Hasta La Gadget!

Not so fast, vaquero. While Sony was cheered in heroic fashion for proclaiming that used games would be free and clear to operate on the PlayStation 4, it appears that the reality is actually a bit more complicated. Sony America CEO Jack Tretton has made clear today that while first-party titles will fit in with yesterday’s “hands-off” approach, third-party publishers will be allowed to throw some curveballs.

“There’s gonna be free-to-play, there’s gonna be every potential business model on there, and again, that’s up to their relationship with the consumer, what do they think is going to put them in the best fit. We’re not going to dictate that, we’re gonna give them a platform to publish on. The DRM decision is going to have to be answered by the third parties, it’s not something we’re going to control, or dictate, or mandate, or implement.”

That’s the new word out of Tretton’s mouth, which seems to indicate that players like Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Treyarch and pretty much any PS4 game maker outside of Sony’s own umbrella can cobble together any combination of policies they want. You could say that it’s not too different from how the PS3 operates today, but there’s still plenty of room for clarifications across the industry. Hit up the source link for the full spiel.

Update: Sony itself has responded with the following: “Similar to PS3, we will not dictate the online used game strategy (the ability to play used games online) of its publishing partners. As announced last night, PS4 will not have any gating restrictions for used disc-based games. When a gamer buys a PS4 disc they have right to use that copy of the game, so they can trade-in the game at retail, sell it to another person, lend it to a friend, or keep it forever.”

Filed under: Gaming, Sony

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Source: Polygon

Microsoft today unveiled plans to allow used games on its next game console, the Xbox One, ending speculation about fees associated with the process. “Microsoft does not charge a platform fee to retailers, publishers, or consumers for enabling transfer of these games,” a Q&A regarding Xbox One licensing fees reads. “We designed Xbox One so game publishers can enable you to trade in your games at participating retailers.” There is an exception noted, as the above only applies to Microsoft-published games apparently:

“Third party publishers may opt in or out of supporting game resale and may set up business terms or transfer fees with retailers. Microsoft does not receive any compensation as part of this. In addition, third party publishers can enable you to give games to friends. Loaning or renting games won’t be available at launch, but we are exploring the possibilities with our partners.”

You’ll also be able to give your games to friends, though you must be friends on Xbox Live for more than 30 days and “each game can only be given once.” It’s unclear if the game can be given away to subsequent people by the receiver.

There’s also a piece detailing how the console’s always online requirement will work, with a check-in needed once every 24 hours if you’re on your home console (you’ll only get one hour offline on a friend’s console before getting booted). Beyond serving to check whether the game license you’re using is official or not, Microsoft says the requirement will, “verify if system, application or game updates are needed and to see if you have acquired new games, or resold, traded in, or given your game to a friend.” Sounds to us like a way to get around issues associated with not needing discs post-install to play games on the Xbox One. The piece also notes that, “Games that are designed to take advantage of the cloud may require a connection.” There’s no word on exceptions for military personnel or people who live in areas without internet — the minimum suggested speed to maintain a connection is 1.5Mbps.

Finally, there’s a piece about privacy which adds some interesting notes about the new, required Kinect. The “Xbox On” wake functionality can be disabled, and Microsoft assures that a variety of privacy settings will be available right from initial setup.

Update: When asked whether the online requirement would allow exceptions for military personnel or consumers in areas without stable internet, Microsoft told us, “The blog posts on Xbox Wire detail everything we can share today. We look forward to sharing more details in the months ahead.” Not exactly a comforting answer if you’re an Xbox gamer serving overseas.

Filed under: Gaming, HD, Microsoft

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Source: Xbox Wire (1), Xbox Wire (2), Xbox Wire (3)

If you’re a fan of science fiction books, odds are you’ve read something published by Tor Books. Tor is the largest publisher of science fiction content in the world. Last April the company decided to shed all digital rights management in its digital e-books. The move was met with concern from competitors that piracy would run rampant.

When the company ditched DRM, it said that DRM was preventing its buyers from using their legitimate purchases in perfectly legal ways. One of those perfectly legal ways that Tor said its readers were unable to use their books was in switching between different digital readers. The publisher has now offered up an update a year after it ditched DRM.

According to a company spokesman named Julie Crisp the company has seen “no discernible increase in piracy on any of our titles.” You read that right, after having no DRM for a year the company says piracy hasn’t increased. Tor’s customers were very happy at the announcement that the company would remove any anti-piracy protections from its books.

Tor says that it’s authors were also very happy to sign up to have their books published without DRM. However, a letter the turned up from Hachette UK, another book publisher, said that the DRM free books from Tor would make it difficult for it to protect its own rights. In other words, Hachette feared it would be forced to follow suit with no DRM.

[via Arstechnica]

Shedding DRM hasn’t increased piracy says sci-fi publisher Tor is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

After a very public defense of rumors about the next Xbox’s always-on Internet requirements, a new report claims that Microsoft creative director Adam Orth is no longer with the company. In a series of Twitter posts, Orth defended the move by countering that “every device” is now constantly connected, and then delivered a low-blow when someone responded suggesting always-on connectivity might not work great for customers in rural locations, responding snidely, “Why on earth would i live there?”.

According to Game Informer, which confirmed reports from unnamed sources via a call direct to Microsoft that Orth was no longer employed there (we also contacted Microsoft for official confirmation, but a spokesperson simply said ““We are not commenting further on this issue”), it’s likely that incident led to his resignation or removal. And based on Microsoft’s public apology, it likely is the case that this wasn’t the venue. But the real problem here might be that defending a decision to embrace an always-on Internet connection requirement is bound to devolve into personal arguments, since logical ones that don’t involve owning up to a simple “we want to lock down our product and better control piracy” aren’t readily available.

The original report of how the next Xbox would work included a requirement that a user be connected to the Internet to even begin playing games or apps on the console, along with a 3-minute time out for a connection loss before said games or apps are suspended pending the resolution of the network connection issue. For users who have been burned by the always-on requirements of recent PC gaming titles like Diablo III and SimCity, this rumor (which Microsoft neither confirms nor denies, despite its apology) probably sounds like a total nightmare scenario.

It’s not making things better that a report surfaced this week from the Verge which claims that the next Xbox will interact with your cable box, hence the need for an always-on connection. The timing of that report smacks of Microsoft trying to do some subtle damage control based on these recent leaks, without giving away anything official ahead of its own planned Xbox events, the first of which is reportedly taking place late in May.

Of course, even that doesn’t justify an always-on connection requirement, not for isolated functions like single-player gaming which should have no problem running without an active connection, even if a player has to give up some features like achievements and leaderboard ranking to make that work (you know, exactly the way it works now).

The problem with trying to come up with a coherent argument for why a device or game needs an always-on connection without saying those three dreaded letters (D-R-M) is that it’s impossible to do convincingly. Companies like Microsoft and EA, which have very savvy PR professionals on staff, know that trying to do so without a proper feint like a connected TV service is fruitless. Aside from strongly suggesting that the leaked info was correct, taking to Twitter also meant venturing away from the party line that always-on is value add, not consumer punishment, and that’s not something any company mulling this kind of sensitive and major change to the way it delivers services can afford.

Nobody likes DRM. Well, The Man likes DRM, but none of us little people. It just hamstrings use for honest folk and makes things infinitesimally more difficult for pirates. It’s the kind of thing that only “makes sense” for digital goods, hence the name. But the folks over at ECAL decided to show off how wacky it is with a DRM chair that’s good for exactly eight installs uses. More »