Military Gamers Cannot use the XBox One in the Field

In an interview with Aaron Greenburg on GamerTag Radio the question was posed about the XBox One on a Navy Ship where the typical sailor does not have internet access.

[PAUL-AWOL-]

Being a retired Coastie Sailor of many years on the water we need things to do to keep our minds off of family and friends while you're underway. Entertainment is all we have, so this sucks for those who are into XBOX, my suggestion is to switch over to Sony and rally with me to get Socom back,, had to throw this in there in end. LOL.

[elhebbo16]

We all want socom back...

[kingmushroom]

Socom would be a killer launch title along with this commercials and also to make people aware of cross game chat.

[urgentfury]

LOL Paul, I am a Navy Veteran and we averaged about 17 days at sea, well there is no internet in the ocean blue... I know I would not use a system if I cannot play it at sea.

Nice to get the Socom in there too ;)

[USMC_POLICE]

I agree with you Paul and fury on socom. I miss that game. And yes soldiers do play games. Games kept us sane!

[InMyOpinion]

"Games kept us sane!"

That doesn't sound all too comforting to hear. :/

[contradictory]

pshh....atleast you are able to play games while in military...

in where i live we have mandatory military training for all guys that turn 18
and they don't allow any free time thats for sure...

well, when i say mandatory let's just say it's not too hard to fuck the system...
i know i did bwahhahahhaa..

[KillrateOmega]

Well of course they can! They can strap a bunch of them together to create body armor!

But in all seriousness, they really are screwing the fine men and women in the military - at least the ones who are gamer - with this.

I'm not in the military myself, but I imagine that it'd be frustrating to not be able to utilize the console that you paid for simply because you're been disconnected from the internet for more than 24 hours.

[SexyGamerDude]

Hey, I know the perfect ad for Nintendo or Sony. Have a bunch of military gamers playing their games and then at the bottom it will say "We support the troops".

[FullMetalTech]

I agree will paul and urgent fury. They need to bring back Socom to its roots. MS keep adding more and more nails to the coffin.

[Gh05t]

Seriously? We are worried about taking this entertainment into the field.

As a Marine usually when I was in the "field" we didn't have electricity. When I was deployed some of the people had a X360 with them but guess what many people didn't and amazingly they made it through just fine.

Seriously what the hell, man up your in the Military!

"We don't promise you a rose garden." -Famous Marine recruitment poster

[SexyGamerDude]

Not everybody in the military is out in the field getting shot at and some of the them have a little free time where they like to have fun. I have a friend in the Corp and he tells me about how every now and then he like to play a little Xbox. It doesn't affect his job in anyway. What's the problem with that?

[Gh05t]

You are clearly misunderstanding the point.

They are in the military, which spends atrocious amounts of money trying to provide entertainment for Military personnel in forward positions. If you have some down time and have access to a game console that's great.

My point is don't complain when you don't or if you cant. That is not a priority at any point in time while in a forward position.

I would love to be the one that some Marine comes up to and complains about how he/she cant play their Xbox in the field.

Maybe its different for other services but even if that's how you felt you wouldn't say a word. The reason you wouldn't say a word is because its not a valid need or priority. It is entertainment and that has its time and place but there are other forms of entertainment (No one promised you could play xbox).

That is not your job, your duty, or your mission.

Not to mention it takes up so much room anyways I was lucky I got my Nintendo DSi to Iraq and back.

Anyways you will hear no sympathy from me. Video games are one of many types of entertainment so sorry you don't get the one you want, but again its the MILITARY not a TEAPARTY.

[Heisenburger]

*you're*

Hoowah!

[Gh05t]

Good catch! I am sure there are many more.

[InTheLab]

And what about when you're on a MEU and traveling from one point to another or training at a base?

If this is how our boys decide to spend their downtime, they should be allowed to do so without pay walls or drm.

[urgentfury]

Think you are missing the point of the article... the point is the fact that those that do want to game in their off time, when they are off duty and deployed...

The will not be able to with the new XBox. But you seem to be critical to how your fellow marines choose to spend their spare time entertaining themselves is not the topic here.

[MaverickStar7]

I agree people were missing the point. It quickly turned into an argument about what military personnel should be doing with their free time. The sailors on ship was merely an example that points to the larger issue that all Xbox One gamers will have to deal with. This this is going to require some type internet connection regularly. While they may sugarcoat it and dance around the question...this is about DRM and trying to kill the used game market.

Semper Fi

[hazelamy]

Gho5t, you seem to have got the wrong end of the stick here.
you know, these people aren't complaining about the military.
i'm sure they're proud to serve.

the issue they have is with ms and the x1, not with whatever branch of the armed forces they joined.

different people have different ways to relax after what i imagine is a very stressful job.
if they buy an xbox to unwind when they're off duty, they expect to be able to use it.

[SDF Repellent]

This is insane! MS being an American company, somehow forget to count military service members into their design process of making a machine for people that bleed for our country. corporate greed and getting TV audiences take priority over a simple solution as having a disc inside the system to verify ownership. Is that asking too much?

We seriously need a petition for these kind of anti-consumer practices.

[sway_z]

Dude, after your 6 years of paid XBL and 140 retail game commitment to MS...you seriously expect them to care about our Military?

MS don't even care about gamers....take over my living room will ya MS....?

Nah, stay in the office where you belong you corporate snakes!

[InMyOpinion]

"corporate greed".

That's what tricks people into joining pointless wars in the first place.

[NicSage]

The problem for me is not using a internet connection, Everything I have uses one. My problem with it is if you are FORCED to use internet to pass a " check "

We do not own our games people, all we have is a license to play the game that can be taken away at any point in time.

I'm going to use Steam vs Xbox ONE live.

With Steam i'm buying most of my games for under 5.00 dollars, If that game goes to the wind O well, I payed less than a hamburger. I also do not need to be connected 100% of the time.

With the ONE, you will be paying 40-70 dollars and right off the get go you HAVE to have internet, forced. No other way around it.

I'm really loving humblebundle, you get DRM free downloads of anything you purchase off there & it's CHEAP!!! pay what you want.. What else could we ask for.
I just picked up Alan Wake: Collector’s Edition & Alan Wake’s American Nightmare for 5.00 dollars! DRM Free, Soundtracks included as well. This is what gamers want & need, more of this.

It's up to everyone, do you want to pay 5 bucks for a license or 70?

[Darrius Cole]

No the license can't just be "taken from you" at any time. Once you buy a game on a disc you own it. As long as you don't make a distribute copies you can do whatever you want with it.

That is what Microsoft is trying to change with the second Xbox 1.

[Nevers]

Mainly I just want to thank our military personel for keeping me and mine safe from harm. Seems like this thread might get a few of you. So thank you very much.

[takohma]

How could someone possibly disagree with this? seriously...show yourself. You sack of $h!t!!!!

[Nevers]

I'm just going to go with a mis-click. I've mistakenly hit the wrong one before. Yup, going with mis-clicking.

[takohma]

ok makes since now lol

[theEx1Le]

Army guy on my list isn't without his ps3 and his vita goes on tour with him. Never even thought how this could affect the military personnel who game too.

[Belking]

"Army guy on my list isn't without his ps3 and his vita goes on tour with him"

he can't be doing much of a job then if he has the time to play games.

[SexyGamerDude]

That's false. People in the military have free time too. Have you ever been on a base? They have bars, gyms, stores, and other ways for the troops to enjoy themselves. Just because some of them like to game in their free time doesn't mean they aren't doing their jobs.

[saoco]

Belking, I work my ass off, deal with dumb mother f****** on a daily basis, workout study my rate in depth, have family time, work on restoring my fd rx 7and play video games. Yes I find time to do all of that. Out on deployment we do ridiculous hours. Absolutely not worth the pay, ( good thing that's not why we do it), gaming releases stress and entertain us. In stead of looking depressed missing our families every second or just hoping to make it back.

I highly upset with your comment can't even think straight , I would love to put my hand through your chest.... Yea.

[OrionNoctis]

MS showing the middle finger to pretty much everyone...

[NicSage]

I have to make another comment.

WTF is Microsoft / XBOX thinking.

American made product that does not even consider some of the most important Americans we have, that's BULLSHIT. I usually don't cuss but i'm going to here, it's BULLSHIT.

Thanks for screwing over our Military.

Can we do anything else to our troops for fucks sake? Shitty care, homeless, hunger, I mean seriously these people who put their lives on the line get kicked to the curb and it's bullshit. We need to treat our active & veterans with more care.

I've never been in the military, but I still have respect for people who have.

Thank you.

[OC_MurphysLaw]

Hopefully MS will see this as being an issue they do need to fix and not just say "get a 360". Maybe allow Military personnel to self identify with their Military ID and allow them to have longer cycles of "connection" to accommodate such a situation.

[ceedubya9]

I remember listening to this interview this morning. This particular part of the conversation wasn't that clear. Still, Microsoft is dancing around the issue. Greenburg does say that the XOne probably isn't the best device to use in such an environment, BUT he didn't say that it couldn't be used. It almost seemed as though he was referring to every single function of the console and not just offline gaming portion of it. Yet, the question was specifically about gaming. They are dancing around this subject quite a bit, and are only making it more confusing and even harder on themselves to show the public a reason why they should buy this console. There are a lot of restrictions and complications that many are just not ready for.

The company seems dead focused on convincing us that the console should be used for everything and not just gaming, and they seem to be creating policies and such that try to ensure (force) users to use the console in that way.

[MonkeyNinja]

I was(am?) a Marine and can definitely say that we enjoy our consoles, as it keeps our morale up. Microsoft is going to lose a huge audience with this one...

We do have electricity in Iraq. We do have consoles in Iraq. But internet is another story, at least a few years ago...

I hope Microsoft gets what they deserve with their Xbone.

[ceedubya9]

I'm hoping that they will turn this around or straighten this stuff out somehow. Either they don't know how much good will they are losing, or they just don't care. Maybe they really are going in a different direction, and if that is the case then they should just say so. But, they can't treat the gaming public like its stupid and say they are doing these things for us when everything they are doing just points to restrictions on top of restrictions and nobody wants or needs that for their entertainment choices.

Fortunately, it seems that our troops will at least have an option to use the PS4 for their gaming needs if Microsoft truly wants to alienate most of its fan base.