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Xbox One may now be worth it


cimerians

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Exactly. There are usually deals for $35 to $40 for a year of Xbox LIVE Gold. Like with the PS4 now, both subscriptions are an absolute requirement if you want to get full use out of the console. Especially with all the free games now, it's a reasonable annual price of entry (less than the cost of one retail game), plus they both work across multiple systems.

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Not into paying monthly for full use of my console.

You have full use of your console. You can play your games, and watch your DVD/Blu Rays, and Listen to CDs.

What you pay for is a service and to use the Live network.

Do you have a smart phone? I'm thinking probably not. If you do and pay to connect your phone to the internet, then think of this in the same way.

If you aren't interested in connecting your phone to the internet, you forgo the data plan right? Same thing here, you aren't interested in DLC,streaming and playing/chatting online with friends, that's fine. Don't think for one minute you don't have full use of the console though. It's a game console first. Like the Atari 2600 and every other system released in the decades after, it's made to play games. Not being a gold member won't stop you from doing that (plus a bunch of other stuff those older consoles didn't even dream of).

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To be fair, you also need Xbox LIVE Gold for services you also pay separately for, like Netflix or Hulu Plus, which is NOT cool. With that said, again, for maximum use of the thing, you really do want Gold anyway, so it's not a major deal. While it's true that the only remaining major console without an online cost of entry is the Wii U, that also suffers from a lot of issues, not the least of which is lack of usage in comparison to the competing platforms.

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To be fair, you also need Xbox LIVE Gold for services you also pay separately for, like Netflix or Hulu Plus, which is NOT cool.

I'm not so sure Netflix or Hulu Plus ever alluded to the fact that when a person bought the right to stream movies to their PC or internet ready TV that it would work for free on every device ever made, going forward. If a person assumed that, they might have learned a lesson! That said, not being able to stream movies to your One won't affect a persons ability to play games in the least. Which IS cool.

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Do you get to keep the games, or are they unplayable when you stop subscribing?

 

On Sony platforms you need to maintain your subscription to retain access to all of the free games. Thus far, on the 360, you can keep them forever regardless of status (which again, is yet another in a long list of reasons why the value is there). Whether that will stay that way indefinitely is another story.

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Do you get to keep the games, or are they unplayable when you stop subscribing?

 

On PSPlus you don't BUT you get more free games though instead and it spreads to the Vita well. It's also weekly and not monthly. If you checked the PS3 forum I posted a topic a while back called PSPlus motherload.....in which they offered what seemed like a half dozen games and more all in one week.

 

On Xbox I think it's two free games per month and you KEEP them even if you cancel. Microsoft hasn't confirmed how it's going to work though on Xbox One but I bet it will be the same thing.

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On PSPlus you don't BUT you get more free games though instead and it spreads to the Vita well. It's also weekly and not monthly. If you checked the PS3 forum I posted a topic a while back called PSPlus motherload.....in which they offered what seemed like a half dozen games and more all in one week.

 

On Xbox I think it's two free games per month and you KEEP them even if you cancel. Microsoft hasn't confirmed how it's going to work though on Xbox One but I bet it will be the same thing.

 

I wonder if you can transfer those free games to a USB stick. If the hard drive dies or the console breaks it'd make them much less ephemeral.

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I wonder if you can transfer those free games to a USB stick. If the hard drive dies or the console breaks it'd make them much less ephemeral.

 

It's still accessible from the store. That's how you'd get back all digital games. There's no backing up on any of the platforms. What's frustrating with the Wii U is that purchases are not tied to your account, but instead tied to a console. That stops me from buying more. I don't have those same concerns on the other platforms, and I can use my games on any console as long as I'm signed in.

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It's still accessible from the store. That's how you'd get back all digital games. There's no backing up on any of the platforms. What's frustrating with the Wii U is that purchases are not tied to your account, but instead tied to a console. That stops me from buying more. I don't have those same concerns on the other platforms, and I can use my games on any console as long as I'm signed in.

 

Seems like a flawed solution on the Wii U. If they don't want to suck up their own bandwidth for copy protection they should also have a license key (and one time activation) to allow transfer.

 

I guess I'm still unclear as to if MS will honor your old games if your subscription runs out.

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It's still accessible from the store. That's how you'd get back all digital games. There's no backing up on any of the platforms. What's frustrating with the Wii U is that purchases are not tied to your account, but instead tied to a console. That stops me from buying more. I don't have those same concerns on the other platforms, and I can use my games on any console as long as I'm signed in.

 

Same here....I don't buy anything on the Nintendo shop because of that.

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Seems like a flawed solution on the Wii U. If they don't want to suck up their own bandwidth for copy protection they should also have a license key (and one time activation) to allow transfer.

 

I guess I'm still unclear as to if MS will honor your old games if your subscription runs out.

 

It's super flawed on the Wii U. I'd happily buy more digital content if I wasn't afraid of the console someday dying and taking all the games with it. That's one of those Nintendo head scratchers.

 

Your games are tied to your Xbox LIVE account. It has nothing to do with the actual status of the membership. Same on PSN, except when it comes to the free PS+ games.

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Your games are tied to your Xbox LIVE account.

Of course the downside here is when Live 360 support goes away, you won't be able to log on to Live with your profile anymore I suspect. By then though, I imagine you'll be able to play every game ever made for the 360 via emulation just like every console ever released before it.

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[quote name="Bill Loguidice" post="2874690" timestamp="1385494347"

Your games are tied to your Xbox LIVE account.Of course the downside here is when Live 360 support goes away, you won't be able to log on to Live with your profile anymore I suspect. By then though, I imagine you'll be able to play every game ever made for the 360 via emulation just like every console ever released before it.

 

That still all remains to be seen. We haven't had one of these major services (Steam, XBLA, PSN, eShop, etc.) shut down access to their games as of yet, so we don't know how that will handled. Surely there will be some pain once the first major service drops out, which will hopefully lead to more elegant exit strategies in the future. Right now, we simply don't know. With that said, I'm willing to take the chance for the convenience. For better or worse, the time to fight an all-digital future has long since passed.

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Yep, the bad thing last generation on consoles is that you lost all your digital games unless you keep your old console hooked up. None of the new consoles play your games. Unless they do some form of streaming or something.

 

If a service ever goes down I can really bet it will be PSN or Xbox live before Steam ever does. Steam is like Spock. It's logical and it lives long and prospers.

 

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That still all remains to be seen.

True you can't predict the future, but as far as I know, it's not something that you can do on the original Xbox simply because there is no longer Live support on the Xbox, you can't log on. I would assume the same thing will eventually happen on the 360. They won't support Live connectivity on the 360 at some point, and your game download history doesn't transfer over to the One. At least not right now. Like you said, it remains to be seen, but again, I wouldn't assume you'll have access to your 360 download history forever.

 

A better way to assure you have your Xbox DLC available for the future is to tie the game licence to a system, then take it offline forever, then transfer the licences to another Xbox 360 and re download everything. It's a pain, but then you'll have multiple copies of your games on different consoles, and each will think it has the licence (as long as you stay offline)

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The difference is, with Xbox LIVE on the Xbox, it was mostly for multiplayer gaming, so the actual impact was far less than it will be for the 360 and PS3. Shutting down LIVE access for the Xbox 360 would have a much more dramatic impact in terms of not only in the number of users with access, but also in terms of game libraries. While multiplayer may in fact be turned off at some point, they'd clearly have an issue with digital game owners. Whoever caves first, Sony with the PS3 or Microsoft with the Xbox 360 will truly have a PR nightmare on their hands if not handled correctly. Right now, though, with both still actively for sale for at least the next few years, it's unlikely either will be turned off within the next five years. I guess a somewhat similar scenario can happen with the Wii, though at least with that you should have the option to transfer the content to the Wii U, though again, that has other issues at the moment Nintendo has to address.


Even though it's all but a given that streaming older games will not be tied to pre-existing purchases, that's clearly one way gamers might not lose their ownership rights if the respective 360 or PS3 server access is pulled. The answer could then be you'll have access to what you previously owned on the One or PS4, perhaps with the requirement that you have an active subscription and that they can't be re-accessed (if not already downloaded) on the older consoles. Lots of scenarios there. I think initially, though, streaming will be completely independent from past ownership, so it will be the proverbial double-dip. Again, lots of ways this can all shake out, though. The point is, we won't know until the scenario presents itself. (Rest assured, it will happen at some point)

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All of the Wii downloads through February 2012 were backed up and released as a torrent on thepiratebay. I am not sure if they have updated it with the newer games since then, but that is a lot of content. It includes both the Virtual Console and WiiWare games. I have seen torrents for PSN and Xbox Live releases as well, although not 100% complete. The Wii is easy as pie to hack so their stuff isn't as much of an issue or loss if you get the torrent.

 

The PS3-PSN and Xbox 360-Live Arcade stuff is harder to back up because it takes up so much more hard drive space, the games being HD and all. That and the fact it is much harder to acquire a modded version of those systems, let alone hacking them yourself. Hopefully modding those systems will be a lot easier after their services are pulled and the systems are no longer manufactured. That's usually when the hacking scene explodes into activity because they know there won't be any further firmware upgrades, so if they can get past the final firmware's hurdle, that will make any of those systems hackable.

 

It's why modded original Xboxes are still very popular. The modding scene wasn't as big until the platform was retired.

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The difference is, with Xbox LIVE on the Xbox, it was mostly for multiplayer gaming, so the actual impact was far less than it will be for the 360 and PS3.

I disagree. The need to redownload games and DLC is not a huge part of Live. Most people do not have more than one unit. If they have just one unit with all the game licences tied to it, there would be no need to redownload any DLC unless the unit died and they got another (I haven't had a 360 die since around 2008 after the RRoD issue got corrected). This is simply not something that happens very often, and if it did happen after 360 Live access was shut down, the person is more likely to go pick up a One. Many people on AA are collectors, they like to keep and play old games, I don't think it's a big deal to most gamers.

 

IMO, If the PR nightmare was going to happen, it would be going on now. A million users logging into the One with their profile and realizing they no longer have access to their 360 Live DLC would prompt a uproar...if they cared. If you're a Steam member, and you get a new PC, you can still go to Steam and access your profile. This is a considerably different scenario, so why no screaming? I think it's because people buy the latest game console to play the latest games. The only folks who care about hoarding older games are the "collectors" and we aren't the average gamer, and I don't think there's enough of us to make MS change the policy.

 

When MS finally shuts down 360 access, you can bet it'll be because hardly anyone is using the network via the 360 platform anymore. Like you said, time will tell but I really think you're overestimating young gamers desire to "collect" these digital games. My prediction is, they will shut down Live on the 360, most people won't care in the least, the people who really want to play the old games will hack their 360's and play them, the rest will preach how evil and greedy MS is on video game forums dedicated to old systems.

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Well, naturally it will be primarily when people no longer care, i.e., Microsoft or Sony no longer has the revenue to justify keeping the servers up. It will still be far messier and more dramatic than anything we've had to date, including the original Xbox. It's a very different time now. Most platforms (computers, mobile, consoles, handhelds) are HIGHLY dependent upon access (and continued access) to digital content. Saying that once those service go away people will simply pirate their past collections is too much of a simplification.

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Saying that once those service go away people will simply pirate their past collections is too much of a simplification.

Unless people start the uprising now, I don't see it happening 2 or 3 years from now when most everyone has moved on to the current gen.

Things are constantly changing to be sure, it'll be interesting to see how dramatic it gets. I can't say I've seen many complaints so far.

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Deirdre Imus basically said if you don't like flying with other people who have screaming children, use a private jet because everyone can afford a private jet. Similarly, if your games stop working because your Xbox 360 has nothing to connect to, just buy a new console. And when you can no longer play games on that console, buy the next One. Everyone can afford to buy the latest console. And who cares if one of your favorite games doesn't exist on the next console? Suck it up, crybaby. Game designers have been making toilet paper games for years and now they're more disposable than ever. It's great! Just shut your mouth and keep shoveling money into the latest Temporary Entertainment Center (TEC) and when your games stop working on it, buy the next One and the next One and the next One. . . Keep the money flowing or we'll post the embarrassing things you have done in front of our Kinect spying device.

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