Yesterday, Edge Magazine posted an article that discussed the specs of the next Xbox. According to the article, the next Xbox will require a working internet connection to function and all physical games will ship with activation codes that lock the game to your console and prevent you buying or selling used games.
While I am suspicious of this article since Edge received this information from a source other than Microsoft, I thought it would I would weigh in with my own thoughts about these suspected elements of the next generation Xbox and why I think they are horrible ideas.
First, the whole debacle surrounding Diablo III and the infamous Error 37 shows why having to always been online to play a game is a terrible idea. What happens if I decide I want to play the single player mode of one of the games that I have legitimately purchased, but Microsoft's services are down or receiving maintenance Well, I guess I will just have to wait a few hours and hope the problem is all fixed the second time I try. When I pay nearly $60 for a game that I should be able to play offline by my self, I want to be able to play that game whenever I want, not when the company thinks I should be able to play it. Also, this element prevents those who might not have a reliable internet connection from even purchasing the console.
Second, the implementation of activation codes that lock games to specific consoles will most likely result in the following consequences. 1) With the elimination of the used games market, the video game market will most likely shrink due to the fact that the majority of people will be unwilling to spend $50 or $60 dollars on something they will not be able to return or re-sell if they aren't happy with it. Because of this, game companies will most likely raise the prices of games to make up for less games being sold and more game companies will be less willing to take chances because for every chance you take, you will lose a handful of customers and revenue. 2) Since all the games that I purchase will be locked to my console, what happens if that console breaks and I have to replace it? Well, I now have pieces of useless plastic that I paid $50 or $60 dollars each for sitting on my shelf collecting dust. Now, I figure Microsoft will see this problem coming and would probably have a way for you to get re-activation codes. However, I bet you those re-activation codes will not be for free, so you will have to pay more money to play the game you have already purchased. That sounds perfectly reasonable to me.
Finally, the use of activation codes takes away the consumer's ownership of the product they just bought. When I pay over $50 for something, I want to be able to do whatever I want to do with that product as long as I am not breaking the law. If I want to take that product to Game Stop and re-sell it so I can get enough money to buy a new game to play, I should be able to do it. We can do this with cars, books, DVDs, and other forms of entertainment and technology, why should video games be any different?
Now, I do understand why Microsoft would want to do all of this. When someone purchases a used game, the original company that made it doesn't see a single cent from that transaction. As a creative person, I would hate to see someone else profiting from my hard work while I and left out to dry.
However, I feel like these decisions would end up hurting the video game industry as a whole. Maybe instead of implementing activation codes, companies like Game Stop would have to pay a certain percentage of their profits on a game to the original creators of the game. That way I can still own the product I purchased and the original company can still receive profit for it. While it's not a perfect fix to the situation and comes with its own set of problems, at least its an idea that doesn't infringe on my rights as a customer and hurt the industry the purposed ideas do.
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