Rumour: The next Xbox won't play used games

[MrPopo]

Friend from GameFAQs brings up a good point -- what about the times when you want to lend a game to a friend or bring your game over? What will the new console (NEXT-box, for simplicity's sake) do when that happens?

Will your NEXTbox require a "friend code"? A memory card with your friend's ID? Or will it just say "Sorry Dave" over and over again?

I thought the internet meant that you no longer needed to associate with friends in person.

[BoringSupreez]

Friend from GameFAQs brings up a good point -- what about the times when you want to lend a game to a friend or bring your game over? What will the new console (NEXT-box, for simplicity's sake) do when that happens?

Will your NEXTbox require a "friend code"? A memory card with your friend's ID? Or will it just say "Sorry Dave" over and over again?

I thought the internet meant that you no longer needed to associate with friends in person.

Yeah, who does local multiplayer on an Xbox anyway? Isn't it all about Xbox Live?

[DinnerX]

Just like how Steam bombed.

At least in my area, the PC used games market was never as big as the used console game market. DRM had also been creeping in the PC realm for a lot longer. People were used to it to some extent already. In addition, Steam is viewed as more than just DRM by many people, which helps them accept it more easily. I doubt MS will be as slick.

Those are the main reasons I think an Xbox unable to play used games will not sell. But I could be wrong.

EDIT: Pakopako brought up a great point.

[J T]

If they made it so you could sell away your digital games, then consumers might get on board. I sometimes wonder if Steam will head that way or not. Steam now has the "inventory" where you can trade games you have extra copies of. They don't yet have a means for you to sell or trade games you already own, probably because the seller could keep a copy on their PC.

Microsoft could make it so that they were both the retail and the used games marketplace by selling their games through a digital download service and allowing trades and/or used sales where Microsoft gets a commission off of every transaction. If their console is designed to delete the files off of an Xbox harddrive after a transaction, this would prevent people selling games while keeping a copy for themselves.


Of course, this wouldn't please publishers because it would make Microsoft even more powerful than GameStop and the used game/traded game market would still detract from new game sales.

Personally I like the Steam model where games are still overpriced for a digital only copy EXCEPT that there are tons of really awesome sales that allow you to still save money if you want to pinch pennies.

[gtmtnbiker]

If they made it so you could sell away your digital games, then consumers might get on board.

A lot of consumers are already on board for digital downloads. Witness the success of iTunes appstore.

[ZenErik]

If I could sell my digital downloads that'd be great. Like if I only get 50% back and M$ gets the other 50%. Not great value, but better than nothing.

[REPO Man]

Personally, the next-gen should be all-digital.

For one, there's many key benefits of preferring downloads over physical media:

* A digital copy doesn't require the manufacturing of plastic cases, case inserts, manuals or even the disc itself. So it saves money (seriously - a $50 download verses a $60 CIB physical copy? No duh!)
* It's easier in terms of purchasing. If you go physical media, you either buy it online (pay S&H and wait an inordinate amount of time) or buy it from a store (which means leaving your house (either wasting gas, putting wear-and/or-tear on your bike/skateboard/etal, or wasting money for cab/bus/subway fare), but digital is just a matter of click, wait and play.
* With digital versions, you get slightly faster load times and with a disc, you get a disc drive with a higher power demand. Look at the PSP: loading from a USB takes longer and sucks up battery life, whereas loading from a MemoryStick Pro Duo loads slightly quicker, uses less battery power, and (a bit OT) has a wider selection than UMD (minis, PSone games, NEOGEO, TG-16)

For another, the result would be smaller due to its lack of a need for a disc drive.

In fact, I forsee cloud-based gaming done in a way where each company has their own television app (like they have for select media services like NetFlix and Last.FM), where each app is like the company's own personal OnLive. You can play a trial, and then after the trial period, you just choose to either quit or shell out for the full version. Or better yet... you can buy the game in increments, buying it in episodes/levelsets/character packs/etal (the iOS version on Resident Evil 4 did this), not unlike buy a television show from someone like Zune or iTunes where you can get a whole season at once (and save some dough) or buy it bit by bit.

That last part was inspired by me streaming NetFlix on my Wii, knowing that I could switch over to either newsfeeds or Cave Story from the main menu.

[DinnerX]

* A digital copy doesn't require the manufacturing of plastic cases, case inserts, manuals or even the disc itself. So it saves money (seriously - a $50 download verses a $60 CIB physical copy? No duh!)

I can easily see companies raising prices after digital becomes the only option. Not to mention you can't resell a downloaded game which factors into the total cost for many people and makes the physical copy cheaper in the end.

* It's easier in terms of purchasing. If you go physical media, you either buy it online (pay S&H and wait an inordinate amount of time) or buy it from a store (which means leaving your house (either wasting gas, putting wear-and/or-tear on your bike/skateboard/etal, or wasting money for cab/bus/subway fare), but digital is just a matter of click, wait and play.

If it goes all digital we'll be downloading a DVD's or bluray's worth of information. That will take an extremely long time for many. I know for me it is actually faster to go to the store. Some people still don't have an internet connection at all.

* With digital versions, you get slightly faster load times and with a disc, you get a disc drive with a higher power demand. Look at the PSP: loading from a USB takes longer and sucks up battery life, whereas loading from a MemoryStick Pro Duo loads slightly quicker, uses less battery power, and (a bit OT) has a wider selection than UMD (minis, PSone games, NEOGEO, TG-16)

You can copy part of the game to the consoles hard drive for some systems can't you? Then you can have faster loading times and physical media.

[BurningDoom]

If this is true, no new XBox for me.

[ZeroAX]

I think it's stupid for the next gen, but very probable for the next next gen. What is more probable is that they'll require for every game to be also released digitally.

Also, unless they start having super competitive prices like Steam the Android Market and the AppStore, digital distribution on consoles will just fail.