Xbox Play Anywhere... Digital only or physical options ?

[DavidinCT]

Is this digtal games only, or will their be options for phsycal games ?

Anyone know ?

I prefer physical games myself, due to the fact that 10 years from now when the Xbox 10 comes out, the Xbox one will be no more. Chances are pretty high that years down the line you might not be able to get digital games any more. BUT, if I have a physical disc, I could install it and still play it.

Also the fact that a 2 year old game on Xbox live is still $59.99 but, you can buy it at any store for under $30... This happens all the time in the store.

Dont get me wrong, there is a nice thing to not have to drop in a game when I want to play but, I worry about the later time, as I like to play a lot of classic games...

 

[TechFreak1]

Is this digtal games only, or will their be options for phsycal games ?

Anyone know ?

I prefer physical games myself, due to the fact that 10 years from now when the Xbox 10 comes out, the Xbox one will be no more. Chances are pretty high that years down the line you might not be able to get digital games any more. BUT, if I have a physical disc, I could install it and still play it.

Also the fact that a 2 year old game on Xbox live is still $59.99 but, you can buy it at any store for under $30... This happens all the time in the store.

Dont get me wrong, there is a nice thing to not have to drop in a game when I want to play but, I worry about the later time, as I like to play a lot of classic games...

I'm curious as well.

I would guess it to be digital only as the license is tied to the MSA / xbl account and the MSA is used to roam from device to device. With a physical copy, it may be possible using a registration method - enter disk, register with a xbl account, this in turn enables you download the game somewhere else.

However this also raises questions - suchas can family set on your home xbox play it or do they need to buy a copy to enable play anywhere. Also if you have a disk based game and downloaded on a PC what happens if your in the middle of playing it with the disk and want to continue elsewhere whilst the disk based game is active - does it auto save, close and start a new instance in the new local with the recently saved game?

In certain cases physical copies are even cheaper than 30 dollars.

I personally buy digital if there is a epic sale on for instance Titanfall deluxe edition for ?10.

Whereas at full price of ?59.99?

I'd rather buy the physical disk and have some trade-in value at later date.

 

[MobileVortex]

I'm assuming digital only. The nice thing is these buy once get on win10/xbone gives you really 3 copies of the game. Buy it once, play it on 2 xbones and PC all at the same time.

 

[Keith Wallace]

No way there's a physical option, unless they did something like include a code in the boxes of physical games. I see this as a move to force folks to digital faster, so I don't expect such incentives for those of us who don't want game prices to be out of control like they are.

 

[TechFreak1]

Finally got round to watching the E3 conference. It looks like it's digital only. Still curious what happens if some one logs into your home console and tries to play a game you're playing on a PC somewhere else.

 

[buzzard75]

I just automatically assumed it was digital only when they presented it.

Problem I have with going digital is ISP data caps. At 25-60GB for a game download, it eats a HUGE chunk of my data cap. This is just one of my limiting factors for going digital though. Another is, I can usually get the physical game cheaper in a store or shipped to my house. Digital prices don't drop nearly as fast as physical disc prices. The only time you're likely to find a better deal on a digital game is a couple years after it's been out. Even then, you're probably going to have to look for a sale price, like if it goes on Deals With Gold or something like that.

 

[DavidinCT]

No way there's a physical option, unless they did something like include a code in the boxes of physical games. I see this as a move to force folks to digital faster, so I don't expect such incentives for those of us who don't want game prices to be out of control like they are.

Not sure that Microsoft would do that. As a lot of people dont have a PC that can handle games, and youll find these codes for them all over ebay.

I guess it woudl be nice for someone like that, buy a day one new game for $60 and take the PC code put it up on ebay for $50...You pay $10 for the game...

If it's digital only, it might be a problem for a lot of people. Like I said, I prefer physical games myself for the reasons I said above.

Any conformation from Microsoft on this ?

I did tweet major nelson on it, Let's see if we get a reply

https://twitter.com/TheCoolDave/status/742868554035384320

 

[Chadd Askins]

Does Xbox Play Anywhere work with physical copies?

No, it does not. As described to us by Aaron Greenberg, Microsoft's Xbox marketing chief:

"It is specific to digital because we have to be able to associate your account with the product. When you purchase ReCore digitally in the Windows 10 Store on Xbox One, that game will be tied to your account. When you go between multiple devices, we'll be able to say "this is your game, this is your game library." We're only able to do that digitally today.
If you want to take advantage of Xbox Play Anywhere you need to have a digital copy of the game. Either by purchasing directly from the Xbox Store on your console or by using a download voucher from your favorite retailer.

 

[Matt Brown]

In its currently state, it doesn't appear that Xbox Play Anywhere is going to support physical copies. With Microsoft pushing their digital marketplace, it wouldn't really make sense for them to open support to physical owners.

This would also be an issue technically, because discs are an easily resellable/disposable licence. I guess they could detect Xbox One discs being put into a PC, but you'd still have to move that disc between your console and computer. Sadly physical media doesn't fit into this mobile/digital ecosystem they're building.

 

[DavidinCT]

It would be nice if you were able to drop a Xbox one game into your PC (Blu-ray drive on a PC should be able to read the important part) and use that for your license

You would need the physical disk to play the game anywhere but, this could be possible if Microsoft would do it..

In my eyes, Digital games are a fail. Sure they are easy not needing the disc but, after all my friends one night we all said let's buy COD tonight so we can play it, at 43gb....guess what ? We were unable to play it, it took 2 1/2 hours for MOST of us to download it and the 2 of our players that were on so-so Wi-Fi...almost 4 hours...

Internet speeds are not up to what Microsoft is trying to do here... As you get the old "ready to play" but, this only allows for some aspects of the game, you can start it sure but, most of the game (on-line parts) are unavailable till you download the complete game...and oh, you cant forget about that 3.1gb update needed before you can play online.

Most people want to drop in a game and play, not drop in a game and wait 3 hours to play it.... it's a serious joke actually...