How to Guide for Digital Purchasing

Hey guys,

Just wanted to share some experiences I have had regarding Digital. Mistakes I've made and things I have learned.

• Movies/TV Shows:

You never "Own" these. No matter what you think or what it says. It does not matter if you choose "Purchase" and Pay $19.99. It does not matter if it is on your Hard Drive or not (Some my just stream what they own).

There comes a time, regardless of how long you have owned it, May be a month or so or a few years when you go play the content you will receive a message like this:

" Do to the current agreement between Microsoft and the Studio, this title is no longer available. If it becomes available again, you will have access to it".

I know what you are thinking, "I'm a noob", I rented it it and thought I bought it" , That's what I get for not downloading it on the Hard Drive". Trust me, I have ran into this numerous times and have spent countless hours talking to support about it.

Another very disturbing trend I have run into, I went to start a movie for the kids the other night and ran into this issue. So my 10 year old says to me "Dad, that's because it's on HBO, you have to use HBO Go to watch it".

What? What the hell does that have to do with the price of tea in China? Stupid kids don't know what the heck they are talking about. Well, long behold, he was right! Damn thing was on HBO (Luckily we have HBO and HBO Go) and the Digital copy I paid $19.99 for on XBOX Video would NOT Work! I've seen this happen on Rio, Harry Potter and a few others.

• Games:

The Profile & the Machine itself BOTH get "Ownership".

No matter what it is, a Full Retail Game, A Digital Arcade Game, a Community Game or even a Map Pack.They all work like this:

Whatever system the initial purchase is made on get's 100%, Full Access to it. (I wish I knew this Thousands of wasted dollars ago, I was buying 2 to 4 copies of everything). No matter who logs in, not matter what profile is used, Even if a new profile is created anyone using the system that made the initial Purchase & Download gets total access.

So, essentially when you purchase digital you get two copies for the price of one. This isn't a scam and you are not doing ANYTHING wrong. It is completely acceptable, it is in the EULA and I was taught this by Microsoft Tech Support. They even linked me a tutorial.

So, just as another example, I got two kids, Eat More Boogers & Reading Is Dumb. If Eat More Boogers is going to make a purchase, He has to log onto his brothers XBOX for the initial Purchase, Then after that, He can log back into his own XBOX and Re-Download it. That way they both get it!

Let's say you have a ton of Digital Stuff and want to share it with a friend or Family member, Log onto their Machine with the Profile that owns everything. Transfer the user rights to your friends machine. He will get full access and yes you can both access it at the same time and play it together.

You will also have access since it is owned by two things, Your profile - Where you can re-download it and access it anywhere, anytime, and the Machine itself, since you transferred User Right.

If your friend upsets you or hurts your feelings, you can just "Transfer User Rights" again back to your machine and it will strip access from his. Total User Right Transfer can be done twice a year!

If you have any questions, let me know!

I don't get it... Are you talking exclusively about Xbox One?

X360 mainly. PlayStation is much more liberal in their restrictions on digital. I don't do much with Sony but last time, I just logged in at a friends house, re-downloaded some stuff and it gave him the ability to play it all. (No matter who he was signed in as).

They are not real digital purchases but a paying for the rights to use the software. These rights can be legally removed by the distributor or those that gave them the right sell the right to play the others.

Pay for them and enjoy them but do not expect to keep the game long term.

Wiouds is spot on. It just took him a sentence or two to say what took me a thousand words :)

So...now the big question is, What will happen and how will the customer base respond when X360 Live gets turned off? Microsoft has already stated that the 2 Networks are not compatible and the Architecture is completely different. Meanwhile Sony has all kinds of plans to make sure anything people purchased digital does not get left behind.

It's not a question if, it's a question of when X360 Live goes the way of Alderaan.

There has not been a large DD market that has gone down but we can use a market like that. There been a number of MMO system has gone down. I know it is not a one to one to DD but it is the closest thing we have at this time. They shut down MMO and they just go away. This including free to play. All "purchase" just go away. I understand it is their hardware and they should be allow to do what they want with it.