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Gaming Thursday, February 7th 2013 at 4:00 pm

This Can’t Be True: Next Xbox Games Will Only Work for First Owner

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The rumor that Microsoft will eliminate the second-hand market for games on its next Xbox console has popped up before, but we dismissed it as sheer lunacy. New details point to that rumor possibly being true, as well as a few other details about the new system. Could this be the end of second-hand games?

There’s a debate over whether or not selling previously owned games is good for the industry. Which side of the argument you’re on probably comes down to how you make your money. The companies that make games say it’s destructive, but retail stores that sell them say used games are wonderful for the industry. Gamers probably fall in the middle, wanting to see publishers release new titles, but also wanting to save a few bucks by getting a second-hand game.

Edge reported yesterday that they have sources with first-hand experience with the next Xbox that say it will have a constant Internet connection used to verify activation codes assigned to game discs. That would not only eliminate previously-owned game sales, but also mail order services like GameFly would be out of luck. It would even rule out bringing your new game over to a friend’s house to play.

The sources also say the system will use 50GB Blu-ray discs, have an eight core AMD x64 1.5GHz processor, D3D11.x 800MHz graphics solution, and 8GB of RAM. There are no specifics on the size of the hard drive, but it’s expected to be the biggest yet used by Microsoft in a console. We can also expect an updated Kinect to ship at launch.

What do you think of the move to stop second-hand games? Is it helping the industry, or is it hurting the players? Discuss it in the comments while I go watch “Journey to the Center of Hawkthorne.” I love Community so much.

(via Edge, image via Wikipedia)

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  • Anonymous

    Always on verification? Because that went over smoothly when individual games did it, of course people want it on all of their console games.

  • Colwulf

    This is ridiculous. there are a lot of people me included that when a game comes out that i am on the fence about i will not buy right away. instead i will wait and get used play it and if i like the game when a new one come out i i will pay to buy it. perfect example would be dead space i just bought it used so that i can try it i have never played any of the franchise. but i have thoroughly enjoyed the game and have since pre-orded Dead space 3. where if i had not been able to play the game first then i would have said screw it and not even given it a chance. the only way this is going to work is if they SIGNIFICANTLY lower the cost of games. for example instead of $60 a game they charge only 30… since you cant take to a friends house and you can not sell if you hate you are gambling that the game is good at least with places like game fly and game stop if i get a game and hate it i can take it back and get some of my money back so that i am not shit out of luck.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1157851424 Scott Beeson

    I am a game consumer and I fully support this. Just wanted to throw that out there…

  • Gill Bates

    Always on verification is plain retarded and should never be introduced.

    Whereas i’m on board with the 1 time activation on the condition they actually think about what they’re doing first. For instance they need to have it so that you can sign into your account on a mates xbox and play your games. Also if you’re eliminating access to a cheaper alternative you have to make demos available for everything OR lower costs, you can’t expect people to gamble their money on an unknown.

  • Salalaw

    While I am sure 100% of people with an xbox have internet this idea not only hinders game sharing and reselling but if true REQUIRES anyone who wants the new xbox to have the internet otherwise your own game would not work. What happens if my internet goes down and I just want to play a game, will the system not work because this online verification can’t be detected?

  • Jack Bond

    Heheheheheh. Sucks for you guys. Nintendo would never insult their fans like that.

  • http://twitter.com/RetroGamer71 RetroGamer1971

    I have bought my last six game titles on Xbox Live Arcade/OnDemand. This does not bug me.

  • Steve

    The only way companies take notice of consumers is when things don’t sell.

    Sadly when the new XBOX arrives, people will be hypnotised by it and buy it regardless of it’s DRM.

    Microsoft will hail online activation as a success and before you know it, all the consoles will be doing it.

    It won’t stop the piracy though… it may even increase it. Look at Assassins Creed for the PC – you needed to be online to play it, if UbiSoft’s servers were down or you had no net access you were screwed.

    People who actually bought the game were downloading scene cracks just to bypass the stupid DRM.

    The fat cats laugh all the way to the bank whilst the consumers either have to ‘like it, or lump it’.

  • MDS0LDI3R

    What happens when your console dies? Do you just go back to playing your original Nintendo/PS1/N64 and so on that still work because buying a new one is pointless now that you have lost all your games? Hopefully it wont be a 1 time activation thing..

  • Anonymous

    Well, if their goal was to increase piracy…ACHIEVEMENT SUCCESS!!!!!

  • http://www.facebook.com/ryohazuki224 Chris Gama

    People are too used to the pre-owned game market being readily available to them by gamestop. Do you all forget that for the past decade or more you couldn’t buy used PC games? That was because of piracy mainly, but people got used to the idea that when you buy a PC game it will always be “new”. Why is this such a crime for console games too?

    I welcome this, because you know what will happen? Just like what is going on in the PC market today, downloadable games becoming cheaper in order to sell more copies, better and more prevalent demo systems (i firmly believe that every game that has a digital version out there now should have a trial that you can download, like what PSN does with their 1-hour full game trials or something), and, god willing, a Gamestop that doesnt prey on your wallet by giving you absolute crap prices for your used games, because they’re not going to be in that market anymore! Its no secret that Gamestop’s profits come from used games! Oh heaven forbid that MY hard earned dollars actually go to the people who MADE the game, instead I’d rather save $5 and have all that money go right to Gamestop’s profits! (i worked for gamestop for too long, I know how it goes!). Gamestop can find another profit model, like what they’re doing with Kongregate and used hardware like phones and whatnot.

  • http://www.facebook.com/ryohazuki224 Chris Gama

    Its called a Demo. If every game had a readily available demo that you could play, that would let you know exactly how a game is. But yeah, a model like this would definitely hurt GameFly, that’s for sure. Thats their only business model. I can care less about gamestop cause they’re theives, but gamefly would be legitimately hurt by this.

  • Anonymous

    Good luck competing with other companies who won’t support this…. It sounds too ridiculous to be true, though it doesn’t matter, because I won’t be buying a Microsoft game console any time soon.

    Besides that, I’d love to see how it impacts the sales regarding parents who don’t mind dropping a few bucks on an old used game, but won’t buy a 60 dollar title. I know that if I can’t buy a used game, it will seriously diminish the amount of games I play, and thus the amount of DLC I purchase. It’s in the interest of the publishers/developers (IMO) to fight something like this.

    And I mean, let’s be real. You’ve got PS3 giving away games for FREE if you join PS+. Well all know the people at Microsoft are stupid, but I can’t believe they’d be THAT stupid. I’ve been wrong in the past though…

  • http://www.mixedtopics.com/ Michael Sommer

    That’s against the law in the EU. Steam is just sued here cause users have no way to sell their ‘used’ games there.

  • Anonymous

    End of second-hand games? No, but it’s the end of Xbox.

  • http://www.mixedtopics.com/ Michael Sommer

    Let’s hope so, but Sony just tries to patent an even worse idea to do the same.

  • http://www.facebook.com/zeonchar Amanda M. Ramsey

    No, you switch to computer gaming.

  • Stealthnugget

    This sucks. I buy most of my console games from GAME or other stores that offer second-hand – why? Because they’re cheaper, but the quality is just as good.

  • Anonymous

    Microsoft is going to pay for their competitors hardware in their own system? … suuuuuuure. And if this does happen, I will happily never buy another console again. After the dreck that was this generation’s systems, I have no desire to continue pissing money down that toilet.

  • Anonymous

    No activation. I bought it. It’s mine without limitation. Anything less = no sale.

  • Sero30

    2 Things.
    1: Microsoft wants to sell as many consoles as possible. Linking a game to a console would not work for that model. Linking a game to your Microsoft ID seems more likely. Bringing your game to a friends house would only require your USB stick with your profile to be logged in to the XBox to work. No need for a net connection, since its locked to your ID as a gamesave. Once logged in, your friend could split screen no problem. When you buy the game, it puts a unique code allowing access to that game for your ID. If you have never input a code, you can only access the game as a guest player.
    2: Microsoft will most likely leave enabling this option up to the developer. But it would be cost prohibitive to assign a unique serial number to a program on a disc, which would require a unique version of the software on each disc produced. The current system of access to online features is the best option available. Can you imagine the amount of glitches from producing 3 million unique programs for one game?

  • http://www.facebook.com/AlvaroRiveroStumpf Alvaro Rivero

    just sign in ti down vote u….” Its no secret that Gamestop’s profits come from used games!” wow!!!!!!!!! Always tought they were a non-profif like Wikimedia Foundation Inc.