Of course this is all speculation at this point, but this is all big news. I'm sure that gamers and game stores, especially Gamestop, will be up in arms, should this turn out to be true. While I'm all for new technology, I don't understand the purpose of making the consumer unhappy in order to generate a larger profit. In this sort of economy especially, happy customers and customer loyalty are the two most important things to look for in the entertainment industry. I feel like this is exactly the sort of thing that could backfire on Microsoft.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/next-xbox-to-play-blu-rays-block-used-games-report-6349165

If that last part turns out to be true, I'm going back to Sony.

Great...

Being broke most of the year, I almost exclusively buy used games since I can't afford new ones. Hopefully, it's just bull.

Who says they won't do the same thing with their console and used games?

I thought Blu-Ray is $onys tech and M$ is HD?

It was, then Blu-Ray won. Like the VHS vs. Beta fight back in the day, the inferior VHS system won that

Generally when Microsoft announces something treated not very well by the customers and media, Sony does the opposite to be a crowd-pleaser. If this turns out to be true, let's hope Sony keeps doing this.

how would it know if a game been used or not?

the second you play a game once bam instantly been used and will no longer work ?

Maybe a online pass or something? Its horrifying to think about.

If that's true they lose my custom and earn my eternal ire. I am quite tired of all these [censored] companies and their money-grubbing and manipulation of international policies.

Well what did you expect? Steam got away with it, so Microsoft wants in on the money. Sony may wait and see whether MS gets away with it, if they do you can bet your ass they'll have it in their next next gen console.

If the thing about used games is true, then I shall not ever upgrade. Hell, you can't even buy old titles "brand new" anymore. (Well, it's extremely difficult.) About 80% of my entire gaming library was bought second hand.

Hopefully they will realise that they will kill their profits if they do that.

I'm assuming any new console will be backwards compatible as well? There's no point in me buying a new console if I can't play any of my old games on it.

The used games market isn't that big on PC, but if a console adopted a system to prevent used games being played then it would cause serious problems for businesses like Gamestop and the people who buy and sell their used games.

Most retailers dont accept used PC games anymore, mainly because of the serial key generation of games and the ability to unlock a digital copy using that serial key.

***
That being said, other than picking up nostalgic HD remakes like Halo Aniversary Edition, I don't think my Xbox gets much use anymore. At this point in time, I can't see myself buying anything else for the console let alone a future console.

I'd laugh if the latter was true

...but, it does seem like someone was eventually going to do it

The used games market isn't big for PC because of policies and practices like what Microsoft is allegedly toying with. Publishers want to eliminate the used market because they believe that will reduce competition and increase profits... they are right (but immoral) to think that.

if this were true then the price of games need to plummet on release then, because that would take away a great deal of value of the license

I hope the last part isn't true. I like playing on PC now. Unless some Xbox exclusive that piques my interest comes out, I doubt that I'll buy it.

Most awesomest news ever. Here's hoping for mandatory kinect support for everything as well.

I don't ever remember seeing used PC games in stores, even before digital distribution. But I did see tons of secondhand Genesis/NES games back then.

CD keys probably.

From what I've read in previous threads usedpc sales seems to be more popular im the uk/europe

Bah... hadn't even thought of that. Hopefully one of the two realizes how stupid of an idea this is.

*nods*

VHS won out over beta with the VHS vs DVD wars having no contest at all.

Sadly from what i'm hearing Sony is going to make the same mistake they did when they put the blu-ray player in the PS3 making it cost several hundred more dollars than it should have. The rumors circulating around Sony are them switching from blu-ray to a new http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_Versatile_Disc which is going to make their next gen system expensive. However, if $ony can negate the cost they will put up a stiff competition with M$ who will be using bluray if they go that route.

If they part about them not allowing the use of old games/played games then that will be an extreme problem. Though I can see into the minds of those greedy corporate people that are running the show for Xbox.

1. Make it so the game will only run fresh purchased/clean games. It eliminates the ability of people to go over to a friends house and play your games on their console unless you bring your console.

2. For the people like Gamefly they will make specialty games that have encrypted coding in them. This bypasses the safety mechanism allowing that "S.Rented" game playable on your console. You may even have to pay a fee ontop of the game's fee to enable it for use so Microsoft doesn't think you're cheating them.

3. I can already see people getting ideas about copying the code for these games and putting it on their new gen systems. Microsoft will counter this by making it so each game has a unique code and if that code is duplicated being found on your system they'll ban your account.

Personally i'm hoping those rumors of the rented stuff being wrong, but in all honest I wouldn't put it past Microsoft. They are in the business of making money not making their consumers 100% happy.

You... think that was a mistake? Blu-ray mainly won over HD-DVD because it was built into the PS3, same way the DVD player in the PS2 gained them loads of sales from people looking for a good DVD player as well as a gaming system.