Hop, Skip, Run, Jump LEAP

by narcogen , Andover, Massachusetts, Saturday, May 25, 2013, 02:43 (3983 days ago) @ Ragashingo

Yeah. Something like that.

The only thing I thnk will be different is that any profile will be able to play a game as long as the owner profile is currently downloaded onto / last signed in on that Xbox.This would let a family all play a game with their own saves and what not.

That'd be nice, but that's not how it works now.

Removing the disc requirement and adding an installation requirement is useful because it levels the playing field between downloaded and boxed retail product: they both get treated the same way.

Currently on XBL, downloaded games don't work exactly this way. An XBL download can be played by any profile on the console it was originally downloaded onto, or by the profile it was purchased by on any console. That's a bit more restrictive than your example, but only applies to a few users.

For instance, if I have two consoles (and I do, and have experienced this exact situation) and I want two players to play the game simultaneously on the two consoles,I need to make sure that I've correctly distributed my profiles and license or else I won't be able to achieve what I want without buying a second license.

If I buy one copy of Title A on Console 1 using profile Narc. then I can do the following:

Any profile can play Title A on Console 1. Console 2 can only play title A when Profile Narc is logged in. So my guest player has to be on Console 1, so I can login to my profile on Console 2 and play the game against them (LAN play).

This basically means the system wants the opposite of what you suggest. Far from being logged into or last logged into the console on which content was purchased, the purchaser's profile should be anywhere else, and your guests or family members should be on the console used to buy the content.

If they throw in a lend system where I can authorize one person with my disk to play my game that would be swell...

It would be nice, but I wouldn't hold your breath. Any lending time sufficient to play through your average SP campaign (say, ten hours) could easily cut into used purchases significantly, perhaps making the whole revenue stream not worth going after. And if that lending can be done with downloadable titles instead of just physical media, then MS has just set up a huge electronic lending library for the same games they're trying to sell, so that definitely won't happen.

The more I think about it, the more I think this is also just as much about eliminating what piracy these platforms have. Essentially, X hours from the last time each Xbone connected to the Internet, it will start treating your legally bought media as if it might have been a pirate copy because it can't positively verify that your license rights haven't been revoked.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/publishers-to-receive-cut-of-xbox-one-pre-owned-sales-at-retail/0116137

Unless there turns out to be really substantive differences between what this rumor describes and what the reality turns out to be, I think Major Nelson will have lost a great deal of respect, which is regrettable. This is the problem with talking about your product before the details are determined. Sure, you get to gauge the reaction, but there are some genies that can't be put back into the bottle. Even if the system turns out to be not as bad as some people think, there will be those who firmly believe that MS truly wanted to do this to their customers, but simply couldn't quite get away with it.