The X1 allows you to transfer the license once (borrow or sell the title) to a friend that's on your friends list for 30 days.

Select partners (Gamestop obviously) will be able to resell used games, I'm sure they have some huge massive contract with MS for this.

The big kicker is the online requirement, the system will check authentication once every 24 hours or once per hour if you're on your account but not on your machine. If you fail the check (internet goes down etc) you're unable to play any games, although the Bluray and media center functions remain unchanged.

Overall Microsofts policy and lackluster handling of the situation and info has been terrible overall. For the first time in years (since ps1 gen 1) I'll be getting a Sony system to pair up with my PC for games/entertainment.

Yeah, but on Steam, you'll keep your games library going foward to a new PC or a new OS. Maybe the next Xbox (Xbox "Two" or whatever) will be backward compatible but I won't take that chance, based on their track record about BC...

It's just a bad deal. Too much control.

Although, they (MS) showed great games! Too bad.

For me, this generation will be PC-Steam first, then PS4 and maybe I'll buy a Xbox One if they change their policy.

@artician

One thing we're lucky for in Australia is mandatory warranty legislation can be interpreted beyond a year to reasonable expectations of lifetime for a product, so say claiming repair/replace costs after 3 years would not be unreasonable.

@Darkhand

Agreed, the obsessive level of detail on what you can and can't do really feeds into Yahtzee's whole thing about endless asterisks to playing a game.

For the first, I don't imagine it being a big factor in preventing piracy on a console and I struggle to see how forcing a connection feeds into a rationale of improving the bottom line. Surely all the multimedia features and TV integration that required internet access would be a sufficient draw to connect to the web already?

The second is pretty clear. The 30 day friend requirement is to prevent selling the game directly to a stranger thereby dis-intermediating the retailer. Limiting gifting to one and preventing you from passing a disc around is clearly to prevent a single-player game being bought by one and passed around to many. I can't imagine their loaning options when you become available being particularly generous. But it's interesting to see how MS appears to be concerned about catering to both retailers and distributors. Perhaps it gives them a rationale to charge higher licensing costs while also avoiding the direct blame for imposing limitations? Either way, pretty shameless.

@VoodooV

I'm getting the impression people are getting a little overly bent out of shape about the Xbox One's convergence features.

Spec-wise it's all but identical to the PS4 so no apparent compromise has been made on performance. Hardware similarity will also all but guarantee easy ports. If anything I reckon this gen will be the closest we get to platform neutrality because of this.

For all its focus on non-game features MS must know that games sell consoles. They would be foolish in divesting away from first party titles or exclusives. If they get more purchases via spruiking their TV integration that will put them in a better position to pay for these.

Force bundling Kinect will surely inflate the price but it remains to be seen by how much. If they price themselves outside the PS4's range and people feel like it's an unnecessary accessory they won't use then it will hurt them obviously. Having said that, it's functionality actually looks genuinely interesting (and powerful) unlike their first Kinect beta test.

At least for me what's always turned me off Xbox and eventually convinced me to get a PS3 is the paid multiplayer. Coming from a PC I reckon it's flat out outrageous to charge people for what is effectively P2P quality multiplayer, let alone to them smother the hub with advertising. This will obviously not change for the One so I have no intention of giving them my money.

Um...I can watch TV just fine without a new $500 box. WHF MS?
And if there's really this 'no used game' feature, I guess gamefly won't be supporting them. There's a reason right there to not buy one. It seems to me that they implemented a huge number of features that I (and maybe most others) just don't care about at all, or even dislike. I don't want to pay for the ability to watch TV or integrated Kinect (there's a reason I never bought it).
Not a good look MS.
I sure hope they come out with the non-Kinect, non-disk tied, non-TV watching version for the rest of us soon, or we'll all have a ps4 and simply reminisce about playing Halo and Gears. HUGE misstep.

Also, it restricting used games isn't rumour anymore. You have to install games and then that disc is locked to your account. If you buy a used game, you have to pay MS, i think they said $10, to be able to then lock it to a different account. To be honest, that's not so bad, it's not like Nintendo where it's locked to a fucking console instead of an account, and you can change it. I just wonder if the publishers get the money or if MS hogs it all.

The worst news is that they will not be supporting Indie devs beyond what they do with the 360. Typical short sighted move by MS. If PS4 supports indies like Steam and Apple does, there's a massive potential there!

*promote

Where is Ms. Sandoval nowadays??
Right Here!
http://www.hopesandoval.com/music/mazzystar.shtml

Apparently, filming "Back To The Beach" was when the symptoms of her MS first appeared.

Here she is singing with the Beach Boys:

*related:http://videosift.com/video/RIP-Annette-Funicello

The thumbnail image for this video has been updated - thumbnail added by oritteropo.

The thumbnail image for this video has been updated - thumbnail added by oritteropo.

Hmm... now you've made me curious too. I have found a few interesting pages, but nothing specifically about frog vision apart from mentions that it's sensitive.

• How Stuff Works has a How frogs work article.
  
• The Whole Frog Project provides a virtual frog for high school biology students, based on MRI data, mechanical sectioning, and some software to allow visualising of the anatomical structures of the intact animal.
  
• The UW Sea grant site has a frogs page with resources for kids + teachers that has an origami frog (among other things).
  

I'm not quite as sure about the single photon claim. I found a Physicsworld.com article from September 2012 talking about using a single rod cell from a frog eye being used as an extremely sensitive detector which is able to detect a single photon, but according to the original Usenet Physics FAQ (I cite an updated version hosted at math.ucr.edu) human retinas can also respond to a single photon, but have a neural filter to block the signal unless 5 to 9 photons arrive within less than 100 ms.

References

Julie Schnapf, "How Photoreceptors Respond to Light", Scientific American, April 1987

S. Hecht, S. Schlaer and M.H. Pirenne, "Energy, Quanta and vision." Journal of the Optical Society of America, 38, 196-208 (1942)

D.A. Baylor, T.D. Lamb, K.W. Yau, "Response of retinal rods to single photons." Journal of Physiology, Lond. 288, 613-634 (1979)

I guess I don't mind one way or the other.

Hi, Ms Kitty. Nice to see your sweet tiara'd face! It's been awhile.

*kill

Sad really-Only 2 peeps voted for the whacked genius of TP and MS....two ladies.

These guys at EMS had their groupies,too. Check out the quintessential British hunnies of the e-music sound Ms. Delia Derbyshire and Ms. Daphene Oram of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop-

Ms. Lawrence actually DOES look quite similar to Amber Smith, a lady Jack dated in the early 90's.