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Xbox 720 Could Require Always-On Connection, Lock Out Used Games

Posted by samzenpus on from the through-the-grapevine dept.

MojoKid writes "Sony's next-generation PS4 unveil is just two weeks away, which means leaks concerning both it and Microsoft's next-generation Xbox Durango (sometimes referred to as the Xbox 720), are at an all-time high as well. Rumors continue to swirl that the next iteration of Xbox will lock out used games entirely and require a constant Internet connection. New games would come with a one-time activation code to play. Use the code, and the game is locked to the particular console or Xbox Live account it's loaded on. Physical games will still be sold (the Durango reportedly supports 50GB Blu-ray Discs), but the used game market? Kiboshed. If this is true, it's an ugly move on Microsoft's part. Not only does it annihilate the right of first sale, it'll eviscerate any game store or business that depends on video game rentals for revenue."

5 of 592 comments (clear)

  1. And for those with a normal... by Zemran · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ... unreliable internet connection (most of the world) this will make it unusable.

    --
    I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
    1. Re:And for those with a normal... by damnbunni · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I live in a nation that, despite giving billions to the telecom industry, doesn't even have reliable dialup in every town.

      I'm in a town about five miles outside a city of 200,000 people, and the best I can get is 3G cellular. The speed on it is actually okay, but it's certainly not reliable, and it drops out fairly regularly.

      I'm half a mile from a school, so it's not like I'm way out in the boonies.

      (Technically yes, I could get service with another company. There's satellite, with its dropouts and terrible ping times, there's dialup at 28.8 at best due to the quality of the copper, there's ISDN at $700 per b-channel, or a T1 at $2619.20 per month.)

      But then, that's how things are in these United States of America.

  2. Re:Well... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Yep.

    I already dropped out of modern console gaming due to DLC bullshit. This just sounds like suicide on their part to me.

    Give me PCs and emulators and go fuck yourself until you can provide a good product again, game companies.

  3. Re:This is a move to stop online piracy. by Rakhar · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I have a locked XBox Live account with +half a year or so paid on it. Being a yearly subscription, I forgot to update it when I canceled my bank account (due to another bank that I dislike buying out my bank). Instead of cancelling my account, MS left it running for another 4 or 5 months, THEN closed and locked the account for nonpayment. I went out and bought a year prepaid card, entered it in my account. The next day I was locked out again. The response I got from MS? "We don't take time cards as payment for debt owed." I also couldn't get any prepaid credit cards to work with their system.

    Their system was more than happy to eat the $50 subscription card and bring my account back into the positive, but still keep me from accessing my account. Customer service told me I was out of luck. My Live account has hundreds of dollars of DLC and games on it. I sold my XBox within a week and haven't looked back. I'm done with consoles.

  4. Re:Always on = !on by CrashPoint · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I had a mate staying at my house with an Xbox. I used this to play COD 4 and decided to buy my own xbox and COD 4 game.

    But with this new system, your mate will still be able to bring along his own Xbox and let you play his own copy of COD 4 on it. You will still have to buy your own Xbox to play the game if your mate's not there.

    Great. So in order to loan a game to a friend, I have to loan him my console as well, even though he has the same console in his house. Gosh, that's not retarded at all.

    Yes, you will have to buy a copy of the game instead of borrowing his, but so what? If it's that great you'd want to have your own copy anyway.

    Says who? I've borrowed great games from friends without wanting to buy them myself, and in turn loaned great games of my own to friends who didn't want to buy them. That's not some edge case either, it's a common and perfectly reasonable thing to do. Furthermore, what if we simply want to give each other games? Or buy used games? Or rent games?

    You really don't see how this is clearly worse than the way things are now?