Microsoft May Be Done With Game Codes

Game codes have become a staple with digital purchases from physical stores, and form an integral part of new console bundles. However, one of the more recent Xbox One X bundles, the Cyberpunk 2077 Edition, doesn’t come with a game code, and that might be normal for the Xbox Series X too.

[Knightofelemia]

This will kick them in the ass later on

[Jimboms]

Definitely. I already hate it

[darthv72]

Why do you say that? I still have the codes from my SAD and I know I wont use them but I dont plan on giving them away either. Only thing i could see being an issue is if someone were to factory reset a system and did not redeem the games. Unless those games are part of the reset partition, a factory resent could make them gone forever.

People try and sell systems with digital games preloaded but never take into consideration they are usually tied to the user, not the system. This way could make (only those) games tied to the system. So resetting could still allow the 2nd hand user to play these games as they were initially made available. That is... if MS allowed it.

[DJStotty]

The game will be tied to the account, so after a reset, you can just download again.

I don't know why people would pay extra for a special edition and then not download the game.

[Teflon02]

If like when Nintendo does it. It ties to the account you put on the console

[rainslacker]

It would probably be attached to some unique identifier that is logged on MS servers. The MAC address, or CPU serial number would be the most likely choices.

I would think though, that once they are redeemed, the license would then be tied to the user.

I dunno, I suppose this is something MS has thought out, and if there are issues with it, they'll come to light rather quickly.

Best similar scenario I can think of would be the physical cross buy things that Sony did for a few games. Blu-Ray discs have a unique identifier, and that was used to get the cross buy version, which was permanently attached to the persons account, regardless of if they sold the game, or kept their system. Once it was redeemed...which was through a separate menu choice in the physical game, it was no longer valid to redeem by someone else. One of the Rachet & Clank games was the only game I know that did this, but I assume there were others.

[DJStotty]

Not really,

When people buy editions, they normally do it because they want the attached game, as opposed to reselling the code.

And xbox bundles have been digital only downloads for years now, that is nothing new.

[Kabaneri]

No more G2A.

[chiefJohn117]

That doesn't even make sense.

[Yodasfavoritesoda]

This is better than punching in a bunch of codes. As long as it is tied to my account cool. The best thing ever was scanning codes with the kinetic 2.

[Sunny_D]

Except what if you wanted to give away the code to someone else?

[Yodasfavoritesoda]

You won’t be able to sadly

[gamer7804]

It’s just codes tied to games and consoles. Not a big deal as if they were getting rid of them altogether which would impact giveaways and influencers

[VivaChe]

Yeah the title is a bit misleading. It's just codes for console bundles. I don't see them eliminating codes altogether yet, I mean how would that even work?

[shadowhaxor]

Or maybe it's just for this console as Cyberpunk 2077 hasn't even been released as of yet. It hasn't even gone gold yet, unless I'm mistaken.

[Kerppamaister]

Only bundle codes, come on now. Nobody's taking away the usual codes everybody uses.

[meka2611]

If that's the case who the hell cares? As long as we can still get our games, doesn't matter how it's done.

[RamRod88]

This is fine by me. The less time I spend putting codes in the better. On the other end, I know this is also a way to stop gray sites from selling codes for super cheap.

[deadfrag]

Look at Microsoft taking options from gamers again! Microsoft is slowly going back to the original plan they had for Xbox....you know that plan that blacklash them when they announce the Xbox One!!

[Hayter456]

Resellers and G2A are probably crying right now. Sooner or later codes will be gone.

[Atomicjuicer]

This was inevitable. I still remember when Assassins Creed Unity codes were stolen and it basically destroyed the legitimacy of code cards entirely.

The publisher started cancelling the keys. It was a huge disaster.

So much money lost.

Microsoft need to seriously invest in a better digital marketplace (trading in old digital games, gifting, selling second hand), better returns policies (with limits that protect copyright holders from abuse), spelling out the perpetual/lifetime/long term nature of licences with backups sent to public community servers in case they are not able to support a title financially, the ability of account holders to regain their licences after a hack, etc.

Why do consumers have to ask for this?

If you want everyone to move into the effing cloud, stop wasting our time and do it holistically. Let's all rush into digital platforms that are being built at a snail's pace.

[jjb1981]

This and Game Pass is the Trojan horse for Microsoft to move to digital only. When Xbox One launched, they were going to try something similar to this. They received a ton of backlash and quickly did a 180. So many games were having license errors for a few months because of this. Slowly but surely MS is going keep pushing digital over physical.

[AK91]

Damn it

[TheHan]

Awesome! I prefer this route