A single-member panel with the National Arbitration Forum has ordered the domain Xbox-Gold.com be transferred to Microsoft. Microsoft continues to grow its portfolio of “Xbox Gold” domains, having privately acquired or registered several related names including XboxGold.com. The company recently bagged the name XboxGold.org in mid-March, after the previous owner turned over the name before the case was even decided. It is still “officially” unknown what Microsoft will call it’s next generation console or what plans (if any) it has for Xbox Gold.
Hanzla from eXputer inquires: "If Xbox can care about preserving its games and legacy, what exactly is wrong with Nintendo, trying to kill game preservation single-handedly?"
Ahh yes the good old game preservation of saving all your games to a removable hhd on the Xbox 360, taking it round your mates house, setting up multiple tvs to
Be met with “save data corrupted, please re download”
Or how about removing 360 games
From the store
, download them now or else, and, better hope to god that save data doesn’t corrupt, or it’s lost for ever
Nice one ☝️
This is just a scammy PR move to distract from the fact they are going digital only and trying to push streaming and subscriptions only.
No gaming company has pushed harder to remove ownership than Microsoft.
Without discs there is no preservation, preservation can't be done by the rights holders it can only be done by the consumers, anything else is a lie.
Nobody wants this. Sales or the lack of it in the case of XBOX is very telling. I wonder how the adorably all digital series X will fare. Adorably dismal perhaps?
Only time will tell, but for from someone like me suspecting that Xbox is trying to gracefully exit the console market, that "forward compatibility" team is trying to get Xbox games playing on Windows PCs. I mean, it's nice that they're not planning on exiting with a "enjoy your games while the hardware still works" message, so that's nice. They still have a brand to protect via Microsoft so probably feel obligated to have a better exit strategy.
Microsoft's future in the video game space is murky right now, so let's break it all down.
Not anytime soon. But they're on that path.
One thing not mentioned in the article is Microsoft's money bags. If Sega had Microsoft's money, they would have still been around as a hardware manufacturer. Xbox as a platform only survives because of the money bags. They can continue making consoles for the core and port to PC.
The multiplatform strategy is only the result of arrogance and misguided leadership that blew up in their face. They thought gamers would jump on Xbox in droves if they knew that many of their favorite games would be only on Xbox. But that's not happening at all. Sales didn't increase. They decreased. Why? Because the dumb asses thought giving away these expensively made games in a cheap service would also turn the tide.
Gamers on other platforms are willing to buy quality. They don't need to be handed nearly free games in a service that aren't even finished and sometimes average in their development. Gamers buy Nintendo games. They buy Sony games. Microsoft groomed their base to not buy games. Even the quality ones. It has always been their plan to go digital. But most gamers still like single player gaming. Still like physical releases.
Microsoft's problem has always been that they don't produce high quality games at the same output as Nintendo and Sony. Actually, they should be producing quite a lot more because they're worth over 2 TRILLION. How they don't have more is ridiculous and no excuse. Buying publishers to take away from competition only backfired. Because it still takes millions of dollars to continue to make those games from the publishers they snatched. Their only choice was to crawl back to their competitors to help sustain those developers because Nintendo and Sony platforms were the ones buying games.
Am I sorry for Microsoft? Hell no! They deserved last place for putting in the least effort. They deserved the fallout for buying up the industry and didn't make a single blip on the radar against their competitors where they now need those same gamers they took away games from to support them. Part of it may have been to cash in on their competition. But the result is the slow death of their platform. They may go 3rd party. They may keep making hardware. I don't give a shit about them to worry about it. I only give a shit about the destructive nature of their industry moves that only negatively affect gamers. They could sell and drop out of the industry and I wouldn't blink. Probably laugh. But not blink. They deserve whatever comes to them. At least Sega put in the effort when it came to games. They just had poor leadership. Microsoft has poor leadership and barely makes memorable games. That's a killer combination. And not in a good way.
Not sure about that. It's been two decades and I still think about Power Stone, Shenmue, Crazy Taxi, Jet Set Radio, Seaman and others, but I'm not sure I'll remember Xbox Series X/S games in a few years from now... Maybe I'll remember about the franchises that the Xbox brand spawned, but I don't believe that the Xbox Series lives up to the late Dreamcast or even to the Xbox name itself. I do have great memories about the 360 with Blue Dragon, Gears 2 and Lost Odyssey though
No, Dreamcast was ahead of it's time and most still have very fond memories of it that had one. It also had some good games on it even in it's short lifespan. Xbox has none of these qualities.
Microsoft has announced the Microsoft Rewards app on Xbox will be discontinued in April and has confirmed that weekly streaks will also be coming to an end.
Money Talks
So who wants to bet that this is MS answer to PS+.
MS would be smart to copy Sony with the free games subscription - I dont see MS charging to play online next gen, not with what Sony showed at the PS4 event.
For people to keep paying $60 a month MS will need to bring something that will blow everyone away and the competitors do not offer...if they do keep charging to play online then Sony will win next gen.
I suspect MS will bring something new and different to XBox Gold.
Edit: @ Rain - I agree, nothing wrong with taken an idea from someone else and improving on it.
I love my 360 but will be the first to say that the share button on the PS4 controller sounds sweet and hope the 720 has something similar.
Send the disagrees my way but my gamertag is posted so I'm not trolling, just being honest when I'm saying this....
I've been on XboxLive for 7 years and honestly there is nothing on there right now for me. Maybe there is for other people and new buyers so good for them but I've found myself playing those hokey indie demos & a few arcade games and the occasional older titles I own more than anything.
I also barely even play online anymore with the exception of checking out the Gears Judgment online demo, so paying for Gold these days to access Hulu, Netflix or for that matter. THE INTERNET and various other apps or " access early demos, voice chat " It isn't worth the price or the once " exclusivity " that it once was heralded as.
Even the market updates on Tuesday suck now. Gone are the days of 2 or 3 DECENT demos, a bunch of game videos or what not. It's pretty lame. It's all ads, Kinect, Niki Minaj, Justin Beiber, Gears, Halo and whatever commercial nonsense they have on there.
What I'm saying is in the end after all the fun I had playing Halo 2 online back in 2004, the great run they had with the launch of the 360 and games that were classic and still are for me. Condemned.
But.....
After all these years of paying for Live the RROD and latley, the lack of games. MS has lost me as a consumer. LIVE ain't worth it no matter what they do or offer because there always some hook, scam or hoop you gotta jump through to go along with it. Plain and simple and with all the talk of " always online " if true. It will be the nail in the coffin.