I did read it, it lacks full details about how the Xbox 360 memberships would work. So I'm assuming they will clear that soon. They can't expect people to pay individual memberships, otherwise what was the purpose of continuing to support and sell new Xbox 360s? Unfortunately Microsoft has a habit of not releasing full details in their PR releases and this is another perfect example.

But I could definitely see how it would pose a problem for you if you have no intentions of getting an X1. And you've certainly made that point clear enough. The X1 plan is $40 cheaper than what you were paying, but it WOULD require an X1 purchase.

But I doubt very seriously if they're going to start charging full price for those memberships. Even if everyone was intending to get an X1, assuming that a Family Plan sub ended Dec 31st, 3 months additional would never be enough time to move a multi-million install base to X1. That's alot of customers who would be left in limbo while they waited for an X1, and Microsoft couldn't just start charging you $180 on your card while you waited.

They probably have a plan for 360 owners, but haven't announced it. The alternative would be watching a healthy percentage of LIVE membership grind to a halt.

do people not understand why digital only on consoles is broken? are some people here so eager to see that day still?

go look up the price of prototype 1 and 2 on xbox and playstation on there stores.

now go look up those prices on gog or steam.

now, do i really have to explain why this is? dont ever think prices will drop. they wont.

I got Hitman Absolution for Ten bucks on XBL. They have sales all the time, and the prices do drop, just not to the crazy levels they sometimes do on Steam. You can get older games for 20 bucks a lot of the time too.

It's pretty smart offering the free Digital games too, as I sold my copy of Crackdown(for like, 5 bucks) a while ago, and regretted it because It wasn't worth getting rid of for so little. Now I have it and several games on my HD, and I'm at the point where I'm annoyed when I have to use my disc games, lol. I definitely love having it on the Drive. Just like all the games I have on PC.

It works for me because the whole point is to relax and enjoy yourself. It just adds another layer. I'm hoping the new, more PC-like architectures mean better portability in the future. The only reason BC is difficult is because of the proprietary nature of consoles in the past. If not, well, I'm like Grim, I don't go back to my old games but for novelty. You also don't lose your games when the next gen comes. As long as you have your old machine, you can play the game. It may not be supported by the Dev, however for multi, but that's any game/platform, isn't it?

There are also perks like if you scratch your disk, you're fucked, but if it's digital, you can't lose it. That's a nice incentive over physical copies, along with the extended sharing option. That seems like a good thing for the future to me.

The hardest part of any change is getting started. Things have been the way they have in the game industry for so long..........let me correct that, too long. So in many ways gamers are conditioned to reject any change that comes along, even if it benefits them and the industry they support.

Now I'm the first to admit that Microsoft's communication of their vision wasn't clear at all. After months and months of rumors, speculation and poorly written op pieces by the industry's press (which has become more like professional trolls), Microsoft needed to lay out a clear and concise vision for what they wanted to do. Their vision needed to suppress the rumors and address the doubts and concerns that had been growing during a period when no message was being communicated at all. If gamers were going to embrace digital gaming they would need compelling reasons and incentives for doing so. Microsoft needed to help gamers understand the reasons behind their decisions as much as possible. It was a time when they should have been OVER communicating rather than under communicating. And if they didn't have a clear message, it would have been better to continue the silence until they were ready.

The problem is that change is more readily acceptable when it happens on a regular basis. But when absolutely NOTHING changes for year after year you naturally are going to meet resistance, because it's not apart of the familiar. Even though they can see the benefits happening all around them on desktop, phone, tablet and other mobile devices, gamers can only see the risks of letting go of physical media for consoles.

But ultimately change does come, and often people are dragged into the future kicking and screaming. I remember the internet was on fire when Valve first introduced Steam. It met FIERCE resistance, it was far from perfect when it came out of the gate and gamers declared that they would never adopt it. NEVER! LOL! There were also predictors of doom, retailers making grandiose threats of boycotting and claims that publishers were helping Valve to create a Frankenstein. And after all the screaming and yelling stopped it's became the gold standard for digital games. It didn't get there because everyone supported it in the beginning. It got there because they persisted.

It's going to really be interesting looking back at all of this in a few years.

How does Microsoft then release an online service that is archaic by the standards of all those platforms around us you are mentioning?
It's less being afraid of change, and more comparing it to superior services that make much more sense.

There should be an option. Many may prefer to download games but the prices are generally the same for retail or download.

I do not see a problem having optical drive. There may be some SKU or may be Microsoft only will go that route I believe. In fact next gen optical drive is in development: http://blog.gsmarena.com/sony-and-panasonic-working-on-a-new-standard-300-gb-optical-disc/ 300gigs is huge. 4K movies or what not should not be a problem. People still buy hardcopy so I do not see why it should be taken away. I do not collect game disk or console like some people. But would like to own a physical copy and option to have soft copy too. My first game to have steal case edition was KZ3. I know a lot of people like that shit and the box having some artwork rather than white plastic, poster, special edition and what not. Nothing wrong in having options

Well after reading this article it's become clear that sharing features across both Xbox platforms became the first casualties of the reversal.

It would seem that the original policy plan would have allowed us to share our game licenses with a simple system that would have identified family/friends. But that system included the 24hr check in, and was necessary from keeping the sharing features from being abused. With no 24hr check in, bringing back all of the sharing becomes problematic. They now have to create a system that allows the sharing of game licenses without allowing people to "game" the system by distributing unlimited licenses to their friends or signing in multiple times on one single profile.

@Phaethon. Whitten doesn't give specifics, but it seems they always had a plan where you could log on to both 360 and X1 at the same time. But it looks like the reversal may have made the sharing plan too difficult to regulate across both platforms. This directly relates to how family sharing would have moved from the 360 to the X1.

Without the original policy the abuse that would have come is plain and obvious. For example the Family Plan allowed 4 licenses for up to as many as 4 consoles (not even in the same location), that would allow up to to 20 people with Gold subscriptions at $100/$5 each. In order to avoid those abuses when transferring accounts to the X1, they made every account an individual gold. This was also done to try and preserve some of the elements of the original distribution plan and it's gold features like Cloud DVR. I guess at that point the best option was to implement the sharing system on the X1. Not everyone was abusing it, but as a result the Family Plan on the 360 took the hit.

So this is really interesting, gamers got what they wanted. But without the DRM the only way of keeping people from fucking the system over and still give gamers some of the benefits of the originally intended plan was to gold check every account in the Family Sharing plan on the 360.

sorry mate :(

The new gold share thing is cool and can see it saving me some ££, but the original share plan would have been brilliant for me.

It depends how many people will download games in coming 5yrs. I think a lot. So then they may phase out disk based game next gen. I would prefer to have disk though. I think collectors, special edition might still be there next gen but not standard copies

Kinect dose not need to be plugged in for the Xbox one to work.- WHITTEN on IGN's new Xbox One ask me anything.


HOW "OFF" CAN KINECT BE WHEN THE SYSTEM IS IN USE?Is there a chat headset included in the Xbox One box or not?http://uk.ign.com/articles/2013/08/05/ask-microsof...

So if it is no longer mandatory, are they going to release a Kinect-less version that's cheaper?

You know its coming, just a matter of when.

They've already backtracked on everything else, why not

Good news is good news.

Yeps. :)

Screw the xbone, this thing will forever be known as the Xbox 180. They're so close to back peddling on EVERYTHING! Bit more pressure, few more weeks of crap pre-order numbers and I reckon we could finally have our cheaper, kinectless console. +1 to consumers. W00t

This is a good thing. I'll be a multi console owner next gen. Something I genuinely didn't think I was going to be able to be.

So for those of you still waiting around for a Kinect-less SKU.........put that far out of your mind. It's not going to happen, and no one should expect any further concessions regarding Kinect. The thing is you would have already paid for it, why not plug it in and get your full money's worth? It doesn't make sense to pay for it and then not use it.