News Microsoft dips its toes into anti-resale DRM again, introduces Digital-Direct bundles

[Virtual Ruminant]

The much-maligned and hastily neutered anti-resale DRM of 2013's Xbox One launch presentation makes a subtle comeback with Microsoft's new Digital Direct system of delivering content bundled with console hardware digitally, which replaces the old system of including redeemable product codes printed on cardboard.

The net result is the same as was intended with the backtracked 2013 strategy, tie games to Microsoft accounts and thereby preventing (or at least controlling the terms of) resale.

 

[Kurt Russell]

Seems like there's a big move towards this, with other pubs doing keyless activation for games, for instance (on the PC side of things). Not a good look

 

[lashman]

well that sucks ...

 

[Stone Ocean]

So basically this just means games that come bundled with a SKU are tied to the console itself?

If you sell the console do the games remain on your account or are they permanently tied to the console?

 

[Virtual Ruminant]

So basically this just means games that come bundled with a SKU are tied to the console itself?

If you sell the console do the games remain on your account or are they permanently tied to the console?

From the linked page:

[UWSL][UWSL]“ Disclaimer: All included digital content will be attached to the first Microsoft Account that redeems it.” [/UWSL][/UWSL]

So, in essence, they are attached to the console until they are redeemed, at which point they remain attached to the account that redeemed them.

 

[Prodigy]

I can't really see this as anything different than what we have now, unless I am missing something obvious?

 

[NarohDethan]

you would think MS would like anyone to buy an Xbox and use the games however people please given how the xbone was destroyed on sales by PS4/Switch

 

[Rando10123]

I can't really see this as anything different than what we have now, unless I am missing something obvious?

Yeah same, sorta confused about this, isn't it the same thing with literally every digital platform? All your games/subscriptions are tied to the account and not the system itself? Even on PS4 it's tied to the account unless you specify your main PS4

 

[gabbo]

So it's tied to the console it was purchased on until such time as an xbox account activates it? That's interesting, not exactly consumer friendly, and doesn't completely wipe out the ability to resell, but it certainly makes i harder to do.
Dear MS - you've made up some ground recently with your strides in PC, don't undue it with such a needlessly complex account/activation system.

 

[Virtual Ruminant]

I can't really see this as anything different than what we have now, unless I am missing something obvious?

The direct consequence is that you can't buy a console bundle and offset the cost by reselling the product code for the bundled game(s) easily. You used to be able to just put up an offer, make a sale, then mail the person the piece of cardboard (or just the code) for the game.

Collectors actually did this quite a lot - if you're the kind of person who will buy an Xbox in a, say, "Call of Halo Effect - Origins" USMC N7-Division camouflage design, with controller to match, you're pretty likely to not want or need the bundled standard edition of "Call of Halo - Origins". You already bought the collector's edition of the game which came in a box that needed to be shipped by freight truck because it included a 6-foot marble statue of "Mister Chief", So up on ebay or the buy/sell message board it goes and boom, you get a couple bucks back.

Now you would essentially need to set up a whole process with a buyer to log in on your Xbox with the buyer's Microsoft account, redeem the game to their Microsoft account, then log back out again. And the buyer probably would want to change their password afterwards. Pretty awkward.

But - all of that is kind of a niche thing and an edge case and that's why Microsoft starts with it.

The end goal here clearly is the 2013 vision: Every game shipped on a disc and bought through retail registers to your Microsoft account the first time you put it in and after that, the disc is just a rescue medium, not something you can sell. Sort of like the Half-Life 2 DVD I bought in 2004. Yup, it wasn't Microsoft who started this. They just want the goodness too, and they've wanted it badly for some time now.

 

[Rando10123]

Now you would essentially need to set up a whole process with a buyer to log in on your Xbox with the buyer's Microsoft account, redeem the game to their Microsoft account, then log back out again. And the buyer probably would want to change their password afterwards. Pretty awkward.

Yeah alright, that is pretty damn shitty. Honestly, Microsoft has always been the most scummiest and greediest console publisher since it's arrival with the OG Xbox. I really hope this doesn't influence other console companies but unless the masses know about this and react negatively to it, then who knows.

 

[Swenhir]

Tying games to the hardware it was activated on? That would be unacceptable on PC, I don't see why consoles should be any different.

 

[Virtual Ruminant]

Tying games to the hardware it was activated on?

That's not what this is. That's what Nintendo used to do until the Switch (for eShop purchases).

 

[Ascheroth]

Tying games to the hardware it was activated on? That would be unacceptable on PC, I don't see why consoles should be any different.

Nah, it's tying games to the first account that redeems it (for which you need the console).
Haven't GPU makers also moved toward this? I remember something about it being much harder to sell the game(s) that came with them.

 

[Swenhir]

It's shitty but that's a battle the PC already lost with Steam. It's still crappy but more ... contemporary-crappy rather than completely unacceptable, I guess.

Thanks for clarifying.

 

[ISee]

So, it's as bad as Nvidia's GPU game bundles.

 

[Durante]

It's shitty but that's a battle the PC already lost with Steam. It's still crappy but more ... contemporary-crappy rather than completely unacceptable, I guess.

This might sound like cherrypicking, but personally I don't mind this as much on PC as I would on consoles (well, really, I don't mind on consoles either since it's not like I'm going to buy one these days, but in principle).

The reason is that to me, a (digital) game on PC has a lot more permanence than one on consoles. All the games I ever bought on Steam I could reasonably play (maybe with a few minutes of effort) on my current PC. All the physical games I bought for consoles are essentially pretty paperweights after some years (unless I still have the console, fancy getting it out of storage, and am lucky to have it still working), And the digital console games are even worse.

Now hopefully and seemingly console games (especially digital) start being more like PC games in regard to permanence of the library with the current console transition -- I feel like that would at least mitigate the resale issue.

 

[Virtual Ruminant]

Yeah alright, that is pretty damn shitty. Honestly, Microsoft has always been the most scummiest and greediest console publisher since it's arrival with the OG Xbox. I really hope this doesn't influence other console companies but unless the masses know about this and react negatively to it, then who knows.

I think it's important to see these developments in context. People forget (or completely missed, depending on age), how much hate Valve got for tying Half Life 2 to Steam, partly because it was janky and overloaded every time Valve launched something big, partly because it made physical medium resale more awkward (you had to sell your account along with it, requiring buyer and seller to break Steam's ToS - nowadays a lot less practical, but in 2004 when pretty much every account only had one or two Valve games in it, different picture).

My own opinion on how egregious Steam's resale-preventing business model is has shifted over time and will continue to do so, as does Steam's whole value proposition to me as an end-user.

If you had asked me in:

2004 - I would have said, "stupid, but I don't care"
2007 - I would have said, "I really don't like it and I hope DRM-free competitors will show up" (and they did)
2010 - I would have said, "HAVE YOU SEEN THOSE PRICES AND THOSE OFFERS IN THE 2009 HOLIDAY SALE (second ever holiday sale on Steam) ?!?!?!?! I FUCKING LOVE STEAM!"
2015 - I would have said, "It feels weird and wrong that Steam keys seem to just be this universal and ubiquitous way of distributing games, but the deals have never been better"
2020 - pretty much same as 2015

Microsoft is clearly trying to bring a competitive value proposition with their ecosystem right now - play anywhere, cross-platform gamepass, project x cloud, backwards compatibility, etc. etc. If Microsoft were to actually re-enact the full anti-resale DRM of 2013 with the release of Xbox Series X, to me it would be actually less bad than in 2013 - the rest of the offer has gotten a lot better. Hell, Microsoft does sales now, too. Not on par with Steam's by a long shot, but in 2013, that was still just a promise. And let's remember, right now, it's just this little tiny thing about bundled content. Personally - not affected by it at all. I don't see myself buying a console bundle ever, unless for some reason it's discounted below the price of a normal SKU.

For better or worse, everyone's gaming systems and libraries are increasingly subject to change. We will see what the future brings.

 

[Prodigy]

Aah alright I get it now, I think I hadn't understood it before as I have never bought the same console twice, so I have never needed to sell off extra games that would come in the bundle. I can see it be a worry if this is a small step that can lead to something bigger in the future, like not reselling physical copies of games.

 

[gabbo]

Tying games to the hardware it was activated on? That would be unacceptable on PC, I don't see why consoles should be any different.

The game is only tied to the console until it is redeemed by a user. Once it's redeemed by a user, it is no longer tied the console, and is tied to the account. How far forward that will go is up to Microsoft.
Edit: This issue broadens the scope of what DRM actually constitutes, since it has really, in spite of its name, only been applied to being able to PLAY a game, not resell it. This opens up a whole other can of worms we may want to be careful of.

 

[Rando10123]

Microsoft is clearly trying to bring a competitive value proposition with their ecosystem right now - play anywhere, cross-platform gamepass, project x cloud, etc. etc. If Microsoft were to actually re-enact the full anti-resale DRM of 2013 with the release of Xbox Series X, to me it would be actually less bad than in 2013 - the rest of the offer has gotten a lot better. Hell, Microsoft does sales now, too. Not on par with Steam's by a long shot, but in 2013, that was still just a promise. And let's remember, right now, it's just this little tiny thing about bundled content.

I can see what you mean from your perspective, but I personally disagree on the whole value thing. Gamepass is literally gaming Netflix, which would mean they'll obviously remove some games in the future and then they'd curate it more and more based on the general customer preferences. so nicher games or specific titles may not even appear there. I'm also still not fully convinced on cloud gaming, especially how MS said that their focus of the competition are Amazon and Google, not even Sony or Nintendo. If they fully reenact anti-resale DRM, then what do you with all the physical copies that's laying around? People still buy used physical games or would like to own their games physically, completely removing that aspect is frankly moronic and anti-consumer.

I can understand the Valve controversy when they started Steam, but their service nowadays is frankly the gold standard and no company or storefront has come close. MS constantly bumbled their way through this gen and the last half of previous gen, so I doubt they'll deliver what they advertised.

 

[Theswweet]

FYI this is literally how Nintendo handled bundled software on the 3DS. I don't see how this is a big deal if Nintendo wasn't.

 

[ScreamingTrees]

FYI this is literally how Nintendo handled bundled software on the 3DS. I don't see how this is a big deal if Nintendo wasn't.

They do the same on Switch. My nephew's Pokemon bundle, the game got linked with his account when he first set up the console.

 

[Virtual Ruminant]

Update:

- Xbox One and Smart Delivery titles on disc pretty much en banc do not work on Xbox Series consoles without "updating" the game online (which as Xbox users know from painful experience, usually means a complete redownload of the game, e.g. somewhere between 25 to 100 GB).

- It looks like a number, possibly a lot, of digital purchases on Xbox Series will cease working if a console does not go online on Xbox Live for an extended period of time - regardless of whether the Xbox Series console is set to be the "home console" or not. This is the exact anti-feature that caused so much outrage in 2013 right before the Xbox One launch.

- Xbox Series consoles, just like Xbox One, still cannot be used without an online activiation on first start, which implies that at some point in the future, when the activation services have been taken offline (or even during a sustained outage), you will not be able to activate a sealed or freshly reset console, effectively rendering every unactivated Xbox One and Xbox Series device a brick at some point in the future, regardless of whether the hardware is still intact or not.

 

[gabbo]

Update:

- Xbox One and Smart Delivery titles on disc pretty much en banc do not work on Xbox Series consoles without "updating" the game online (which as Xbox users know from painful experience, usually means a complete redownload of the game, e.g. somewhere between 25 to 100 GB).

- It looks like a number, possibly a lot, of digital purchases on Xbox Series will cease working if a console does not go online on Xbox Live for an extended period of time - regardless of whether the Xbox Series console is set to be the "home console" or not. This is the exact anti-feature that caused so much outrage in 2013 right before the Xbox One launch.

- Xbox Series consoles, just like Xbox One, still cannot be used without an online activiation on first start, which implies that at some point in the future, when the activation services have been taken offline (or even during a sustained outage), you will not be able to activate a sealed or freshly reset console, effectively rendering every unactivated Xbox One and Xbox Series device a brick at some point in the future, regardless of whether the hardware is still intact or not.

Microsoft going with the 'how to boil a frog' analogy for their DRM efforts it seems.

So now it will depend on how games tied to accounts work on future consoles if their DRM make the machine reliant on indefinite activation servers, aka big door-stops.

 

[Swenhir]

Update:

- Xbox One and Smart Delivery titles on disc pretty much en banc do not work on Xbox Series consoles without "updating" the game online (which as Xbox users know from painful experience, usually means a complete redownload of the game, e.g. somewhere between 25 to 100 GB).

- It looks like a number, possibly a lot, of digital purchases on Xbox Series will cease working if a console does not go online on Xbox Live for an extended period of time - regardless of whether the Xbox Series console is set to be the "home console" or not. This is the exact anti-feature that caused so much outrage in 2013 right before the Xbox One launch.

- Xbox Series consoles, just like Xbox One, still cannot be used without an online activiation on first start, which implies that at some point in the future, when the activation services have been taken offline (or even during a sustained outage), you will not be able to activate a sealed or freshly reset console, effectively rendering every unactivated Xbox One and Xbox Series device a brick at some point in the future, regardless of whether the hardware is still intact or not.

What scares me is that this is going on very, very quietly it seems.

 

[Durante]

Microsoft doesn't need to invest much into anti-resale at this point iMHO, their long-term strategy is anti-sale after all

 

[Virtual Ruminant]

Their long-term strategy is anti-sale after all

Anti-sale and pro-lease/rent/service, yeah.

 

[Prodigy]

An Xbox Developer did respond to this as said below (just adding this for their take):

OscarK

"Having watched the video and read through the discussion here, my main takeaway is that we (Xbox) need to improve our on-console error messaging; the very generic and unclear error messaging clearly adds confusion and can lead to mistrust of the system. There is actually an effort internally to revamp licensing related error messaging, and I will ensure that this feedback is heard internally to continue driving that effort.

I had previously responded with how disc-based games function on Series X|S and it aligns with the findings in the video:

OscarK said:
Some very precise clarifications when installing various types of content from discs

• OG Xbox/Xbox 360. Need to be online to install as the disc is just a key that allows you to download the game and emulator (same as on Xbox One).
• Xbox One games. Need to be online one-time during install to download specific config files (separate from actual game patches).
• Smart Delivery games. Depends on how much is actually on the disc; if the X|S version is on the disc, then can install offline, but if it is a stub only, then the Smart Delivery portion is delivered as an upgrade patch. This does a hybrid install using bits from the disc and bits from Xbox Live.
• Native X|S games. Can install offline.

Smart Delivery discs vary in content for a variety of reasons:

• Discs like Forza Horizon 4 were pressed years before Series X|S existed. Repressing discs is expensive and doesn't actually help anyone since it'd require the user to repurchase anyway.
• Discs like FIFA 21 were pressed with a stub of the X|S version as that version simply was not ready at the time that discs were pressed.
• Discs may not be able to contain both versions of the game for space reasons. Which versions are pressed is up to the developer, but I would expect that it will generally line up with whichever was the primary version developed; for now cross-gen titles are primarily targeting Xbox One, but that will change over time.

With regard to the portion of the video about digital content, the user first attempts to launch pre-installed digital content whilst offline. This fails for the same reason as it would have done on Xbox One, PS4 or PS5 in that the console is not set as the "Home console" (primary console for PlayStations). The main difference between Series X|S and PS5 is that we chose not to automatically change a user's Home console, whereas Sony chose to set your first ever PS5 as primary even if already have a primary PS4.

Once the user in the video did set their console as Home, they continued to have errors for some games whilst offline. The reason for this was the one-time connection required for compatibility.
More specifically, the first time an installation of a game is played on a particular console, a registration step occurs; this is multi-step process which involves decryption of the package header, download of metadata, provisioning of any additional storage space that the game requires for temporary files. For Xbox One BC games on Series X|S, this is also when a one-time internet connection is required for compatibility bits. To the user, they briefly see a "Getting things ready..." dialog which self-dismisses after a few seconds (decryption is the primary use of time here).

When a digital game is downloaded to a console, this registration step is also performed as part of the download, however if you installed the content to an external HDD and move it to another console, that other console will also have to perform that registration step when you first launch it. I strongly suspect that the content that failed to launch even after setting the Home console was on an external HDD that had been downloaded on a different console (presumably the Series S he mentioned having).

Hopefully some technical explanation here helps shed light on the issue, and I completely agree that we need to improve the error messaging here. Licensing is a complex area especially with discs and external HDDs and we can do better informing the user; I will take this away to the team and ensure we internalize this."

 

[Virtual Ruminant]

Once the user in the video did set their console as Home, they continued to have errors for some games whilst offline. The reason for this was the one-time connection required for compatibility.
More specifically, the first time an installation of a game is played on a particular console, a registration step occurs; this is multi-step process which involves decryption of the package header, download of metadata, provisioning of any additional storage space that the game requires for temporary files. For Xbox One BC games on Series X|S, this is also when a one-time internet connection is required for compatibility bits. To the user, they briefly see a "Getting things ready..." dialog which self-dismisses after a few seconds (decryption is the primary use of time here).

When a digital game is downloaded to a console, this registration step is also performed as part of the download, however if you installed the content to an external HDD and move it to another console, that other console will also have to perform that registration step when you first launch it. I strongly suspect that the content that failed to launch even after setting the Home console was on an external HDD that had been downloaded on a different console (presumably the Series S he mentioned having).

Hopefully some technical explanation here helps shed light on the issue, and I completely agree that we need to improve the error messaging here. Licensing is a complex area especially with discs and external HDDs and we can do better informing the user; I will take this away to the team and ensure we internalize this."

This is all very plausible and matches completely how I assumed the system to work.

Of course this response does nothing to address the fact that the whole home/additional console scheme is all based on the original Xbox One DRM from 2013 - in fact, the ability to move games between consoles, or install on multiple consoles and "share them with friends and family" was part of the infamous E3 2013 "TV-TV-TV" sales pitch.

Microsoft could still flip a metaphorical switch in their infrastructure and just make the always-online/regularly-online requirement mandatory for every console, and at the same time extend the same logic to disc-based games, at which point discs would (finally and completely) turn into expensive, coaster-shaped download-codes.

 

[Prodigy]

This is all very plausible and matches completely how I assumed the system to work.

Of course this response does nothing to address the fact that the whole home/additional console scheme is all based on the original Xbox One DRM from 2013 - in fact, the ability to move games between consoles, or install on multiple consoles and "share them with friends and family" was part of the infamous E3 2013 "TV-TV-TV" sales pitch.

Microsoft could still flip a metaphorical switch in their infrastructure and just make the always-online/regularly-online requirement mandatory for every console, and at the same time extend the same logic to disc-based games, at which point discs would (finally and completely) turn into expensive, coaster-shaped download-codes.

Oh yeah of course, I just wanted to show that even though it was a good video, it was still misrepresenting certain things because that user didn't understand something simple like setting a console as home will affect his data.

But yes no one should be looking at consoles as some way of preserving games or even the console itself, by nature Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo will want their users to move onto the next iteration, and they will put in ways that can affect how you access their system and should rightfully be called out on it.