New Xbox basically kills off used games

[Zelig]

That's basically the case for all american EULA stuff. Not worth the paper its printed on in Europe. Online activation takes the scene of dispute to the us where eulas have legal merit. It's no longer ms wanting to stop some guy in Europe but some guy in Europe waiting for a server in california's OK.

Given previous EU rulings on the transferability of windows licences when someone does take this to court ms is on the line for a fine in the billions.

That kind of court ruling wouldn't affect MS a whole lot, it would just result in some minor tweaking of the license terms.

On the other hand, it would totally upend Apple and Google's mobile app ecosystems.

Also, I'm not really sure which EU rulings on transferability of Windows licenses you're referring to, presumably not consumer versions, since they've never been non-transferably licensed to individuals. Closest thing I can recall is a ruling on Oracle.

Edit: And reading through the ruling/comments, it looks like it might be sufficient for companies to simply modify the TOS to not prohibit sales of accounts, they wouldn't have to put a mechanism in place to allow transfer of licenses between accounts.

Overall I still think the sale of digital goods is silly, it's attempted to apply paradigms of physical objects where they don't apply.

 

[Quackers]

Zelig, do you work for Microsoft? Or do you just despise neckbeard/nerd criticism based on half truths? XD

 

[bhsup]

He's actually critical of MS when he feels the criticism is warranted. I have high hopes of getting him to embrace Blackberry someday and dump his winphone

 

[God of Kings]

...and Zelig is a fan of Macs as well. See here: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=482695

Zelig and I had a good discussion regarding 15" MacBook Pros with Retina Display. Both of us have that laptop.

 

[Zelig]

Zelig, do you work for Microsoft? Or do you just despise neckbeard/nerd criticism based on half truths? XD

The latter. I've defended Apple on here in the past, but regarding IT-related companies, there hasn't been much on CFC not about Microsoft lately.

And like I mentioned earlier in the thread, I think the PS4 is a more attractive console than the XB1. Of stuff I think is relevant:

XB1 Pros:
Full digital availability of content.
Better controller.
Kinect > PSEye

PS4 Pros:
No pointless online check required for offline use.
$100 cheaper.

I don't plan on getting either console in the near future, but if none of those points change by launch date, I think the PS4 is a fairly easy choice, mostly because the 24hr online check is particularly damning. If MS drops their price and online requirement, and Sony fixes online availability, it pretty much becomes a wash, depending on an individual's peripheral preference, which online service his/her friends game on and which mobile devices he or she would rather have integration with. (PS Vita vs Windows Phones/Tablets/PCs).

He's actually critical of MS when he feels the criticism is warranted.

Their marketing is consistently awful, most of their Win8 Metro apps are awful (even before you count the forced ads in most of them, which makes them unusable), all of their touch-capable mice are awful. They put too much effort into backwards compatibility and cater too much to people who don't like change.

Zelig and I had a good discussion regarding 15" MacBook Pros with Retina Display. Both of us have that laptop.

I don't actually have mine anymore. (Was work issued, I've moved onto a new job where I only have a desktop.)

 

[TheLastOne36]

 

[Maniacal]

So there were some rumours about a lot of Xbox One game demos being run on PCs at E3, it seems the only one that was LocoCycle because they didn't have it ready for the Xbox One yet.

It should be noted that running console game demos on PC isn't unusual for games being demoed at places like E3 and they are all developed using computers anyway so its not really an issue.

http://www.forzacentral.com/forum/threads/xbox-one-games-did-not-run-on-high-end-pcs-at-e3.39428/

 

[tonberry]

Yeah, I don’t see what’s the big deal about it. Not only games often run on PC in trades show but the developper sometimes "cheat" by creating demo that are too good to run on the console by removing everything that they don’t need to show (modeling just half of a car for example). The amazing demo of Killzone 2 on PS3 a few years ago was exactly that.

Gamers need to take E3 demos with a grain of salt.

 

[Zelig]

Yeah, I don't really get it... were they expected finalized hardware?

 

[warpus]

K so this just happened

I guess we won? I'm still not getting an XBOX1 though

 

[Quackers]

Excellent find Warpus.

With these changes it appears there will be an actual console war on our hands. Not like the one-sided affair it was before these developments.

Now, if they could drop the price £100 that would be fantastic

 

[kramerfan86]

Well that was a quick response to the spanking they received.

 

[Quackers]

It is heartening to see a firm recieve such a backlash and rather than bury their hand in the sand, actually acknowledge their errors and try to solve them.

I wonder, though, has the damage already been done? This news has to disperse to the general public...

 

[kramerfan86]

There is a lot of time for them to do damage control. This might not undo everything damage wise, but it will help.

 

[illram]

Wow. That is a complete 180 on just about everything. Did someone hack their website?

 

[bhsup]

Don't worry, Illram, they'll slowly redact the changes and be back around 360 to where they were.

YA SEE WHAT I DID THERE?

 

[Arakhor]

Yeah, well, that's the publicity man's way of saying, "we completed [censored] up and here's how we're trying to reverse the Sisyphan flow of bad publicity". How long these new policies last, of course (re VRWC's comment), is anyone's guess.

 

[Quackers]

You think they will do a double u-turn?
I don't think they're that incompetant.

 

[Arakhor]

Well, EA announced that they would no longer include DRM in their games and then went on to sell the new SimCity as an "online multi-player experience". I wouldn't expect Microsoft to be so openly incompetent, no, but anything is possible in that rarefied ostrich air that so many executives seem to breathe to the exclusion of the nitrogen-oxygen mix that works for everyone else.

 

[TheLastOne36]

It is heartening to see a firm recieve such a backlash and rather than bury their hand in the sand, actually acknowledge their errors and try to solve them.

You mean like... the opposite of EA?