How the next Xbox could stop you from playing used games

[DainBramaged]

Source: Ars Technicia

A recent Kotaku post cites "one reliable industry source" to suggest that the still-unannounced successor to Microsoft's Xbox 360 will somehow prevent used games from being played on the system. The idea remains an unconfirmed rumor, of course, but it's something that members of the game industry have floated repeatedly in the past. It's also a move that would likely find hefty support from publishers looking for a way to stop what they see as erosion of their profits thanks to used games (the reality is a bit more complicated than that, but we won't rehash that old argument here).

The renewed debate got us wondering, though: how might such a used-game prevention system actually work on a technical level?

Kill the disc
The simplest way to stop used game sales, obviously, is to prevent people from having a physical game to sell in the first place. That would mean a purely online marketplace for the next Xbox, building on top of the substantial groundwork laid by the current Xbox Live Marketplace—which already sells a wide selection of full retail games. In the aggregate, Marketplace customers don't seem to mind that they can't resell their purchases (the added convenience and generally lower prices compared to retail might have something to do with this).

But eliminating retail games entirely would totally lock out the substantial minority of Xbox owners that still don't have broadband Internet access at home—a 2010 study estimated that 27 percent of Xbox owners fell into this group. And even those with slower broadband connections might not enjoy being forced to spend hours or even days clogging up their pipes to download gigabytes of game data.



Read more: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2012/01/how-the-next-xbox-could-stop-you-from-playing-used-games.ars

---

Fucking Microsoft. Finding new ways to squeeze every dime out of the parents of their customers.

[Rick Myers]

1. Some games are already doing stuff like this...

Often after installing the disk, the game accesses online resources. They can sucker a user with a free level or unlock, and they could serialize the disks easily... Even worse, they buy a $60 game, then 'need' an online add on at additional cost. I know with the NCAA football game, they are not allowed to use player names... But you can BUY a plug in that adds all the player names!!!

[MessiahRp]

2. Sounds like this was released by someone at Sony

Obviously trying to stifle the market of their competition before it gets close to release.

[NYC_SKP]

3. Funny if true since Sony is just as fucked up as Microsoft about such matters.

Both are on my shit list and don't buy unless I have to list.

[DainBramaged]

4. Sony got hacked to shit and they emailed to tell me my identity may have been compromised

because I used to own Conan and Everquest, so it forced me to activate a credit watch. They kept emailing me trying to sell me stuff until I replied one day 'fuck you' and the last email I got was a complete delisting of me in their system.....