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Microsoft appears to have backed away from their rather absurd and draconian DRM policies for their upcoming Xbox One console. According to a blog post by the company, the company will be backing away from the console's previous "online check in every 24 hours" requirement, as well as lifting many of the restrictions on used games. Microsoft's also backing off of the restrictions on game rentals, something that would have seriously harmed companies like Gamefly.com. Even region locks will be going away after consumer complaints. According to Microsoft's President of Interactive Entertainment Business Don Mattrick, the following changes are going to be made after receiving "candid feedback": •An internet connection will not be required to play offline Xbox One games – After a one-time system set-up with a new Xbox One, you can play any disc based game without ever connecting online again. There is no 24 hour connection requirement and you can take your Xbox One anywhere you want and play your games, just like on Xbox 360.
•Trade-in, lend, resell, gift, and rent disc based games just like you do today – There will be no limitations to using and sharing games, it will work just as it does today on Xbox 360. The move was absolutely essentially from Microsoft's standpoint, given the huge early PR boon it was providing Sony's PS4. Provided the shifts don't come with unwanted caveats, it's refreshing to see Microsoft isn't entirely tone deaf. 37 comments
Microsoft recently alienated a huge portion of their customer base by proudly proclaiming that their new Xbox One game console would be rife with all manner of DRM restrictions, ranging from the inability to normally trade games -- to a ban on game rentals. Showing a certain tone deafness to consumer concerns, Microsoft's Xbox boss Don Mattrick proclaimed that if users don't like the fact the Xbox One makes you check in online once every twenty four hours, they can buy Microsoft's old console instead: "...until you use it, it's really hard to understand what all the advantages are." For those who don't have an Internet connection--Mattrick brought up an example of a person living on a submarine--he pointed out that the Xbox 360 is not going away anytime soon.  story continues..106 comments
Sony's Playstation 4 press announcement at E3 last night was in stark contrast to Microsoft's recent announcement that their Xbox One would come layered with all manner of DRM to tightly control the sale of games, while (for now) banning outright the rental of them. Microsoft also annoyed users by announcing the Xbox One needed to check in online at least once a day -- or even entirely offline titles simply won't function. 81 comments
Microsoft has released more details on the DRM embedded in the Xbox One to stop piracy, and the reality is almost-but-not-quite as bad as most of the worrisome leaks predicted. According to Microsoft, the new Xbox One is a revolution in cloud computing, TV watching and gaming, but the changes will all come at a very steep price tag for consumers (in more than just the literal sense). 152 comments
by Revcb Friday 31-May-2013 15 comments
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A new joint study by Aalborg University, Northeastern University, and the Copenhagen Business School has found that piracy of video games on BitTorrent networks has been unsurprisingly over-stated by industry. The study analyzed a the BitTorrent trading of some 173 different computer games across 14 different gaming platforms over a three-month period between 2010 and 2011. "First and foremost, P2P game piracy is extraordinarily prevalent and geographically distributed [at least it was during the period analyzed]," said the researchers. "However, the numbers in our investigation suggest that previously reported magnitudes in game piracy are too high." The full study is available here (pdf). 16 comments
The last few months have seen several developer and insider leaks across several outlets claiming the next Xbox will require an "always on" broadband connection as a way to counter both piracy and used game sales. Needless to say the rumors angered a lot of possible customers with the botched launches of Diablo 3 and SimCity (both requiring always-on connections) freshly in mind. 18 comments
Rumors surrounding the next Xbox suggest that the game console may require a constantly running broadband connection to function -- in addition to banning used games. Leaked screenshots of an Xbox Development Kit (XDK) for Microsoft's next-generation console (currently code-named "Durago") strongly suggest that game installations to the hard drive will be mandatory, after which "play from the optical drive will not be supported." The last few round of rumors have collectively suggested that Microsoft could be cooking up some incredibly dumb new ideas for their new console: An installable game requirement backs up claims that Microsoft is developing an anti-used games system that requires activation codes for 50GB-capacity Blu-ray discs. 125 comments
Apple, Sony, Microsoft, Google; there have been no limit of companies eager to disrupt the pay TV ecosystem, though every one of them have run face first into licensing restrictions imposed by a pay TV sector that very much doesn't want to be disrupted. That doesn't seem to stop the tech press from getting blindly bubbly and enthusiastic every time another company says they're going to try. story continues..26 comments
Nintendo's launch of their new Wii U game console this week was marred somewhat by the fact that new users were greeted with a 1 GB firmware update right out of the box. Worse, if interrupted, some users are reporting that an interrupted firmware update can result in a bricked (inoperable) game console. LA Times reporter Ben Fritz is one of the most prominent people to tweet that his system was rendered useless by an interruption during the roughly 5GB download, which took over an hour to complete in our tests. 32 comments
Time Warner Cable's "six strikes" anti-piracy measures won't include the filtering of any websites, Broadband Reports has learned. The six strikes plan, scheduled to launch later this year, will vary from ISP to ISP -- with Verizon last week acknowledging they'll be throttling repeat offenders to an as-yet-unspecified speed. 57 comments
In addition to the suite of changes coming to Google TV, Google now says that GoogleTV embedded LG televisions will also come with embedded OnLive gaming functionality. According to an announcement, this is the first time the software has been embedded in televisions, allowing users to stream top-shelf games without a physical console. From the press release: With the OnLive Wireless Controller (available at onlive.com/controller), LG G2 TV owners in the United States can go to the Premium Apps menu on their TVs and play hundreds of video games on demand. The OnLive catalog includes games from more than 80 publishers, with everything from blockbuster new releases to classic franchises to family-friendly sports, racing and action-adventure games. Granted this may not be such a big deal when you consider that that recent data shows that around 50% of connected TVs aren't connected -- in large part because users just want their TVs to be TVs, with more-easily replaceable DVRs, game consoles, and Roku-esque devices doing the heavy lifting. There's also the question of how long OnLive will survive after their recent fishy smelling financial chicanery, which resulted in most of the staff being fired without severance (though some were rehired). 7 comments
Cox, AT&T and Time Warner Cable are all cooking up plans to stream games directly to televisions, anonymous sources tell Bloomberg News. Trials of these services are expected to begin later this year for possible deployment sometime in 2013 or 2014, and from the report the types of offerings could vary greatly, from casual game experiences to services intended to rival game consoles. The move is particularly of note for AT&T and Time Warner Cable given both companies desire to charge by the byte, something that gets very expensive for the consumer when talking about HD game streams. AT&T was an investor in recently-imploded game streaming company OnLive. 20 comments
While it may have had a bumpy beginning, Valve Software's Steam platform revolutionized the video game industry, and now offers users a huge catalog of (frequently on sale) titles available via broadband to a huge community of dedicated fans. Though they initially denied such a project, every indication is that the company is now considering a push into video game hardware. 19 comments
Earlier this month streaming game service OnLive suddenly and mysteriously imploded, with the majority of the company's staff released. Later explanations stated the company had been acquired by a newly-formed company, though the restructuring plan under an "Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors" involved them being unable to retain employees or stock (about half of the employees were hired back). 6 comments
With services like Onlive, the recent announcement of Sony buying cloud gaming firm GaiKai and Microsoft’s apparent commitment to a could gaming future from an internal leaked slideshow, could we be headed for a cloud gaming future? A better question, however, is will that future satisfy us as gamers. The answer in my opinion would be not yet, but we are close. 40 comments
Last Friday we noted that broadband streaming game service OnLive mysteriously and suddenly fired all of their employees with no notice or severance package. Significant additional detail has surfaced since then, with the company announcing that OnLive and all assets have been acquired by a newly formed company, with VC firm Lauder Partners being the new company's"first investor." About half of the fired employees will be hired back, with some additional employees brought in on a consultant basis. 18 comments
Both Mashable and The Verge are reporting that broadband game streaming company OnLive is shutting down. Employees were informed today that the company is closing its doors, and that the entire staff is being let go. 65 comments
by Revcb Monday 14-May-2012 18 comments
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