re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
 

The "always online" thing is worrisome. Mostly because my ISP (AT&T) goes out fairly often.

re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
 

I would wager that the "always on" thing means it validates your game the first time you play it and downloads some kind of ID to your console. There's NO WAY they can expect people to be connected all day every day.

re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
 

Always online won't happen. There's no way Microsoft wants to deal with the blowback from that. I'm guessing the anti-used tech will turn out to be a false rumor as well. I hardly even buy used games anymore, but I often either sell or trade in a game when I'm finished with it. I won't buy a console that makes that an impossibility.

re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
 

Yeah, if Microsoft sticks to no used games or always on-line, I'll stick with my 360 and original Xbox then (or any of my other older consoles). I'm about 2/3rd s new and 1/3 used. There is no way I can support that logically. But more importantly I like the ability to get rid of my games at my discretion if I don't want them anymore.

Though, here is something I thought about. If they push always online and/or no used games, the piracy community would be huge as long as you didn't want to go online. Modded Box 720, piece of cake. People would be practically giving away or throwing away used discs they can't do anything with and then the modders would figure out a way to hack the living crap out of it. Console ID or dummy file, I can't see a way that would be a problem for modders at all.

Also...no used games, has somebody thought about the ecological concerns? People will throw games out and only contribute to waste. And before anybody brings it up...the average consumer does not recycle. Period.

re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
 

FWIW....Tiger Direct has the 12 Month Live Cards for $35.00 with Free Ship. I was looking on Amazon since mine is up early next month and saw it listed. I hope it's legit. Haven't ordered from Tiger Direct in a long time and everyone else is like $45-55.

re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
 

I'll say this... if there's a used game lockout and publishers insist on the same price point on all their games, you can say hello to Madden and Call of Duty being the only games to survive. No one will buy Ace Combat 8 or The Black College Football Experience 2013 for $60.

re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
 

There's no way there's going to be a used game lockout. As much as I hate them, Gamestop has way too much clout to ever let that happen.

re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
 

Yeah, I don't see this used game thing happening either. If by some chance it does, I would strongly consider not getting it. I tend buy games, beat them quickly and sell them back for top dollar. I'm not giving that idea yet.

re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
 

Look at the DLC strategy of publishers now. They're already battling the used market by attempting to extend the content at key points. Dead Space 3 came out yesterday alongside a DLC announcement. Season Passes abound.

Digital distribution is the key to combating the used market, but in order to do that, you have to incentivize the consumer with cheaper prices. This MSRP shit is for the birds. Look to Steam, console developers!

re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
 

the only thing that would really get me into a system that had a no used policy, is lower prices on games. figure $40 per new game would be just about right.

re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
 

http://www.edge-online.com/features/...playstation-4/

If our sources are correct (and we’re confident they are), Microsoft has made the move that publishers and developers have been asking for. Microsoft’s next Xbox will do what Steam and the App Store have been doing for years, and very successfully, too – a download-first, one profile, one purchase, one storefront system. Overnight, it’ll stop GameStop and GAME from selling on games without a penny heading back to its publisher, let alone its creator.

re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
 

Hopefully it allows for me to play games offline once they are purchased. Similar to how Steam works it.

re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
 

If MS has really decided to cut out the used game market, they can go f*&k themselves. The "always on", d/l shit works with apps because they're cheap. I'll be damned if I fork over $60 for a new game I never recoup costs on when it bores me or - worse yet - sucks. As another poster mentioned earlier, the only games to get a "new" purchase will be CoD and Madden... the rest will rot until they're "affordable".
Oh, and if MS does this, I can see their console failing - miserably.

re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
 

They'll have to allow retailers to sell codes then too, right? It would be fantastic if they merged the "storefront" across platforms so that every XBox 720/Horizon game could be played on an appropriate GFWL hardware PC.

re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
 

And if they are selling codes at retail, they'll just be QR codes that the Kinect reads in. So it's not so bad.

re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
 

Agreed. In fact, if other companies follow suit...a video game market crash is coming, guaranteed. Sad, really. I wonder though, a lot of us here are pretty poed at MS if they make this move. But are we the norm? We are passionate, hardcore gamers, most of us. The average consumer is a pansy pos who might just roll over and accept this. That's what I'm afraid of.

Maybe, what I said a while back about just enjoying my old stuff is going to finally come true. They can't take those away from me, so I might as well enjoy them and stop worrying about what's next.

re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
 

I don't think Microsoft could survive it, unless PS4 did it as well. (well, unless doing it allowed them to get exclusives like Madden or something)

re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
 

It can work, but it'll force lower prices from the publishers on first-run games.

re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
 

For this to work, they need to look to Steam...not only as a model for digital distribution, but for their deep sales pricing. No more of this "10% off" shit.

re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
 

Agreed.

And also agree that I wouldn't mind this if there were more sales like Steam. I'm used to not being able to resell games on the PC, so it's not a big deal to me.

re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
 

That won't just "stop" GS, but it'll put the out of business. They make almost no money on new games, and almost 90% of their revenue comes from used games. It'll take a few years, but if they can't sell used games that are relatively new releases, they WILL go out of business. And I doubt they'll let that happen.

re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
 

The only way either company does it is if they both do it. If Microsoft killed used games and Sony didn't? Sony wins, easily.

re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
 

I won't believe that Microsoft is so stupid until they announce it officially. If they do, my plans will instantly change from buying a 720 on day one and waiting a year or two on the PS4 and Wii U to buying a Wii U that day and picking up PS4 within 6 months of its launch.

re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
 

It's mutually beneficial for them to collude on this.

re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
 

What if they offered an incentive to buy things digitally versus retail? Publishers undercut the used purchases that way by bringing the value of used games down (both on the resale and repurchase side) while still getting a cut of more sales? Logically there's no justification for a GoD version to be MSRP anyway. Just offer it at 33% off at release AND allow pre-orders and pre-loads so it's ready at midnight on release day. Like, oh what's that service called...?

re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
 

Honestly, if Steam does come out with a Steam Box, it could instantly put both PS4 and the 720 on death watch. Neither system has enough exclusives to carry them anymore and really if Steam came out with an affordable console that could play all the games they sell, there really wouldn't be much reason to buy anything else.

That said, I just don't believe that either the 720 or PS4 will exclude used games. It just doesn't seem to make any sense to come out with a system that is that much of a deviation from the past and too many companies that sell Xboxes rely on used game sales. I think the negatives far outweigh the positives from a financial position for Microsoft.

re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
 

Yeah, but then you hit a version the prisoner's dilemma. If I'm Microsoft and not brain dead, I realize that if Sony does include anti-used tech and I don't, I have a huge advantage. I also realize that if Sony doesn't include anti-tech and I do, I have a huge disadvantage. Whatever the other side does, I'm better off not including it. Really, my primary goal should probably be to make them think I'm going to include it, then not follow through, which may account for the various 'leaks' we've had from both sides.

re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
 

Again, if they're hoping to sell as many systems as possible, it's in their best interest to make the unit appealing to the most consumers. Sure they might miss out on sales of Halo 5 or Gears 4, but it's worth it if they have a huge gamer install base. Who cares what the third-party publishers are begging for? It's not like they're going to boycott Microsoft if their unit is capable of playing used games.

re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
 

I do not want to be downloading 25gb or bigger game files on a regular basis.

re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
 

^^ Yeah, there's that too!

re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
 

Touché

Not interested in downloading humongous files at all.

re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
 

No doubt. Unless I move, that's not even a possibility. My internet provider (and the only one for the town unless we want satellite, ugh) puts a cap on bandwith. A 25gb game file would be laughable. Furthermore, 25gigs would be a few hours at my speed I'm guessing which makes me fond of my bbs days where you would spend an hour downloading one photo.

Come on, Cindy Crawford nude, I see a nip....come on... (for those of you old enough to remember what I'm talking about, thank you). :lol:

re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
 

I think the focus of used games and new is actually two-fold. It goes back to the possibilties of what and how to store games. Be it USB, Flash or BR Disc will be critical for everyone; the game devs, distributors, packing, retail, consumers and used. And I'm sure the possiblity of DL games will be in there to but what size and cost?

As to storage flash would be the easiest to handle, less chance of damage versus disc, easy to transport and plays in about anything. But cost for a 16GB flash drive is almost 8-10 times that of a single 25GB Bluray Disc. I cannot imagine the next Xbox without a BR player for that simple reason. More eye candy needs more space, plain and simple.

re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
 

It would also kill the game rental market as well - Gamefly and Redbox would have a shit-fit.

re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
 

I think physical media is still here to stay...you'll just need to use an "activation code" to get it to work. The first steps of this are already here with the so-called "online passes".

re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
 

Agreed. But nobody is forcing those guys to get online to play. You can still play the single player mode no matter how sucky it might be. You can still sell that disc back, albeit for not very much. It's a deterrent at best.

re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
 

I think Online Passes are extremely fair, as they give the developer a cut of the used market, at least as far as continuing the online servers (where some continued expense would persist), but to totally eliminate the used and rental markets is another thing altogether. There have been several games like Max Payne 3 and Far Cry 3 that I only bought because I enjoyed my time with them as rentals.

re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
 

Yes, they can establish an "activation code" so publishers can receive more money.

Also, I wanted to mention, some of you compare the consoles like there's this huge difference. Yes, there's a difference in price, but that difference is not that big anymore. COD and those kind of games, rarely go on sale in Steam. Sometimes is even easier to get a sale in a console. But speaking in general, yes sales come more often, faster, in Steam, right now. But if you want to get the game in release, with all the latest deals (coupons, GCs, credits, etc.) sometimes is better to get the console version, specially if you are playing the game right away.

But again, do you really expect games to be cheaper(MSRP) in release date? I don't. I expect them to stay at $60 (MSRP), even if they implement an "activation code" or any of those digital tricks.

re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
 

I wouldn't expect a cheaper release date price either.

re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
 

Wouldn't you alienate not just Gamestop, but Walmart, Target, Best Buy, basically the stores that you need to distribute your systems? I still have no idea how or why they even agreed to carry something like the PSP Go, which was all digital.

Steam is great and all, but say they do the same insane sales... who would buy games at full price? I'm already paranoid about buying PSN games when they come out because of the Plus deals.