Physical game media on Xbox One s

So… I get the Xbox One S as a gift for my family for Christmas.  It comes with:

– Halo 5 on disc

– Assassins Creed Syndicate on Disc

– Halo Master Chief Collection download code

– a 50 MS Store gift card valid at the online MS Store (not the Xbox Store), which I use to buy Minecraft and a bunch of add-ons for my kids.  Minecraft comes on disc a few days later, but the add-ons are all DLC.

 

Here’s my gripe.  Seriously, I have to insert the physical media in order to play the games that I own on physical media?  They’ve downloaded to my drive, but for DRM purposes they have to see the physical disc rather than register my copy to my MSA through the store?

That is *bloody* annoying.  And I guess I’m just here to vent – unless someone knows how to circumvent that.

Conversation 8 comments

  • 943

    Premium Member
    02 January, 2017 - 12:36 pm

    <p>Yep, apart from being the DRM mechanism seems like Xbox One games on disc are mostly a way to transport 50 GB of game data so you can load it on the local hard drive. I rented Doom from red box, played it for a couple of days and then bought it when it went on sale. There was no download, just activation and I assume some sort of DRM file added on my Xbox One’s hard drive.</p>
    <p>With the advent of bandwidth caps, I’m tempted to do that more often just to avoid a hit on my cap.</p>

  • 1561

    Premium Member
    04 January, 2017 - 11:14 am

    <p>Yep, it’s super annoying. I’ve been moving away from physical games, since I bought my first Xbox One last year, even if it means repurchasing my old Xbox 360 back-compatible&nbsp;favorites.</p>
    <p>I guess requiring the physical disc to be present is done to prevent people from buying a physical disc, loading it on their console, and then selling the disc to someone else. Tying a license to your MSA would make a lot of sense, but there’s nothing unique about the disc itself that would prevent it from being sold and used on another console. I guess they could include a license key (a la PC games), but I guess those can be spoofed pretty easily. It’s hard to game the system without keys being passed around.</p>
    <p>Some people say that the price of a new title is so high, in part because you’re paying up-front for all the aftermarket sales of that content that will occur over the life of that disc, even if you never re-sell it.&nbsp;But it’s interesting to me that physical discs routinely get deep discounts, while their corresponding digital codes are still selling for the full retail price. I guess you could argue that with a digital copy, you’re paying for the perpetual ability to download the game from the vault whenever you want it.</p>
    <p>I’ve since bought a second Xbox One, so I’ll absolutely concur with jr.flynn’s appraisal of the awkwardness surrounding the "home" console concept. For instance, I just bought Rocket League, which is a fun game that I occasionally enjoy, but mostly because my 6-year-old absolutely loves it. He can play on the console in the living room (my "home" console) without me, but if he wants to play upstairs, then I need to sign in first. Sure, I could purchase a separate license under his Xbox account. But if we had bought the physical disc, then he could just take the disc upstairs, and he’d be all set. Like I said, it’s awkward.</p>
    <p>It’s a little unrealistic to expect family members to purchase multiple copies of a games for portability or to play together on multiple consoles in the same household. I wish they’d do something more sensible like limit a game to a 10 installs or allow family sharing for up to 10 people or some such.</p>
    <p>If you recall, this was <em>exactly</em> the original plan when Xbox One was announced. Then the internet lost their collective shit, because people on submarines couldn’t play games, and Microsoft backed off that idea. In hindsight, it would have made a lot more sense than the relative mess we suffer through today, and honestly, games might have been cheaper. Maybe a lot cheaper, because there would be effectively no incentive to re-sell used games.</p>

  • 1403

    05 January, 2017 - 4:24 am

    <p>Blame all of the people who complained about Microsoft’s original plan for the XBOX&nbsp;One,&nbsp;it would have let you use the disc as just a transport device and not as a DRM&nbsp;checksum. However it would have required an online heartbeat check to verify ownership.</p>
    <p>The funny thing is can you think of any game that doesn’t require internet these days nearly all games have a day one patch&nbsp;that fixes or adds the balance of the game&nbsp;not included on a disc. And this includes PS4 and Xbox.</p>
    <p>I decided to go all digital since Day 1 and haven’t looked back.</p>

    • 442

      06 January, 2017 - 1:49 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#33976">In reply to </a><a href="../../../../users/Scipio Magnus">Scipio Magnus</a><a href="#33976">:</a>&nbsp; It’s amazing that people complain about using discs when the general gripe originally was they WANTED to use discs.&nbsp; I still would have preferred MS’s original plan.&nbsp; Too bad the public was so dense on this subject.</em></blockquote>
      <p>&nbsp;</p>

      • 230

        Premium Member
        09 January, 2017 - 12:07 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#34311">In reply to </a><a href="../../../../users/Narg">Narg</a><a href="#34311">:</a></em></blockquote>
        <p>Narg, I was all in on being all digital.&nbsp; I waited to update until the One S, and am glad I did.&nbsp; That meant that I forgot the whole "can’t play on a submarine" 1% debate.&nbsp; And honestly, couldn’t that have been solved by having both online and disc-based authentication?&nbsp; Can’t it just flag the store that "hey, big dummy over there owns this one"?</p>

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