Xbox One Game Sharing

pparks1

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So, more details are starting to surface about the game sharing capabilities of the Xbox One. While most of the DRM measures have made nothing but negative press, is there some saving grace to some of the things that Microsoft just hasn't explained all that well?

So, MS acknowledges that up to 10 family members/friends/coworkers/people can share an online collection of games. So, instead of having to buy every game you want to play, you might be able to leech the copy from a friend who bought the game. Also, it seems that MS is saying that as the "purchaser" of the game, you will always be able to play anytime, and your friends will be able to play 1 additional copy at any given time.

So, effectively I see 2 people going in halfsies on each game they really want. So, I buy game #1 for $60 and my friend buys game #2 for $60. We both share the games with each other and we can both play them. So, effectively I got 2 games for a grand total of $60. Add another friend and handle the sharing aspects and your costs per game go down.

So, what do you all think about this? I'd like to keep the conversation on this topic rather than going off on tangents complaining about this, that and something else (if possible).
 

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The idea of the family share is good.

The only questions I still have are what about used games. Can I go to a game exchange retail and pick up used games at a lower price. I am cheap and have a family, plus not being a big gamer, I don't buy alot of games. I can say I have rarely if ever bought one new.

I know I am a minority as far as gamers go (so please refrain from "your not a gamer so buy something else"), but I think it is still a valid concern. There are quite a few folks like me out there that still buy systems and a hand full of games...

If the PS4 allows for this, what makes the XBone a better choice. (that is a serious question, not a jab)



Geeve
 

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If the PS4 allows for this, what makes the XBone a better choice. (that is a serious question, not a jab)
Geeve
Well, as it stands now with the 360 and the PS3, I game almost exclusively on my Xbox360 and do media almost exclusively on my PS3. I like the Xbox360 because of
1). Game titles and exclusives
2). Physical controller fits my hand better
3). Controller has replaceable battery packs versus the PS3 controller which needs to be replaced entirely
4). XboxLive is more stable and consistent than PS3
5). 360 has some things first, like Call of Duty map packs and such.
6). I find the online game chat system MUCH better done on the 360.
 

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people are already trying to monetize this! if you check out the cheapassgamers, they're talking renting family lists to other people.

the first limitation is totally manageable. even if multiple people cannot play the game at the same time, there should be more than enough games in the pool to play.

the second limitation (which hasn't been described or even mentioned and totally conjecture on my part) is Microsoft has to implement some kind of time limitation to prevent people from constantly modifying the family list quickly. to prevent people from essentially rotating people around in order to play whatever. that would kill any type of sharing plan as revenue would just tank.
 

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I never even thought about that...

That is actually pretty brilliant. But aren't there restrictions with that though?
 

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I'm sure that there will be restrictions around how often you can change this "list". Just like in order to give a game away to your friend, they have to have been in your friends list for at least 30 days.

Unfortunately, Microsoft hasn't released any of these details. So, it's all speculation.
 

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new details on plan from Phil Spencer (Microsoft Games Studios VP):

alright, Mehdi said it. Greenberg said it. now it's Phil Spencer's turn...

The PA Report - Xbox One allows you to share games with ten “family” members, but some details remain murky

Xbox One allows you to share games with ten “family” members, but some details remain murky

I brought up the family sharing feature of the Xbox One during my recent conversation with Microsoft's Phil Spencer, and I stated that it's one of the nicer aspects of the console that not many people are talking about.

“You’re going to help us with that?” he asked. I'd love to, but trying to pin down exactly how the system will work has proved tricky.

Multiple people, but at the same time?

The idea is that ten people in your family group can all share your games. Think of it like a loaning system, but you're not loaning anyone a phyiscal product. If you're in my family group, you can play my games, and vice versa.

“I think the policy makes sense,” Spencer said. “It’s not ten different people all playing the game concurrently, but when you think about a real usage scenario, and we thought about it around a family, and I know certain people will create a family group of people that aren’t all part of the same family, and I do think that’s an advantage, and people will use that. I saw it on NeoGAF instantly, the Xbox Family creation threads, where people said 'Hey be a part of my family.'”

“No birth certificates will need to be sent in!” Spencer said when I asked if the service required a blood test. “I do think that’s an advantage of the ecosystem that we have.”

So that answers one question: Microsoft doesn't seem to care whether or not the ten people in the group are actually family members. They can be friends, roommates, boyfriends, girlfriends, your dog's groomer… you pick ten people, and you share games with them.

The question is how many people can play the game at the same time. Spencer told me he believed that two people can play one copy of a game concurrently, but he urged me to check Microsoft's official wording on the matter to be sure.

official wording from the licensing page for Xbox One:

"Just like today, a family member can play your copy of Forza Motorsport at a friend’s house. Only now, they will see not just Forza, but all of your shared games. You can always play your games, and any one of your family members can be playing from your shared library at a given time."

Still, the ability to pool your games with up to ten “family members” is a genuine advantage of the Xbox One ecosystem. Even if only one person can be playing the game at a time, you gain access to every game the people on your family list own, allowing you to jump into new releases the second they get done with the game.

On the other hand, I'd hate to think that I need to call a friend or family member to tell them to stop playing a game I just bought so I can play my title. Many of these usage cases and limitations may not be explained clearly until the system is released and we can test these services for ourselves, but we'll keep digging to try to figure this one out.
 

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[video=youtube;2lMhjM9BK7M]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lMhjM9BK7M[/video]

got a transcript for the video:

Q: after the Xbox One servers are shut down at the end of the new generation, will Xbox One games still be playable?

MN: I’ll just say this. We haven't even started this generation so it's kind of early to talk about the end of the generation. It’s certainly something that we would not do. That's not the way the system is designed. It’s designed for flexibility. But let’s get the system out there first.

Q: if someone is banned, whether their fault or not, will they lose access to the games they purchased?

MN: absolutely not. You will always have access to the games you purchase. Absolutely not.

Q: I like to buy physical copies of games such as collector’s editions with physical bonuses and such. Why is it that someone with a physical disc of a game inserted into the console cannot play that game offline for longer than 24 hours? Why could that not work as a failsafe for if the online connection drops for 24 hours. Just a simple “please insert the disc to continue playing” message.

MN: that’s an interesting question and it’s pretty complex so I’ll answer it this way. The way we designed the Xbox One architecture is for flexibility. And one of the areas that we can do that is, for instance, our family sharing. If you and I are a family, and the crew is our family. You can check a game out of “our” game library and use it. So this ability that we've got of seeing what you’ve got in your library… that's as a result of being always connected so we think the upside of being connected and I think that you talked about the disc checking and so forth… it’s really about the library and having access to your games anywhere you are. Things you really can't do today and all of us having access to our games anywhere you are. That's certainly one approach. But we decided to take a little bit of a different approach because we think it’s going to be more flexible for the future, and that's really what Xbox One is all about. It's about… we’re kind of looking toward the future and see this is where the gaming industry is going and we want gamers to come with us on this journey which is going to unlock this amazing potential of these great gaming experiences as well as flexibility like I just described with the library so it's one approach. We decided to take an approach which we think is going to be infinitely more flexible.

Q: what is the additional value brought by the once-every-24-hour-connection? What do I as a consumer get out of that?

MN: well, I think I just kind of went over that, right? If you’re going to give me a game, the system is automatically going to know, “oh, here’s the game.” It’s automatically going to just appear in my library. I don't really have to do anything. As well as having access to the most up-to-date library when my dad or my mom buys game. It’s automatically in there… so it's really like I said earlier, it’s really about keeping the library up-to-date and knowing what’s going on, right?

Q: will you change anything about the Xbox One after seeing the Sony conference? If so, what?

MN: I don't really think… we’re not going to change anything. I mean, we’re very happy what we’ve done with Xbox One. We’re very happy… did you see the games on stage at our briefing? Did you see the exclusives? I mean we’re really, really proud of the system and the games that are coming out. When you look at games like Titanfall. Have you gone through Titanfall yet? Enough said. Conversation over. We’re really happy with what we showed on stage as well as what we’re showing here at the booth so I think it's safe to say that we’re confident where we’re going. We’re also confident that gamers are going to love our vision of the future and what we’re going to offer for gaming.

Q: what is your target audience for the Xbox One? Many of your features cannot be accessed or are stripped down for markets outside of the US. Why should someone who can’t use your features buy the Xbox One?

MN: I’m a little puzzled by that question. The console’s built for the future and the majority of the world… most of the world is now connected so I'm not quite sure what features they’re not going to get. If they’re talking about things like Netflix and things like that, well that’s certainly a content provider conversation. That is not an Xbox problem. That is an industry problem. I would love to have Sky TV, but I can't because I live in the US so I think the conversation’s really around content and so that's… I guess that’s really what mean, but I’m not quite sure.

Q: can you please clarify how the HDMI input is going to be used? Is it going to allow input from a set-top cable box or other HDMI devices such as Windows PC as well? Will the current Xbox 360 be able to input into the Xbox One to allow the UI of the One to be overlaid on current gen Xbox 360 games?

MN: so the answer is, “Yes.” First of all, it’s the only console right now that has HDMI in. And it’s going to absolutely allow you to plug in, for example, your cable set-top box and what that allows you to do… I want to make sure people understand this because it’s heavy. Is that when you plug it in, you’re going to be watching TV through your cable provider, through your satellite provider and then instantly you’re going to get that game invite to play Ryse. Boom. It switches like this. It’s like instant. So that’s one thing. And if you’re done with Ryse, you can go back to watching television. We also have this concept of overlaying a guide. So there’s a guide that can happen that we produce on the Xbox side that would kind of put over the existing guide so you can go up and down and manage it that way. Now we’re not a DVR. We have a game DVR but we’re not a true DVR in that sense. That’s going to be handled by your set-top box. We’re just allowing people to still watch TV… the types of TV that they have and then get back to their game experience and still stay connected to Live. How would you like to be watching your favorite TV show that’s not available anywhere else, but still get friend invites, right? And still stay connected. Or maybe even use our Snap mode and watch TV over here on the left while you're playing a single player game over here on the right. So think about that. And the other question, you can certainly plug an Xbox 360 in the back of that. That was one of my first questions when I heard about the feature so there’s a lot of things we can do with that. Again it opens up great opportunities to have this great gaming experience but still stay connected.

Q: what is one question that you have not been asked at E3 this year that you wished you’d been asked about the Xbox One?

MN: that is an excellent question. I’ve been asked so many. I’ve been on the show floor for the past three days. Probably it’d be one about… you know, probably we’d talk a little bit about the family package. And people really haven't gotten their heads around what that means. We talked about that earlier on… it’s about, wait a minute. I’m waiting for someone to ask me and you kind of already asked so… I don’t know how to answer that question because you already asked me that question. I was thinking about that coming up here. About our family proposition and things like that so probably that.

Q: do you want to talk a little bit more about the family proposition?

MN: it’s awesome. It’s awesome. It really is awesome and we’re really excited about what we’re doing with Xbox One.
 

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more details!

http://kotaku.com/the-xbox-one-believers-513819282

Phil Spencer [Microsoft Games Studios VP] and I discuss the Xbox One's new family sharing option, which lets 10 members of a "family" share access to games. This seems to be the best thing of all the uncustomary new parameters that have been established for this new Xbox. In a family group, the head of household can always play any game; and one other member of the family, no matter where they are, can play too.

Kotaku: Can we be in the same family?

Spencer: Yeah.

Kotaku: What would be the limitation on that?

Spencer: [After encouraging me to check Microsoft's published document on this] I do think that sharing in a family group is an important part of the positives in our ecosystem today...You don't have to send in your birth certificate. You define what a family unit is and the people who connect to you and how that library works.
 

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I'm wondering if this "family" think is going to be a very restricted list. Like a 1 time and done kinda thing.
 

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1005696_476403155769673_2130993106_n.png
 

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Dirtyvu,

That's a good way to flip the coin around.

I still think many will feel that customer unfriendly DRM measures will outweigh any positives.
 

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My question is, if they say you can trade it in then how does that help the next person? Do they have to pay reatil again to gey a valid key to install and play?

They seem to be not answering this question. I wonder if reatilers like Game exchange and Game Stop will even mess with this system other than selling it?

Geeve
 
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for the used games aspect (total separate from the game sharing plan), the details are murky. the only solid point is the publishers get the decide how strict or loose the rules are for that game. if they don't want to block used games, then it's not blocked.

Phil Harrison said a scenario. you go to your friend's house (again, not talking about the family/friends share plan at all), stick in the disc and install it. then you guys play the game. you go home. If your friend wants to continue playing it, he can but after an hour, it will ask him if he wants to continue playing it and that he would have to buy the game at that point (unless of course you drive out there again to play with him).

Major Nelson was posed an interesting question by Angry Joe who asked about CD Projekt RED's The Witcher 3 game. CD Projekt RED has been anti-DRM of any kind but yet is releasing the game for Xbox One. If CD Projekt RED did not want DRM and wanted people to be able to pass the game back and forth and sell it freely, would they be allowed to do so? He replied that Microsoft would follow their wishes. However, Major Nelson is not a policy maker. He's more a liason between Microsoft and fans.

but so many murky details so it's not much point to elaborate about that. for me, it's not an issue. I don't use Gamefly (always felt they were a ripoff since you had to wait a couple months for the popular games). I don't sell to Gamestop (they give nothing for your game and turn around and sell it for a ton). I just don't sell my games because it's nice to have a library and I'm not hard up for money. I do buy used games from Gamestop (if people want to sell their games for nothing, I can reap some of the benefit; some great under $15 titles at Gamestop).

It's the Gamefly people that hurt the most since there's no rental agreement in place. Gamefly is going to have to sign an agreement and give a cut to the publishers if they want Xbox One stuff.

I'm sure Gamestop is going to be one of those "participating retailers" that they mentioned.
 

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looks like Steam is going to do something similar to Microsoft. looking like Sony is the only one not allowing game sharing:

Steam could allow for game sharing between friends in the future | Polygon

Valve may be planning a new feature for digital download service Steam that will allow users to share their game library with friends, according to code spotted in the latest Steam client beta as reported by Kotaku.

Similar to Microsoft's plans for its Xbox One console, the Steam code suggests users will be able to share owned titles but will not allow users to play the shared games at the same time.

"Just so you know, your games are currently in use by %borrower%. Playing now will send %borrower% a notice that it's time to quit," reads a line of code for one dialogue prompt. Another reads: "This shared game is currently unavailable. Please try again later or buy this game for your own library."

Valve is yet to officially announce sharing and it is unknown whether all developers will be required to allow Steam titles to be shared. We have contacted Valve for comment and will update when further information is made available.
 

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