Originally Posted by Nausicaa

All the new console news has just been so lackluster. I don't really know how you can get excited for it. Oculus Rift HD has stolen E3. XBox One has Kinect 2.0 for some more dance games. How exciting. The launch lists I've seen are almost all sequels to existing IPs, very few interesting things going on. Graphics and new gameplay functionality has barely been a focus in favor of pointless TV functionality. The always online stuff is annoying, but the big problem is that there is really nothing exciting about these consoles. Someone earlier said that Microsoft has abandoned the gamer crowd. They were abandoned years ago, I would argue, and this console does nothing to bring them back. Of course the fact the 360 was shoddy built-to-fail hardware was reason enough for me never to consider this console, so I was never excited to begin with.

Originally Posted by discostu1337

Family plan lets you borrow and lend games for as long as you own it to 10 people, and vice versa. Easier than the conventional lending.

You can still trade and buy used at Gamestop.

The only think you will potentially miss out on is eBay and possibly renting. But, one of the people in your shared lists buys a game you wanted to rent anyways, there ya go.

Originally Posted by SomethingMore

Ultimately, I think that's the biggest issue: marketing and PR.

For those asking why Sony can't do digital sales the same day as discs, they could, but they haven't outlined any such plans in their public policy. They can do it, but that takes time and engineering.

In contrast, MS appears to be mandating disc and digital for every release, day and date, all titles. Sony has shown no real plans for the digital future other than reselling you your PS3 games as a streaming game service which requires Skype-like persistent data for every second of game play. Sony doesn't want to sell you digital PS4 games, because then their BD royalty money goes down.

Originally Posted by Decker

That could potentially be a cool feature in the future. But as this Kotaku article points out, there's a shit-ton of information we don't know yet (including how many games you can have in your share folder and what constitutes a family member, as well as what sort of access that "family member" has to the rest of your account). Hypothetically it could be a nifty way to share your game purchases with up to nine other people you barely know and a way to get ten times your gaming purchases. But based on everything you've seen and heard from Microsoft so far regarding the One, do you really think that's likely? It sure doesn't sound like a system designed to minimize the amount of game purchases you have to make to me.

Originally Posted by Decker

I like to rent games. I like to loan games to a couple of friends. I like to borrow games for an extended period of time then give them back when I'm done. I like selling my old games to whomever I choose. I occasionally buy used games from Gamefly or even EBay on rare occasions.
Please explain to me how much better the MS system is than the PS4, because I sure don't see it.

Originally Posted by Draven

Sorry, I do not buy the idea that Microsoft is A-OK with you buying a $60 dollar game and then allowing 10 random people to play it whenever you aren't from their own console. They potentially lose 10 sales there. And considering how hell bent they are on you not doing anything with that game that isn't on your box (that's always connected to the internet) I think there are more caveats than they are talking about right now.

Originally Posted by SomethingMore

Have they? I guess so... but not every disc-based title, right?

Originally Posted by K&AJones

Anyone with any common sense should seriously look at this and ask themselves..."Is MS that kind and concerned about gamers and their family that they're willing to take a loss on potential sales of games...and what's the catch?".

....or some gamers and devoted Xbox followers so wrapped up as to having a XO that they'll glady accept any thing told and promised without asking a serious question....sort of like when a politican promises the sun, moon and stars

Originally Posted by msdmoney

I just don't believe that we will see Steam (or just pc in general) pricing on the XBOX One from Microsoft, or that Steam pricing is the direct result of removing the used game market from the equation. If they wanted to embrace the Steam model of pricing, why didn't they do it this generation with xbla games that have no used market. I think the closed platform of the consoles without competition once you've bought into the system, combined with a platform holder with such tight control of the market doesn't lend itself to cheap pricing. In my experience Microsoft has a pretty big aversion to ultra cheap pricing, I think it's because they view it as cheapening the content (similar to EA's recent statement with Origin). I could be wrong, but discount pricing is something I never associated with Microsoft and I would need to see a complete change in direction before I believed this was their intent.

And then they forget the other part of the Steam equation which is persistence. They are moving to a Steam like account based service, and they start it off with killing off any carry over of your account from the previous machine. If they want to make the physical machine and software irrelevant and move to an account based system, they should have started by showing users the benefit of such a system. A lot of pc gamers "collect" Steam games.I understand the whole backward compatibility argument but I think account based systems have a different expectation.

Originally Posted by Decker

I like to rent games. I like to loan games to a couple of friends. I like to borrow games for an extended period of time then give them back when I'm done. I like selling my old games to whomever I choose. I occasionally buy used games from Gamefly or even EBay on rare occasions.
Please explain to me how much better the MS system is than the PS4, because I sure don't see it.

Originally Posted by Michael Corvin

That's a given, but is MS suddenly going to open the coffers to give publishers a cut of Live? Will they raise Live another $10 to cover game sharing to do so?

The story we've been told is that the move to digital is because publishers don't get any money on used sales. How does a publisher get a cut of game sharing? There's no way every game GS sells changes hands 10 times. This sounds like a far worse scenario for pubs. A key piece of information or caveat seems to be missing.

Originally Posted by Groucho

First of all, we need to stop with the "Microsoft said..." stuff. Back up statements with a link to a legitimate source.

Secondly, the model where I can share my game with any ten people anywhere in the world and we can all play at the same time sounds like a horrible business model. "Why have our profits shrunk by 90%?" If Microsoft and the publishers don't have a problem with that, then why would they have a problem with lending/selling a disc?

In other words, let's get the facts and use some common sense when discussing the "friends and family" sharing program.

Originally Posted by discostu1337

I suppose that was a bad example. Perhaps this could make a little more sense. Madden 2014 releases on PS4 digital and disc for $60. On X1, it releases at $50 DIGITAL ONLY, no disc at all, since they can guarantee all their customers have the 500gb HD and broadband internet to DL the game. Sony can not make this guarantee so they have to release it on disc as well. They could possibly make their digital cheaper but a majority of the customers would still buy the disc as that is what they are used to doing. MS moving in this direction could pay off in the long run for us getting much cheaper games, but again, time will tell.

Originally Posted by orangecrush

Sony let you do that with 4 other people. They changed it to 2 machines, but for a long time it was 5.

Originally Posted by orangecrush

Sony let you do that with 4 other people. They changed it to 2 machines, but for a long time it was 5. I think that so few people took advantage of that feature that their bottom line wasn't affected that much. I couldn't convince 2 friends who loved rock band and bought a fair amount of DLC to start a game share group with me to save 66% on the cost of DLC.

It sounds like what MS has planned is not exactly like that though. I can see them thinking that giving people 10 family members to lend games to will squash that criticism and that, ultimately, not a lot of people will do it.

Originally Posted by Groucho

First of all, we need to stop with the "Microsoft said..." stuff. Back up statements with a link to a legitimate source.

Originally Posted by SomethingMore

Have they? I guess so... but not every disc-based title, right?

Originally Posted by Deftones

more day one systems up for preorder on Amazon and MS store