In all honesty, I was never gonna be that interested in the Xbox One anyhow. The original Xbox library was rather lacking in games that appealed to me that weren't on PS3 aswell outside of a few jRPGs and a handful of bullet hell shmups.
With that said though, everything I'm hearing about XBox One repulses me as a consumer and a retro gamer. Daily authentication checks meaning I require an active internet connection to play a brand new single player game at home? Any internet problems at either end and now my XBox is a paperweight. Oh well, at least I can still play DVDs on it. Thanks Microsoft, I really appreciate it.
Oh, and game publishers can choose whether to allow second hand sales and license transfers for their games? Wonderful. The thing that bothers me about this is that without 2nd hand sales, some games are gonna be a real pain in the ass to buy down the line. I'm not even talking about when the XBox 4 (2? 361? who knows?
) comes out. Niche games with smaller print runs are going to prove harder to find when everyone is searching for a new copy. Of course, the developers of such games might enable 2nd hand sales eventually, or maybe even to begin with, but I have no way of being sure about that. So if I want to be sure, I have to buy every game I want, brand new, at launch. That's a lot of money.
And that lack of certainty just permeates through everything on the XBox One. When the NextBox comes out and the servers go down, will I be able to play any of my XB1 games? Possibly? Maybe? I don't know, because Microsoft haven't spoken about it. Maybe I can transfer all of my games forward to the next system. I don't know, and I probably won't til it's announced. Considering that XBLA games from this generation have been confirmed not to work on XBone, I'm not so optimistic. Microsoft explicitly stated that 'backwards compatability is backwards', so it's obvious they have little concern about keeping your library playable.
As a retro gamer, I do have a big concern about a system where not only the online enabled content, but also all retail copies of games will stop working once the server goes down. The system has a shelf life shorter than any shoddily built console from days past. Even today I still discover games for my old systems that I'd love to play that I never knew about before, and I can just go ahead and buy them. No guarantees for the OneBox. Why even bother having retail disc copies when all of the advantages of having them have been removed - you have to install it either way using up you system memory, it requires a reliable and reasonably strong internet connection to play and it'll eventually likely be useless once the servers are gone. I don't particularly like the idea either way, but why isnt this a digital only system? Everythings hinting that way.
And I know some of the responses I'll get - 'waaa waaa waaa, I can't afford all the good games and I want 2nd hand sales and why do I need an online connection? That's your own issue to deal with'. But these are the type of issues that affect a good chunk of microsofts consumers, and there's been very little to address them. Yes, Steam has a lot of similar requirements, it's true, but firstly I barely use Steam (all the games I own on it were either free or were codes that came with other games which can be played outside of Steam), and secondly, most Steam games still work, and will likely continue to work for some time. Even ignoring Valve saying they'll release the games if Steam were ever to fail, games purchased early in Steams lifetime still run now. Microsoft has shown no such commitment with it's digital games service on XBLA.
Now I know the console probably won't do that badly, and I also know that these issues won;t be a concern for everyone. Particularly the FIFA, Madden and COD crowd that just buy the new game annually and barely play the old ones anyway. But as a retro gamer, a collector and a fan of niche games and genres, I find all of this to be some of the most offputting decisions a console manufacturer has ever made. Microsoft will certainly be recieving no money from me, and as far as I'm concerned right now, the next generation only has two consoles that I personally feel are worth following.
