Next XBox will block used games

[dlevere]

Next XBox will use persistent Net connection to block used games

System will reportedly use Blu-ray discs, sport eight-core processor.

By Kyle Orland

A new report from insider sources suggests that Microsoft's next video game console will require a persistent Internet connection to lock out second-hand games from being played on the system.

Edge is citing "sources with first-hand experience of Microsoft's next generation console" saying that games for the system will be available via download or as Blu-ray discs with a capacity of up to 50GB. The disc-based games will reportedly all ship with an activation code tying the game to a single user account, making the disc essentially worthless on the second-hand market.

Reports that Microsoft would use some method to stifle the secondhand game market on its next console first surfaced over a year ago, though this report is one of the strongest indications that such a system would require an Internet connection. Tying the system to the Internet would limit the next Xbox's potential reach, but maybe not as much as you might think—a 2010 study found that only 27 percent of XBox 360's weren't connected to the Internet, and that number has likely declined in the years since.

Rumors surrounding Sony's next PlayStation suggest that Sony may also be looking into used-game-blocking technology for its system, but a recent patent application shows that Sony's method could use RFID chips embedded on discs rather than requiring an Internet connection. There's some legal question as to whether these kind of technical prevention methods would run afoul of the first-sale doctrine in the US. Sony is expected to announce more about its next home console on Feb. 20.

The Edge report also reiterates previously reported rumors regarding the next Xbox's technical specs: an AMD eight-core x64 1.6GHz CPU, a D3D11.x 800MHz GPU, and 8GB of DDR3 RAM. Edge also hints at an improved version of the Kinect 3D motion-sensing camera shipping alongside the new system.

[Helder]

I wonder how the pirates and hackers are gonna crack these new bad boys when they're out?

[dlevere]

No clue on that one, but here's what Edge has to say:

By Edge Staff

We revealed yesterday that Microsoft’s next Xbox will only play games while connected to Xbox Live, in the process eliminating the second-hand game market as it exists today. It didn’t take long for gamers to reach the agreement that such a manoeuvre represents a mistake of horrendous proportions. So why would Microsoft risk pulling a move like this? The company has yet to make any official comment on its next-generation plans, but we can go some way toward piecing together its motivations, starting with its decision to position the next Xbox as an always-online device.

In making its next console rely on an Internet connection, and by tying games to consoles, Microsoft will immediately eliminate the potential for pirated software. If you’re trying to play a game and your console isn’t talking to the closed network that is Xbox Live in precisely the right way – because the game code is somehow illegimate – it simply won’t function. Crushing piracy this way would represent a victory whose stature in the eyes of Microsoft’s publishing partners shouldn’t be underestimated.

Having a consistent online connection also means that Microsoft can provide a more stable target environment for developers and publishers by pushing firmware updates at the same time to all of its users rather than only a proportion. The days of publishers being forced to manufacture game discs containing operating-system updates will end – with Microsoft hardware, at least.

Beyond security and standardisation issues, a key motivation for Microsoft is the fact that the preowned market has long been an annoying tick on the back of game publishers and developers, and not only because when consumers are faced with such an appealing range of cheap options, it reduces the opportunities for new games to sell. The chief gripe among publishers and developers is that they see no revenues from sales of preowned games. It’s a standpoint that earns no sympathy with consumers, who want to be able to do whatever they wish with their possessions, but in changing the rules in this way, Microsoft immediately becomes a preferred partner to game publishers.

There remains a possibility that Microsoft will allow publishers to sell pre-owned game activations via Xbox Live, in much the same way that, right now, buyers of certain second-hand Xbox 360 games with online components can pay to access features such as online play. Rather than eliminating the second-hand game market, this would simply transform it into something from which publishers and developers could benefit. Looking at it optimistically, the revenues being re-routed into publishing and development would provide additional investment opportunities for new games, so what at first seems like simply bad news for consumers may end up being beneficial in the long term.

Yet online activations for preowned games would still prove devastating to the value of physical copies sitting on shop shelves, and therefore bricks-and-mortar retail as a whole. Let’s say that a game costs £40 new today and then £25 second-hand. If, with the next Xbox, online activation of a preowned game costs £25, what does that do to the value of the physical disc? And what, then, does that do to the value of game retailers, accustomed as they are to earning such a large proportion of their revenues from secondhand game sales? Suddenly a space-consuming rack of 200–300 preowned titles looks like a miserable proposition in terms of retail value.

Looking at the bigger picture, in positioning its next Xbox as an always-online device Microsoft is simply following the path of evolution. Game consoles have been online (in a meaningful way) for 15 years, since the launch of Sega’s Dreamcast in 1998. And today it can feel more out of the ordinary to be disconnected from the Internet than it felt to be connected to it once upon a time. When was the last time you used a static (that is, non-portable) PC that wasn’t online? How often is your TV’s set-top box disconnected from the Internet? How many new TVs fail to make a big deal about being online-ready out of the box? To many, exposure to a constantly enabled networked device feels as natural as drawing breath.

What Microsoft ultimately wants to achieve is a bigger share of your online life. It wants you to use its console, not your cable or satellite set-top box, to rent movies. It wants you to bolster your music collection not via iTunes but via Xbox Music. It wants you to pipe TV programming into your living room through its console rather than making use of your new TV’s clunky Smart features.

The more you use its ecosystem, the more accustomed you become to The Xbox Way, and the more inclined you are to dig deeper into its offerings. (And the more opportunity Microsoft has to track your behaviours, giving it an increased amount of profitable opportunities to use its platform to connect you with other companies eager for exposure to your eyeballs.) Microsoft’s Windows 8, Surface and Windows phones all have Xbox Live functionality to varying degrees, and the more the company is able to touch users’ lives in a meaningful way through its network, the more likely users are to spend time, energy and money with its other products and services. Viewed this way, an always-online console simply makes good business sense.

But if Microsoft is so committed to online connectivity with its next Xbox, why does the console have a Blu-ray drive at all? Well, clearly an always-online console doesn’t necessarily mean an always-online console connected to the Internet at speeds of 20Mb/s+. Even though PC owners have long been accustomed to buying all of their games via download services such as Steam, Microsoft knows, through its experience with Xbox Live to date, that a significant proportion of its potential consumers do not have ultra-fast – or even remotely fast – connections. Far preferable to such users would be the option to suck down up to 50GB of data from a Blu-ray disc at a rate of 27MB (216Mb) per second.

Having a Blu-ray drive on board also ticks another box in Microsoft’s campaign to make its next Xbox the ultimate entertainment platform for the home. Despite the rise of streaming media services, the Blu-ray and DVD market isn’t going away in the immediate future, and any measure Microsoft can take in keeping you focused on its hardware and away from others represents sound strategy.

And when it comes to physical discs, let’s not forget about those all-important thirdparty publishers. How could they sell games in profitable special-edition form if the box contained a soundtrack CD, a magnificent art book and an intricately detailed character statuette but no trace of a shimmering game disc to place ceremonially into a drive tray?

Finally, what about backward compatibility with Xbox 360 software? We don’t yet know whether or not Microsoft has such plans, but being able to run all of your existing game discs from the optical drive of a new console would go some way toward appeasing fans feeling burned by what they’re being denied in other respects.

Ultimately, the new Xbox is still at least eight months away from becoming something you can put in your home, and Microsoft may yet rethink elements of its next-generation strategy. Can it hold its nerve in the face of outrage among consumers who’ve caught sight of its plans for second-hand games?

[bungholio]

The next Xbox already earned my "kiss my ass" status. That sure was quick. I won't be buying or playing any more of their stuff ever. I already didn't intend to, but it's another massive nail in the coffin. No cheat devices, no used games, goodbye permanently.

[dlevere]

GameStop issues warning on next XBox second-hand block

By Neil Long

GameStop has reacted to news that the next Xbox could block preowned titles by saying the move could “significantly diminish” demand for Microsoft’s next console.

We reported this week that the next Xbox could tether game purchases to one console, effectively halting the second-hand games market overnight.

GameStop’s shares fell after publication, and since then Bloomberg has reported that GameStop customers could snub the console if the preowned block goes ahead.

“We know the desire to purchase a next-generation console would be significantly diminished if new consoles were to prohibit playing pre-owned games, limit portability or not play new physical games,” said GameStop spokesperson Matt Hodges.

27% of GameStop’s revenue and around 46% of its gross profit came from used games sales in the fiscal year ended January 2012, according to the Bloomberg report. In its most recent quarter, user game sales accounted for 28% of its revenue and 43% of GameStop’s profits.

You can read our analysis on Why Microsoft is killing the second-hand games market here, and find out how the next Xbox compares to PlayStation 4 here.

[dlevere]

XBox to require Kinect connection, game installs

Rumors point to increased multitasking, no compatibility with XBox 360 controls.

By Kyle Orland

As Sony and Microsoft both start showing signs that their next generation of consoles will be revealed soon, we're getting in to the heavy-duty rumor-mongering season. The latest credible rumor comes from a well-informed-sounding source going by the handle SuperDaE (by way of Kotaku). You may remember him as the one who tried to sell an apparently genuine, codenamed "Durango" development kit on eBay before being shut down by Microsoft. He has new information he claims is from white papers intended to prepare developers to work on the new system.

According to Kotaku's report, the next Xbox will integrate a new version of the Kinect not as an optional motion-control accessory but as a required peripheral included with every system that "must be plugged in and calibrated for the console to even function." That would seem to raise some obvious privacy concerns, and it strikes us as an unnecessary power and processing drain for games that don't use the depth-sensing camera. On the other hand, packaging a new Kinect with every system would let designers create motion and voice controls for their games without worrying about fragmenting the market (though it still seems odd it would have to be plugged in at all times).

The new Kinect will reportedly improve its tech specs over the current model, as has been widely reported and assumed—just not as much as you might think. The 3D camera's depth will only have a depth-sensing resolution of 512×424 according to the new report. That's a rather modest improvement over the 320×240 resolution in the original Kinect and well below the "hundredths of a millimeter" tracking promised by devices like the Leap Motion. Still, SuperDaE claims the new Kinect will be able to detect thumbs and open/closed hands, and it will sport a wider viewing angle for easier calibration. The new Kinect will also have an improved 1920×1080 2D camera and the ability to track up to six players at once, according to the report, with slightly more points of skeletal articulation on each player.

Kotaku's report also suggests that the next Xbox will be the first console to require mandatory software installation to a 500GB hard drive, a rumor that fits with reports that discs sold for the system will be one-time use affairs. Don't worry about sitting through a long installation process, though. Games will reportedly be split into discrete sections so the installation can take place as the game is being played off the disc.

Microsoft's next system will also have increased multitasking capabilities, according to the report. Rather than simply running a light system-level OS to operate things like chat and achievement tracking, users will be able to run apps like Twitter while a game is running or even suspend a game to use another app without losing their place.

While there's no word on backward compatibility with Xbox 360 software in the report, Xbox 360 controllers reportedly won't work with the new system, owing to a "new wireless technology" used by the evolved controllers.

As far as pure hardware power, the new report largely echoes previous rumors about the system's power, with an eight-core CPU operating alongside a DirectX 11.x+ GPU and 8GB of DDR3 memory. This setup should be technically able to run 1080p games in stereoscopic 3D, but it might not be able to handle that resolution and frame buffering for today's more complex games, let alone the kinds of games we'll see in coming years.

Of course, we can't put too much stock in anything in this report until it's confirmed by Microsoft. With Sony widely expected to officially kick off the race on February 20, we might not have to wait too much longer for Microsoft's response.

[47iscool]

No More Used Games? Screw Xbox Then,I'll Stick With Older Consoles & PC, Doing This Would Be A VERY Stupid Move For Microsoft,I Mean Just Look At Windows 8,It Looks More Like A Smartphone(A Wannabe PC),I'll Stick Vista Thank You Very Much!If They Actually Decide To Go Through With This More People Will Probably Head Toward Wii U Or PS3 If They Only Want A Console.