Was Microsoft’s now cancelled “Always Online” feature really as expansive as people thought? An anonymous Microsoft employee recently posted on Pastebin with information about the now redacted family sharing plan and the feature that has come to be known as “always online.”
The Microsoft employee, who explains that he was part of the team that created the infrastructure for several of the features, from Family Sharing, to Always Online, to the fight against used games explains in great detail why he cares so much about these features, and is disappointed to see them go.
According to this anonymous MS employee, 48 million Xbox users are already online 24 hours a day, and the ones that were not would’ve come around eventually to the new order of things. He argues that used gaming is a broken system that is hurting developers and that something is going to have to give. “Video game development is a loss leader by definition and unlike other forms of media videogames only have one revenue stream and that is selling to you the gamer,” he writes.
One of the most interesting revelations from this piece is about the Xbox One Family Sharing plan. The writer claims that it was improperly explained to the public, and he wanted to clear that up. According to this source, the Family Share program would operate somewhat similarly to a demo program.
You could set up a shared library of games, and family members (other users you designated, anywhere in the world) could access that library and play the game for around 15 min to an hour. After that hour, they would be prompted to the Marketplace, where they could purchase the game if they wanted to. The system was called a “special demo mode,” and was apparently tossed around the office as a the “gaming equivalent to spotify and Pandora, it was a social network within itself.”
Hopefully, this system would generate revenue for older games, and give games more exposure. Also, he claimed the difference between this system and a store demo is that the demo would be time based, meaning you’d have access to the whole game, it would just be a matter of how much you could complete in the given time, and the idea that the system would save your data in case you purchased the game at a later date. However, several used games already do a form of the second half, where after the demo is complete you’re prompted to purchase the whole game and continue playing.
The writer concludes by saying that while the Family Share feature has not been taken completely off the table, but is also not really being focused on anymore.
Would you use the Family Share feature if it was offered on the Xbox One?
Published: Jun 20, 2013 02:07 pm