Over at Techdirt, Tim Cushing has an excellent rebuttal to Gears of War designer Cliff Bleszinski's clueless rant against the used games market.

If the game business is really being hurt by used game sales, why is that the customer's fault? If it's getting too expensive to make games, find ways to reduce costs or increase profits that don't make enemies of your customers. Here's a hint: try lowering prices.

If you can stand to hear more XBox One criticism, check out this Forbes article covering recent revelations that Microsoft's baffling policies for the new console include one that requires all games to be produced by a major publisher. That policy will exclude games like the independently-produced Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty from the XBox One lineup.

This is yet another easy victory for Sony, since that company already encourages independent game development for its consoles and has no plans to change that with the PS4.

I'm continually amazed at the ongoing uselessness of the main Minecraft web site, minecraft.net. I run a Minecraft server, so I need to be aware of changes to the game. That means I have to dig through existing resources and sort through redundant and outdated information every time there's an update. I figured since I'm doing that work anyway, I might as well share it with other people who may find it useful.

You can get to the Minecraft page by clicking the link in the 'Site Features' section in the left sidebar, or by clicking 'Minecraft' in the top-most line of the site.

The JDRGaming Minecraft server has finally been upgraded to version 1.5.2. Sorry for the delay.

Microsoft has finally answered some of the nagging questions about the next XBox:

• "every Xbox One owner has a broadband connection" - In other words, a high-speed Internet connection is a requirement for using this game console, despite the fact that the vast majority of console games have no specific requirement for network connectivity. People who live in areas with poor or no Internet service are simply out of luck, the same as if they had no electricity.


• "your system, games and apps are always current and ready to play - no more waiting for updates" - Many people (myself included) are happy to wait a few minutes for an update if it means they have control over what their devices are doing when they're not watching. This sounds like a nice feature except when you consider that every XBox One will be constantly updating itself, even games that the owner is no longer playing. This will increase bandwidth use unnecessarily. Hopefully this feature can be disabled.


• "Access your entire games library from any Xbox One - no discs required" - Not having to swap discs constantly is definitely a good thing. The only reason discs are always required for the XBox 360 is copy protection. Microsoft is shifting the copy protection to a network-based model; hence the need for always-on Internet. Convenient, yes - but at what cost?


• "buy disc-based games at traditional retailers or online through Xbox Live, on day of release." - This is a welcome break from traditional (and senseless) release windows. No more need to push through crowds at GameStop.


• Improved networking - Gigabit Ethernet (as opposed to 100 Mbit on the XBox 360), and better wireless (802.11n, 5 GHz, two antennas). Good stuff.


• "While a persistent connection is not required, Xbox One is designed to verify if system, application or game updates are needed and to see if you have acquired new games, or resold, traded in, or given your game to a friend." - Okay: strictly speaking, an 'always-on' Internet is not required, but in practical terms, it amounts to the same thing.


• "With Xbox One you can game offline for up to 24 hours on your primary console, or one hour if you are logged on to a separate console accessing your library. Offline gaming is not possible after these prescribed times until you re-establish a connection, but you can still watch live TV and enjoy Blu-ray and DVD movies." - Yes, your shiny new game console is about as useful as a brick if you lose your Internet connection. Because, um, piracy!!!


• "Anyone can play your games on your console--regardless of whether you are logged in or their relationship to you." - Well, that's a relief. With the technology already in place on the new console, Microsoft could have required a separate license for every user. Don't laugh: if Microsoft thought they could get away with it, they would do this.


• "game publishers can enable you to trade in your games at participating retailers. Microsoft does not charge a platform fee to retailers, publishers, or consumers for enabling transfer of these games." - So Microsoft won't charge a fee for trading in games, but individual game publishers may or may not enable trade-ins, and may or may not charge a trade-in fee of their own. That is extremely lame, and likely to hurt overall game sales.


• "game publishers can enable you to give your disc-based games to your friends" - Sounds good, until you realize that again, the publisher has to enable this. Also, you can only give a game to someone on your XBox friends list. And a game can only be given once. Lameness, you have found your pinnacle.


• "You are in control of what Kinect can see and hear" - Well, that's a relief.

My prediction: when XBox One sales tank immediately after the initial buying frenzy, Microsoft will scramble to backtrack on some of these restrictions.

Ars Technica and The Verge have their own analysis.

More fallout from the disappointing reveal of the XBox One: Playstation fans are mobilizing to push Sony to avoid XBox One problems on the new Playstation.

Followup: Sure enough, by merely avoiding doing something really dumb, Sony has scored a major PR win over Microsoft.

You may have noticed that TPU, and the JDRGaming BF2 and Minecraft servers, were down for an extended period yesterday. There was a long power outage in the neighbourhood due to some unscheduled maintenance issues. That's the first time anything like that has happened here - the power is generally excellent.

Sorry for the delay in posting here. When the power came back on my main PC stayed off; I had to install a new power supply.

In the recent unveiling of its next-generation gaming console, the XBox One, Microsoft utterly failed to put an end to rumours of an always-on Internet requirement and used game fees. While it's still possible that Microsoft will see the light and avoid those 'features', it seems unlikely at this point. Given the overwhelmingly negative reaction to these possibilities by the gaming public, if Microsoft was in a position to deny the rumours, they would surely have done so at the product launch.

Regarding the always-on Internet requirement, it's likely to be more of a "console must phone home every day or it stops working" arrangement. Only slightly better than always-on, this will make a console with power and single player games a totally useless brick without an Internet connection. No more gaming at the cottage or during down time at overseas military bases.

As for used games, despite plenty of evidence that the used games market is a boon to game producers, Microsoft is apparently going to kill that market by introducing new transfer fees. I wonder if they'll drop those fees once the damage is felt in corporate pocketbooks.

Given the ongoing success of the XBox 360, the inability of XBox One to play XBox 360 games, and the likelihood of anti-consumer features in the new console, I expect discerning consumers to stay away in droves. I know I will.

The Verge has additional details.

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Original message: I know, I know. I said I wasn't going to do this any time soon. Well, I changed my mind. JDRGaming now accepts donations via PayPal. PayPal takes a percentage of any donation, but it's worth it for the convenience. You can donate using your credit card, your PayPal account, or (in many cases) your bank account. Donations are used to offset hosting, ISP, and hardware costs, and are tracked right here on this page.