2nd April 2021, 8:25 PM
(This post was last modified: 2nd April 2021, 8:32 PM by A Black Falcon.)
I don't think that turning off a games' online play is analogous to shutting down an online game store. The two things are both bad, but one, shutting down a whole online gaming store, is much much worse than the other!
Like, sure, it'd be nice if the Halo games had online kept up forever for the people who like those games, but only games with purely user-side-based servers or that continue to draw significant numbers of players (and, in some way, revenues) stay online. Most games get their servers sadly shut off eventually, but, often, are still available for purchase. Again the two things are both unfortunate and frustrating, but they are NOT equally bad. And doing one does not mean that you're going to do the other anytime soon.
Also, if a game has been re-released, as these Halo games have, shutting things down for older versions of the title is more understandable than just turning off servers for something which hasn't, or has sequels and such but not straight ports, such as for instance Mario Maker 1. Making people move to your newer thing is annoying sure, but at least it keeps your older titles alive. Sony is doing NONE of that; Playstation Now is no replacement for actual games! Sony's actions here ares not comparable to what MS is doing. It's comparable to the Microsoft of years past, perhaps, but not the one of the past generation.
(Of course I must admit that my dislike for the Halo games is probably also a factor in why I don't care about this all that much, I've never liked those games all that much anyway and if I really did want to play them online, well, the Halo collection on X1 is obviously the way to go, it's the same games in 4K120 and such! For me in specific this shutdown's pretty meaningless, I have never played any of those Halo games online on the 360. I do somewhat care in the abstract though of course.)
They announced a price hike recently and backed down after strong negative popular reactions. The current Microsoft listens.
Like, sure, it'd be nice if the Halo games had online kept up forever for the people who like those games, but only games with purely user-side-based servers or that continue to draw significant numbers of players (and, in some way, revenues) stay online. Most games get their servers sadly shut off eventually, but, often, are still available for purchase. Again the two things are both unfortunate and frustrating, but they are NOT equally bad. And doing one does not mean that you're going to do the other anytime soon.
Also, if a game has been re-released, as these Halo games have, shutting things down for older versions of the title is more understandable than just turning off servers for something which hasn't, or has sequels and such but not straight ports, such as for instance Mario Maker 1. Making people move to your newer thing is annoying sure, but at least it keeps your older titles alive. Sony is doing NONE of that; Playstation Now is no replacement for actual games! Sony's actions here ares not comparable to what MS is doing. It's comparable to the Microsoft of years past, perhaps, but not the one of the past generation.
(Of course I must admit that my dislike for the Halo games is probably also a factor in why I don't care about this all that much, I've never liked those games all that much anyway and if I really did want to play them online, well, the Halo collection on X1 is obviously the way to go, it's the same games in 4K120 and such! For me in specific this shutdown's pretty meaningless, I have never played any of those Halo games online on the 360. I do somewhat care in the abstract though of course.)
Quote:This is on top of the yearly fee for XBox Live which already went up in price and is destined to go up a second time fairly soon I expect.
They announced a price hike recently and backed down after strong negative popular reactions. The current Microsoft listens.