@NEStalgia That's not quite what I'm getting at. Yes, games as a service are a growing phenomenon, but what I'm talking about, are the completely legal possibilities that Microsoft might possibly pursue, to prevent people from still playing certain games, or at least play them completely. So, I was talking about physical and/or local games. I didn't mean game license verification either, so forget about that specific online-based issue.
I'm simply talking about games on a disc that are subsequently installed on the console. A game that YOU bought, and which, by all rights, should be entirely yours within the confines of the law, pertaining to restrictions such as not being allowed to copy it and such, which is of course completely logical and understandable.
But again, the server-related part of the situation I proposed, is NOT a part of the game. It's an extra service tied to the game in some ways, but it does not mean that the game on the disc isn't a complete product.
So, as long as Microsoft would offer a complete product on a disc, updates and/or patches aside or included, because these too take nothing away from that, then they could steer clear of any claims concerning the whole "Buy to Own" thing that we started this discussion on. The game is a complete product, so as far as Microsoft would be concerned, that would be it, period.
The server part of it is, as I already explained, a completely different cost balance. The game is mainly if not completely archived under the product profits table, while server rent and maintenance is its own entity, which also offers a completely separate investment/cost vs revenue balance, not to do with any specific product or game, because server maintenance will be calculated as a whole, so the entire server farm for ALL the games and/or services that Microsoft offers. So, in that respect, that is in no significant way tied to any single game.
We all know that certain game series have become increasingly more online dependent, what with series like COD going from 50/50 offline/online to almost 20/80 offline/online, making/degrading the single player campaign into something barely more than a tutorial, with a semi-forgettable story attached to it.
But that's on developers and not on Microsoft, and another discussion altogether, so I'll side-step that one for now...
Suffice it to say, that lawyers will VERY easily be able to make a case in favor of Microsoft, if this is ever going to be taken to court because people might claim that either their game is disabled or Microsoft has sold them an incomplete product, because unfortunately for us gamers/customers, neither is true.
As for (semi-)guaranteed hardware backward compatibility: you yourself once, no several times, mentioned that current consoles are more and more PC-like architecture-wise, so you can't go back now and say that it only counts for PC, and not so much for consoles, because the two are now closer than ever before, and perhaps the next generation will truly be a PC in a box, although personally, I do think there will still be some console-specific differences and/or advantages.
And PC's actually ARE truly 100% backward compatible, but not in the way that the average Joe thinks, and most certainly also not solely dependent on fan made patches/cracks. All you need is a virtual machine (or several), and a multi-boot system, and you've got your 100% backward compatible PC, without ever having to mess with questionable, custom patches or the rather underwhelming/mediocre compatibility modes that Windows has offered ever since Windows XP...
'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'
@Octane Benedict Cumberbatch trips the profanity filter? Poor man...
Well, obviously I'm missing something, because for the life of me, I can't figure that brain squeezer out...
EDIT:
Oh, wait. I think I got it now. Does make me wonder how many alerts the word "cucumber" trips...
Either way, not that I blame NLife or any of the mods, but the British Isles (and the BBC ) might do well to finally get with the times, concerning what's offensive or not, because some words that are deemed such, are almost childlike in their innocence. As a former US-resident, all I can say is that I'm VERY glad to live in the Netherlands, where that (censorship) is concerned.
Nobody here skips a beat concerning mentions of f-bombs, mother-somethings or other words for excrement, and they're SO right, because the words are childish and meaningless, unless you give meaning to them, by banning them or berating people for using them, making them seem heavier than they truly are. Sticks and stones, and all that...
The Dutch even laugh (or get annoyed) at the Americans for bleeping out f-bombs in TV shows. If native English speakers in America and Britain would hear and understand how the Dutch swear and what profane words they use, they'd probably either go all red in the face from shame, or cower in a corner. Suffice it to say that the Dutch have more in common with Scandinavian people, in that respect...
@Yosheel Well, it has the same word in it. So, apparently it only raises alerts when a word that's deemed offensive, is at the front part of a name or word, then...
'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'
@Yosheel I was just about to ask you if it is a Pokemon...
But all kidding aside, I've LITERALLY never heard of the word Gypceros, in no language that I know, and I know six of them.
'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'
@Yosheel That's what I meant with "travelers". It's what they call themselves. Well, in the UK at least...
But that was also my point: it's only part of a word: there's no such thing as a gypCEROS. That first part of that actor's surname on the other hand, IS a complete word, so that's what got me wondering, how the filter works, because it apparently trips entire solitary words, words/syllables at the front of a name or subject, that LOOK like entire offensive words, and then there's partial words, that are apparently also able to trip the alert. Weird, to say the least. That would almost constitute half a dictionary, if we put some thought behind which names and/or words might contain such offensive parts, regardless of them not being offensive at all.
Either way, that was somewhat of a mildly entertaining and vaguely interesting insight concerning the inner workings of the website...
Microsoft will release two more Xbox One models next year, the Xbox One XS, that will be similar but cheaper and simpler than the Xbox One S and an even cheaper disc-less Xbox One console designed for digital games only.
Ahh well, least it doesnt sound like either's an X model like mine.
Probably also a little test to see if the market is ready for the one of the big 3 going discless kind of like the PSP Go. If it bombs horribly, they could easily cancel any future discless plans they had (From what I heard, Scarlet would have a cheaper Stream Only model and a traditional media model.) kind of like the U turn on some of the plans they had for XBONE at launch.
@Yosheel@Octane Butchering my comment and it's intent in the process...
You know what I meant, @Yosheel, and there simply is no such thing as the first part of that word, in ANY language. That's why I found it weird, and why I said that the filter is apparently also tripped when using only partial words that might look like something offensive. (and I also thought that it was just mentioned that the filtering of that specific word was supposedly fixed, so there shouldn't even have been any need anymore to "fix" that word?)
Anyway, enough of this, on with the actual show here. So, how's the Xbox One S been treating you? Are you done installing games and have you been able to spend some time with it to find out if you enjoyed it enough to warrant its purchase?
'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'
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