Saw on gaf, reposting here.

Apparently this will be used to sell "licenses" for a maximum number of viewers per content, and if you have too many people around, disables it.

"A content presentation system and method allowing content providers to regulate the presentation of content on a per-user-view basis. Content is distributed an associated license option on the number of individual consumers or viewers allowed to consume the content. Consumers are presented with a content selection and a choice of licenses allowing consumption of the content. The users consuming the content on a display device are monitored so that if the number of user-views licensed is exceeded, remedial action may be taken. "

http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=/netahtml/PTO/srchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220120278904%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20120278904&RS=DN/20120278904

That's truly disturbing.

"Sometimes I feel like
Somebody's waaaaatching meeeeeee
And I have no privacy!"

Fuck you Microsoft.

It seems these days the big companies are competing to see who can be hated most.

MS just nudged a slight lead.

Microsoft seems to be really go full retard with closed platform-y kinda behavior lately, especially when you consider the App store thing in Windows 8.

But then again console gamers on the whole aren't a bright bunch, why is why Microsoft can get away with stuff like this.

You never go full retard...

I don't know about that. It's tough to compete with winners like Apple, Facebook and Newscorp for biggest douche of the year.

It mentions movie rentals in the full description, but knowing this is there is enough to turn me off consoles next gen, unless Sony manages to greatly impress me.

Even if this starts out being used for rentals, the idea of my game console having a camera in it watching whats going on is too creepy. Especially for an entertainment device I can live without.

They're all winners in my book.

:)

My guess is the next "Xbox" won't even be for playing games primarily, it'll be more like a Family Media Center or some crap, with the primary function being "stream renting" movies. You won't be able to buy any movies, only rent a stream of them which runs out after a few days.

Microsoft how I see them see these are trying to forget that Windows even exists as a gaming platform, let alone a platform for gaming they created. So they are basically saying "Fuck You" because Windows 7 is open platform, and catering almost exclusively to console because it can't be pirated, so they can produce shitty games without demos that can't be pirated to see if they are worth buying, and of course you can't use reviews to see if they are good because all the IGN/Gamespot/Metacritic type reviews are corrupt/paid-for.

Microsoft (and other console-centric developers):
"We aren't going to focus on PC because of piracy."

PC Gamers:
"But if you made actually good games with demos then that would inspire consumer loyalty and people would want to buy your games and not pirate them, because they want you to make more good games."

Microsoft (and other console-centric developers):
"FUCK YOU that's too logical, instead we're going to pretend you don't exist"

The great irony is that in terms of actual pirate copies (not percentage), Xbox 360 piracy is actually far worse than PC piracy. The only reason that PC is seen as 'the piracy platform' is because there are fewer PC gamers than 360 gamers.

Yeah, I was somewhat alluding to that in my post. It's not the actual piracy that MS care about, but the PC being an open platform with market competition for selling games. On Xbox360 MS owns the entire store, and they take their cut of sales, so no-one can really compete with something like Halo because 1) it's Xbox exclusive, and 2) that publisher of the game is also the owner of the store it's being sold in.

Their really ought to be some Antitrust issues with all this "App Store" crap though

Not to mention that games leak out for the 360 weeks before "official release" dates, sometimes even months

So not only do pirates manage to play the game for free but they manage to play it a month before everyone else, just take a look at the shitstorm the leak of Halo 4 caused a month before release, I even made a thread about it

What kind of a sick, twisted mind can conjure up such vile language?

As I said before, microsoft is like a dancer, waltzing back and forth and can't make up it's mind

We are supporting Windows as a gaming platform!

No wait! we aren't!

No wait, we are supporting it now again, sorry

No wait! we aren't 360 is much better

No wait, we are supporting Windows for gaming again, this time for real guys, we swear


It's the same thing with Capcom and certain other Japanese publishers