Quote:
Originally Posted by MizzouRah
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Let's take a closer look at those features.....
1. Your game library won't be digital
You can still have a digital library that avoids any issues with physical media. You'll have to buy it at the price the MS overlord puts it at, but it's still possible as the author describes the issue.
2. You can't share your library with 10 family members
This is still a feature that MS could implement if they wanted to do so. They can put a 'digital only' restriction on it, which wouldn't hinder anything as you can now loan out your physical copy. So you'd still be able to share with all your friends if they implemented it in this way.
3. There's no gifting purchased games online
You can still gift a copy in person or buy it online on release and gift it via online stores. It's not a huge difference and most won't miss it at all. But I guess a slight change if you want to really nitpick.
4. The disc needs to be in the Xbox One even if you've installed game
See #1. You can still do digital if you really want it that bad. Putting in a disk requires a minimal time commitment. It's more of a complaint for the sake of complaining rather than any real issue.
5. It makes cloud computing less attractive for developers
I could see this at some level, but no one forced them to switch paths either. If this was so important to the system architecture, why go away from it at such a critical point? Given how quickly they made the switch despite this, I'd say that 'cloud computing' was more of a buzz word than a real game changer. Somewhat like EA announcing new engines in their games while seeing no real changes in the core gameplay that really would make a difference in the game.
6. There's less potential for game price drops
This was a non-starter from the beginning. As with before, people continue to make the faulty comparisons to services like Steam which aren't even remotely similar and draw the assumption that MS would have implemented similar price drops. No way. Steam has competitors left and right who sell the same games they do. Also, Steam and other online services don't have to worry about totally switching their architecture every 5-7 years like a console. You can keep games forever in Steam without any worries, something that MS never fully explained how that would work in the end game (and is probably glad right now that they didn't have to do so). PS+ users get heavily discounted or free games on a regular basis. I'm sure MS will have something similar in order to match that service. That's the only thing you're going to see that remotely resembles Steam on a console.