For me, the allure of a used game market is that I can try different genres of games, and see which I like or don't like. I, too, was wondering what will happen to Gamefly. I am not sure this is the death bell of this company, but it will make it harder to survive I think. Of the two next generation consoles, I think the edge is to Playstation 4. They seem to have a stronger focus on gaming. The next generation of Kinect is on the XBOX One. The current iteration of that device was poorly integrated into games, and many of the games were rated poorly. I am hesitant to buy any motion controlled device or any machine that has one, for I have balance issues.
I suspect that unless you have multiple machines it won't be a problem. Plenty of DLC works with other users once it has been download onto the HD of the machine. So it might be more of a case that a bit like some PC games you have to enter a code that ties it to the console rather than the user? Developers don't benefit from the used games market. They earn their money from the first sale market. So from a developers point of view might it not mean more revenue? And by having to enter a code could help fight piracy of games, on which the developers can lose a signifigant amount of money.
Did they name the thing one just so they could use the slogan... "All in One"? Besides it can't play 260 games or used games, so much for "one".
260, did I miss a console? But then again the PS4 can't play PS3 games, either? And did they say for definate that the Xbox One isn't backwards compatable?
It was a statement released after the event. Basically, the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 used POWER-based processors by IBM, which is a completely different instruction set than the x86 processors used in both of the new consoles. Emulating the Xenon / Cell processors would be a Herculean effort and would require hardware well beyond what would be feasible to put in the boxes.
According to MS, there will be some way to buy and sell used games, but it will be done online and they're just not announcing it yet. It sounds to me like they're trying to cut out Gamestop and other resellers by handling the reselling of the games themselves, maybe buying publishers' support by offering them a cut. Then there's this: Fuck that.
http://majornelson.com/2013/05/21/xbox-one-and-used-games/ Major Neslon has cleared it up...somewhat. "We know there is some confusion around used games on Xbox One and wanted to provide a bit of clarification on exactly what we’ve confirmed today. While there have been many potential scenarios discussed, today we have only confirmed that we designed Xbox One to enable our customers to trade in and resell games at retail. " "Beyond that, we have not confirmed any specific scenarios. Another piece of clarification around playing games at a friend’s house – should you choose to play your game at your friend’s house, there is no fee to play that game while you are signed in to your profile." This ultimately doesn't bother me, because once we make the final transition to no discs all digital content, there won't be any reselling of games at all. You don't go trade in games you buy on Steam any more than you can trade in music you buy on iTunes, and that is where we're headed. This is part of that step towards the disc-less future.
Looks like the Xbox One will force you to be online to play your single player games after all. http://kotaku.com/xbox-one-does-require-internet-connection-cant-play-o-509164109 Outsold by the Wii U. I'm calling it now.
You know, at some point making your customers jump through so many hoops backfires, I hope this is that point for home consoles, we've gone from simply buying the game and putting it in the box to play to a system that will require you to call the mothership and that will decide if you need to pay again for a game disc you have in your hand. No wonder retro gaming is gaining popularity
Right at the time of the announcement Sony's stock price jumped. Yep. If PS4 doesn't pull any crap like this, I will buy one at launch. If they do. Well, I've got 30 years of games I can play whenever I want without paying another dime, so they can suck it.
When you're fighting to establish marketshare, I don't know if that's wise. If I'm EA or Activision or a small developer, is prefer the platform that would protect my software from piracy and second hand markets as a rule. I might even offer extras on that platform to encourage adoption. That's why I say it's more than likely that both are doing similar things to protect developers. If one is doing it, it's likely the other will too.
Well, filtering through the white noise and hyperbole, he does make some valid points. I, too, think this is the end for XBox in particular and quite possibly Microsoft in general. They have made a recent string of strategic errors for their future plans that I think will spiral them into the realms of irrelevance. I hate to see Sony succeed, but I must admit, MS handed them this one on a silver platter.
There is much more pricing parity on those platforms as well. If the used market is gone, then i hope there will be more and better sales like Steam does...thats not likely because these games will have to support retailers too.