Next-Gen Xbox Features Blu-ray, Will Not Play Used Games

[btarunr]

We've got a good news and a bad news. The good news first: Microsoft will finally embrace the capacious Blu-ray disc format as its media of choice with its next-generation Xbox console. A double-layer Blu-ray disc provides 50 GB of space, letting developers load higher-resolution elements (such as textures), and more importantly, load entire games into a single disc. The 8 GB DVD9 used with Xbox 360 is posing limitations with some titles, forcing publishers to ship games in multiple discs. The new console should also double up as a nice Blu-ray home-video player, complete with multi-channel lossless audio and 1080p playback.

Now on to the bad news: Remember the good old days when you could share your game cartridges and discs with your friends, or resell them? Those are about to be numbered, at least in the case of the Xbox platform. Microsoft is designing its next-generation Xbox console in a way that restricts people from playing "used" games. We would imagine Microsoft doing this by binding each purchased game's activation to a Xbox Live account à la Steam, Origin, and G4WL. This is terrible news to services such as GameStop, which deal in used games and consoles.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[THE_EGG]

Wow I used to buy nearly all my xbox games used. Saved a lot of money. Good thing I moved to PC gaming when I did. This will probably also affect e.g. Gamestop's/EB Games' gross income and thus affect jobs etc. Microsoft should have thought this through better. :shadedshu

 

[BumbleBee]

I don't know about that. Nintendo wouldn't pay Sony to license Blu-ray and I don't think Microsoft will either..

 

[LAN_deRf_HA]

I don't think using Kotaku as a source buffer some how makes this anymore legitimate, but all the same I'll quote myself on the used game issue.

I get so sick of this bizarre entitlement game publishers think they have to be the only industry that can dodge used sales. I mean this makes zero sense that they think this is a legitimate option or complaint. If they block used game sales then they should block used DVD sales, used car sales. Wtf is this insanity? Someone round up everyone involved and beat them with sticks till they get the message. No fucking way is this going to fly with consumers. I'd expect unfavorable legislation if I were them.

In the event MS "leaked" this rumor on purpose to test the waters on this idea I think its best to make as many extremely negative remarks as possible. Go nuts, go over the top. I doubt this will be a feature now considering the response it's gotten whether they ever considered it or not.

 

[badtaylorx]

^^^^^no. they'll just use hddvd again....maybe it'll work out this time

 

[magibeg]

That sucks about the bad news. I guess this means if you got a group of friends together that had different games, you'd have to be constantly switching between consoles instead of swapping disks. Awesome!

 

[xBruce88x]

da fack.... no used games? well that sux majorly. The whole reason I bother with consoles is that I can buy used. So are we gonna have CD-Keys for our console games now?

 

[AsRock]

Maybe more bad news as some are saying it's going be running on a 6670

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-01-25-next-xbox-gpu-based-on-50-radeon-hd-6670-card-report

 

[xBruce88x]

6670... well its still leaps and bounds faster than its current gpu.

 

[Lipton]

The 360 dev kit used R420 whereas it was transitioned to R500 (R520 with bits from R600) upon release. May very well be a similar story here regarding the 6670.

 

[DonInKansas]

No used games = no go.

 

[Soylent Joe]

What assholes. Surely you'll still be able to play a used game if you disconnect the console from the internet, right?

 

[xBruce88x]

now that i think about it... i'm sure there will be a homebrew way to play used games w/o an internet connection on a spare xbox at the very least. (or with a spare xbox hdd)

 

[mcloughj]

I remember that the PS3(way before release) was rumoured to burn disks so that they would only play on the first machine that they were placed into, but they backed down.

Fingers crossed the same will happen with this idea.

I couldn't see myself buying one if this kind of implementation was used.

 

[2wicked]

^^^^^no. they'll just use hddvd again....maybe it'll work out this time

If I were microsoft I would put a hd-dvd drive in the next gen xbox.
It would cut down piracy having game disks as hd-dvds only.
hd-dvd burner,blank hd-dvds where are you going to find those? dead format ftw.

 

[Red_Machine]

If I were microsoft I would put a hd-dvd drive in the next gen xbox.
It would cut down piracy having game disks as hd-dvds only.
hd-dvd burner,blank hd-dvds where are you going to find those? dead format ftw.

+1

I've been touting this for years. Saying MS should have put an integrated HD-DVD drive into the 360S and upsing HD-DVDs as the game format would increase their capacity without paying Sony royalties for Blu-Ray or coming up with their own format, give them complete control over the format so they could do what they wanted with it, AND be cheap to produce as HD-DVDs can be made on standard DVD production lines.

Alas, it did not happen. I highly doubt it will happen now, either.

 

[BumbleBee]

Wii U was supposed to have 50GB Blu-ray according to pre-E3 rumors.

the only advantage the PS3 has is Blu-ray. Sony isn't going to give away something they bet everything on. Microsoft will make it's own proprietary format and copy protection like Nintendo.

 

[MilkyWay]

What happens when games are out of "print" or just very old or hard to find new?
With digital distribution on PC you have a variety of services you can use and they all compete with each other, on xbox your stuck to whatever they charge and offer.

Microsoft are more likely to design a proprietary format and use that. Blu ray would be cheaper to use than develop a new or re design an existing format; one thing that makes me unsure is that when nvidia made graphics chips for xbox and they had a falling out, the xbox was discontinued, what if Sony suddenly took away licensing for blu ray to Microsoft?

 

[2wicked]

I can see nintendo and microsoft getting blu-ray,if those wild internet rumors are true about sony joining the ranks of late great console makers (atari,nec,sega,neo-geo,ect... RIP).

 

[HisSvt2]

what is with all the sony comments... Sony doesn't OWN blu ray lg and samsung also do bluray and they can produce drives for MS. I seriously don't think this will happen or can you say console crash of 2013!

 

[BumbleBee]

What happens when games are out of "print" or just very old or hard to find new?
With digital distribution on PC you have a variety of services you can use and they all compete with each other, on xbox your stuck to whatever they charge and offer.

Microsoft are more likely to design a proprietary format and use that. Blu ray would be cheaper to use than develop a new or re design an existing format; one thing that makes me unsure is that when nvidia made graphics chips for xbox and they had a falling out, the xbox was discontinued, what if Sony suddenly took away licensing for blu ray to Microsoft?

Microsoft has XBLA sales.

Amazon, Best Buy, Gamestop, Target, etc all have deals like Steam and you don't have to leave your house to get them.

 

[LiveOrDie]

Microsoft is designing its next-generation Xbox console in a way that restricts people from playing "used" games. We would imagine Microsoft doing this by binding each purchased game's activation to a Xbox Live account à la Steam, Origin, and G4WL. This is terrible news to services such as GameStop, which deal in used games and consoles.

HAHA i don't use consoles but this is funny soon you'll be installing windows on your XBOX

 

[n-ster]

If you want to do à la Steam DRM, then you have to have à la Steam prices

 

[HisSvt2]

If you want to do à la Steam DRM, then you have to have à la Steam prices

amen to that sir!

 

[marcthpro]

No used game ?! What about Rental game ?

What if you can't rent a game for 7 Day for 6$ and tell if you like it or not ? just buy and hope you ain't getting a Failure like Duke nukem forever or Game that as no replay value

What made console Great is when ur done playing a game you owned for a long time you sell it for something of near same value but now they saying it ain't gonna happen