Xbox’s online DRM under fire as some users left unable to play games for 4th day

Xbox’s online DRM policy has been criticised after server outages left some console owners unable to launch their purchased games for a fourth day.

According to Does It Play?, a Twitter account dedicated to testing commercial releases to ensure they work entirely internet-free, the majority of Xbox games require an online check before they’ll boot.

[Furesis]

I thought this wasn't a thing? Jesus, maybe people will see why it's not good and stop supporting this practice. Does playstation or switch have something similar?

[rippermcrip]

No, it is in the article. Sony and Nintendo do not do this themselves, however there are certain publishers that have their own (such as Activision of course).

[ABizzel1]

@PurefieD

That's not the same thing at all. PS+ / GamePass / Nintendo Online games are based on your subscription. So if your subscription is inactive you can't access them.

This is an issue that if for any reason XBL has a network outage there's a chance you can't play ANY of your games regardless of if you're in a subscription service, bought them digitally, or in some cases bought them on disc at retail since many disc-based games just install a digital copy.

[Redrex7000]

huh so ms does?

[Profchaos]

@purefin no PlayStation tags your game if it's a PS plus game with an expiration date which might be the day your subscription lapses (it will extend on renewal) if you own the game it's not tagged and you get it forever

[Lightning77]

But, but, playstation no, no, this is about Xbox this a unique Xbox problem and nobody else's let's not do the #whataboutisms. MS plans from 2013 have gone away only for them to sneakily add it back in all these years later. I'm not surprised. I am surprised during an outage ppl can't play offline that's anti consumer we need to make our voices heard and call them out on this crap NOW.

[Profchaos]

@Purefied. No if you don't set your PlayStation as primary and go offline your digital games can be played still as long as you were the purchaser of the games or subscriber of PlayStation plus.
I've personally taken my console offline many times with a large digital library and had no issues.

You will encounter problems if you're PlayStation is not primary and you are trying to play a game that another account purchased

[Profchaos]

@lightning yeah I agree I can still see a lot of 2013 Microsoft ideas in how the is functions.
In many ways it's ideas were way to integral to how the console functioned to be able to strip it out entirely in a few months before launch.
To be honest I've always had these problems with backwards compatible games since the early days of the X1 I recall trying to boot gears 3 which I owned digitally on my X1 during an internet outage but didn't get anywhere and this was back when BC just became a thing 2015 or so

[NotoriousWhiz]

Are we really complaining about the "home Xbox" setting again or am I misunderstanding? Literally, every console won't allow you to play your digital games while offline unless it's set as your home/primary console. I think the Nintendo Switch is actually the worst as it seems to require a manual check every hour or so. If your Xbox is set as your home Xbox, you can play every digital game previously installed while offline. Same with Playstation. Same with the Nintendo Switch.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Xbox in my opinion needs to get rid of this asap.

[Redrex7000]

guess its still not worth going full digital
on a side note a lot game be doing some sort of online bs
even single player games

[TheGreatGazoo30]

A lot of games, even physical copies, require Online checks to boot up, a lot of that is on the developer not, Xbox or Sony.

[matt139]

There is absolutely no reason to support this.

[Silly gameAr]

Why throw Sony into this? They don't do this. You can play any game you bought online or off. If Sony did something like this, it would be world ending.

I'm surprised anyone even made an article about this. I figured it would be swept under the rug.

[dumahim]

Well, not any game, as GT7 had showed us recently. But yes, it's very different from how it is on Xbox.

[Silly gameAr]

You can still play GT7 offline. Maybe limited, but it can still be played. That isn't anything like this.

[DeusFever]

We have two PlayStations and while the primary console is fine when the internet goes out, the “away” console won’t play games without an internet check-in. Fortunately my phone’s wifi hotspot works for that purpose.

[SPEAKxTHExTRUTH]

It’s been happening to me since yesterday morning. I can’t access any of my digital games which is about 99% of my library.

[matt139]

Crap like this is why i still prefer movies on bluray compared to appletv. Digital is so convenient but has potential for issues relating to actually playing your own content,

[ufo8mycat]

This is why you pirate movies. Hollywood make more then enough $$ anyway

[EvertonFC]

I don't buy a nice TV and surround sound system to have sub par HD movie experience.
My friend streams movies online and paid over £1200 on his TV and I'm always like why did you buy a expensive TV to watch those movies in that quality? Makes no sense.
Edit: to make matters worse my friend earns £27 an hour and can't even be arsed to pay £20 per month for Netflix and Amazon.

[Profchaos]

You'd be surprised the amount of movies that actually return a profit isn't that high anymore

[Good-Smurf]

My reason to stick to Blu-ray and DVDs was that on streaming service stuff got delisted all the time and without notice there's too much shit to choose and takes your attention lead to choice paralysis and less playback control than physical media.
I was planning to binge watch We Bare Bears only for it to got completely delisted the following month that was the moment I knew that streaming service are not for me and will use my stream box as a paperweight.

[lodossrage]

I hope everyone that keeps cheering for a digital only future is paying attention to when things like this happen.

[moriarty1889]

Agreed. Digital only is for sheep who line up for whatever companies dictate for them to spend their money on.

[EvertonFC]

Sheep ? Or people who like the convienence of digital and are not fussed about the service going down for a day or 2 which has never happened to me and I'm also sure it'll only happen maybe like once every 10 years so its not like this is a common problem all the time .
Infact it's quite the opposite a extreme rarity .

[EvertonFC]

If it does there is more to life than gaming. I'm sure you would survive if you couldn't play your games for a day or 2.
Having said that I see you're point obviously, it's not perfect but the pros far out way the cons.

[Flawlessmic]

Bring that same energy yall brought for gran turismo 7 guys, x 100 considering this effects more than just one game.

I assume u will be selling ur xbox due to this based of yoyr comments in gt7 threads.

Good thing i was out of town the last few days so didnt really impact me.

[BehindTheRows]

Yeah, the crickets will be loud for this one. The typical suspects will stay under their rocks and it makes you realize how deep their hypocrisy is.

OT: This is highly unacceptable.