mat"

by narcogen , Andover, Massachusetts, Friday, May 24, 2013, 06:18 (3982 days ago) @ Ragashingo

In the (idiotic) sea of misinformation over the last few days one Microsoft person also said something about anyone on any profile being able to play it if they had the disc. Or maybe it was anybody on that Xbox. Or maybe both… Did I mention the idiotic sea of disinformation?? Anyway it sounded like your made up scenario of it only, no ifs ands of buts, being tied to a single account will turn out to be wrong.*

I don't know. I've seen the scenario Cody mentioned described on several sites, where games have to be activated and linked to a profile and can only be played by that profile, regardless of the disc or the console.

I have not seen anything mentioned about play from the disc. All I have seen is a mention that installation to the hard drive is required. And with regard to games that are installed to the hard drive, they behave as Cody described.

In fact, if you install a game from disc on a 360 while logged into a profile, there are some things you can't do on that console unless you're logged into that profile. For several games I've seen the workaround suggested that you log out of all profiles before installing the game in order to avoid the problem.

For games that download to the HD, Cody's scenario is the case: you must be either on the console for which the content was bought, or logged into the profile that bought it, in order to play. Cody's scenario just extends that to games installed from the disc, and this is the only scenario that gives MS control over lending or used copies.

If you can play from the disc without the profile, and can play from the HD while logged in, then every disc copy of a game could theoretically be played in two places at once: from the installed copy while logged into the profile that activated it, and from any other machine with the disc in the drive. (Xbox One games do NOT require the disc in the drive to play games that are installed, and all games must be installed. This much I'm pretty sure I've read everywhere.)

I read the info the same way Cody did-- you won't be able to independently sell used games for a mutually agreed-upon price, because the buyer will have to pay MS something, possibly as much as full retail price, which kills the used market almost entirely. You also can't lend anyone a disc without accompanying it, because you need a profile.

If MS were smart and not greedy, the fee for secondary copies would be lower than full price, they'd have an online market for the exchange of used games with low commissions and floating prices, and they'd treat game lending with some kind of library feature, either allowing a few days of free play on a borrowed copy, or some kind of really small daily rate, something so small nobody would bother with it. This would allow people to borrow copies of a friend's game to audition it and see if it's worth owning, while giving MS some revenue out of situations that currently bring them nothing.