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    Angry Another Step Toward Losing Our Freedoms: Disc-less "Xbox One S All-Digital Edition"

    Microsoft is planning to launch its first games console without an optical drive, and will do so as soon as next month, according to a new report.

    Windows Central sources says the disc-less machine will be called the Xbox One S All-Digital Edition will be available for pre-order next month. This is the rumoured console previously known under the codename Marverick, according to the report, with sales set to commence in early May, in all existing markets.

    That would place a launch well ahead of the E3 show in June, where many folks expected Microsoft to unleash the new disc-less Xbox console, ahead of a release later in 2019.

    There’s no word yet on how much this digital-only version of the console will set back gamers, but presuming there’s no considerable power or specs boost here, we might be able to expect a cheaper starting price.

    One of the main selling points for the Xbox One S was the presence of the optical drive offering compatibility with 4K Blu-ray discs. An absence of this would significantly bring down the cost of building the console.

    Microsoft would use the console to push its Xbox Games Pass subscription service, which offers access to over 100 Xbox games. Meanwhile, the wider Project xCloud streaming service is likely to begin public trials later this year.

    The cloud-based technology is set to be available on a much wider range of devices, but a dedicated machine from Microsoft, complete with the official controllers, would be preferable for some users seeking familiarity as they embark upon the cloud-based future of gaming.
    A dark future indeed. I've known for years that Microsoft has wanted the Xbox's to be disc-less and always-connected to the Internet. (Read: "Damn filthy pirates, the lot of you!") Previously they didn't launch consoles with these requirements due to the poor quality of Internet connectivity in much of the world and outcry from the gaming community. (See their backtracking over the always-connected requirement for Xbox One which was upgraded to "only" having to be on the Internet at least once per week.) Well, I guess worldwide Internet connectivity has improved enough or Microsoft's greed and power-hungriness has increased enough for them to now launch this monstrosity.

    I suppose when Microsoft disconnects the Xbox One servers just like it disconnected the original Xbox servers and no-one can phone Microsoft for permission to run software, all the Xbox One things will be practically worthless. I guess the upside is that this blasphemous console, the "Xbox One S All-Digital Edition," at least won't fill up a whole corner of a landfill with both worthless discs + cases and their worthless hardware, just the console and controllers. I suppose at least the old cases could be used for keeping safe the useful discs for other platforms. And the nearly worthless Xbox One paraphernalia will be cheap to collect for the completionist collectors.

    Over time the game companies have instituted regional lock-out, increased costs with price-fixing, removed printed manuals, increased their game prices by selling part up front and part as DLC, increased the amount of DRM in hardware and software to restrict user's abilities more and more, removed useful features which were once included as part of the console's offerings, track and surveil users as part of their telemetry and analyses, and diminished the number of games which get physical releases to control distribution and pricing which in turn removes the users' abilities to buy, sell, and trade with whomever they please for prices they themselves set or the free market sets. So I just don't understand why anyone would want to play the meta-game which companies like Microsoft are playing when they could choose the freedom of retro games and/or DRM-free computer games. I guess marketing campaigns are really just that powerful.

    I mean, if you are going to put up with frequent updates and DRM, then at least go with Steam: the sale, holiday, and regular asking prices are far cheaper than what is offered by the console-makers; and at the end of the day, your hardware and peripherals are still functional this year and for many years yet with no artificial end-of-life in their future.

    Source: https://www.trustedreviews.com/news/...o-disc-3670793

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    It's not really any different from the PSP Go, which came out nearly a decade ago. It's part of a tradition of cutting out nonessential aspects of hardware to offer a budget version of a system near its death. I wouldn't take something like this as a particularly bad sign until a system actually launches as digital-only.

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    I'm basically done with modern consoles so I don't really care anymore. I won't bother buying any of these modern systems, not even 10 years from now.

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    Im in the same boat of "I dont play modern consoles anyways, so Im indifferent."

    I dont have Wi Fi at home so thats a big reason why I dont do modern, but just seeing how internet dependent games are, the install times, the updates, I dont see why anyone bothers

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    Quote Originally Posted by gbpxl View Post
    but just seeing how internet dependent games are, the install times, the updates, I dont see why anyone bothers
    Because it's not that bad? I mean, it depends on what someone plays and how fast their internet is, but when I've got a physical game, it's usually installed in less than a minute, and even when I'm downloading and installing a digital game or downloading an update, it usually doesn't take more than 30 minutes. And after it's done, I'm good to go until if and when I decide to uninstall it. I'm sure I spend more time waiting on loading times in 90s disc-format games than I do waiting on modern games.

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    I went all digital PC Master Race a few years ago, so this is hardly dark news to me personally. If you are a console junky cause of the form factor, then I give you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzcrTmhOP2s&t=2886s.

    At the end of the day, you will probably somehow always have access to your games. Currently, there always seems to be fear that the service gets shut off and all the money you spent will go kaput. From what I've seen, that only seems to ever happen to MMORPGS, and the only service that burned it's customers on the games was OnLive which was way ahead of the time and not truly ready. I don't think an all digital world will be as bad as a lot of people make it out to be.

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    Quote Originally Posted by gbpxl View Post
    ...but just seeing how internet dependent games are, the install times, the updates, I dont see why anyone bothers
    I also feel the same way. I did download a console game once before, I received a free code for Alan Wake on the 360. It took hours to download the game for whatever reason, my memory is a bit foggy but I might have had to give up on it and download it the next night instead after hours of problems. It turned out that Microsoft had a network interruption or something that affected their downloads, I only found out about it a day or two later.

    Sure that's probably not the norm but that's my personal experience with the one time I downloaded a console game from an online store. I'd put up with that hassle if games were free, but not if I were paying for them, especially if they were $60. Even $20 seems high for a download price.

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    I'm not afraid of an all digital future.

    I'm afraid of a DRM'd future, the sort of future today's companies are funneling society toward.

    Look at how each successive generation of software and hardware is being locked down more and more. Compare the ease of backing up and running a SEGA CD game (which is completely legal) compared to an Xbox One game. See how much more time it is taking to "jailbreak" or root the newer computers (phones, tablets) or consoles in their various form factors. It is only because we have the tools of the past that we are able to unlock the software and hardware of the present and it keeps getting more difficult. If "breaking free" were such a given and so easy, then nobody would require instructions or tools from anybody else. But instead we have to follow ever longer guides.

    Have you ever tried to remove the region locking of a 3DS and install custom firmware without resorting to ROM's or emulation? It takes nearly 100 steps and requires using a distributed GPU network to crack the encryption if you don't own a powerful enough graphics card. I went through all that just so I could run homebrew software and my "out of region" 3DS games on my American 3DS. And thanks to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, removing those locks from my 3DS makes me and everyone whose GPU helped me to crack the code into a criminals.

    Companies: "You don't want to own anything. Storing things is such a hassle. Just stream your content from us. Don't worry about a thing. It's so convenient and only costs a few dollars per month."

    Pacifiers: "Don't worry, the hackers, crackers, or pirates will find a way around those locks. We won't ever lose access to anything!"

    But what if you want to go through official channels? The DRM-free and easy-to-remove-DRM options have almost all disappeared. There are only a few left and I seek them out. But if you try to work around the DRM, no matter how simple, even renaming a file, that makes you a criminal in the eyes of American law and in those nations with similar laws. Removing freedoms from us to keep, store, run, preserve, or modify that which we have paid money for should be illegal, not us just trying to continue to use and enjoy what we should be able to run.

    Look at all of the digital-only things which have "died" and are gone. I used to buy games from a company called Desura. It got acquired and then disappeared. Anything I hadn't downloaded disappeared with it. And it is only one of hundreds of extinct or dead games. For every game or video or song that is preserved through one means or another, how many are lost forever?

    I'm not afraid of an all digital future. I'm afraid of us losing our independence and freedom.

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