Analyzing the Xbox One Policy Reversal

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escape into comics. This week on Off the Cuff

we're going to talk about Xbox One's DRM policies.

Wait. No. Wait, what policies? Yes. There's no

policy. There's policies? They took a total 180

on that policy. Oh, I see what you did there.

Bazinga. Okay. This is Off the Cuff, episode

19. Forgive us if the numbering is wrong, but

my numbering says it's episode 19. I'm your host,

Michael Powers. I'm joined this week by Art Danner.

Hi. By Sean Z. Brown. Hello. And by Joe Reed.

Welcome to our podcast. You know, hemmed and

hawed for the last few days about whether or

not to record an episode tonight, and then Microsoft

kind of dumped something out that I thought,

you know. Maybe we should be a little timely

with it. It's amazing how it's dumping just seems

to be the appropriate I was gonna say Like their

e3 conference. I was gonna say the theme for

Xbox one is literally dumping I mean, it's you

know, they got up on stage about a month ago

and they said I was gonna have it always on it

was gonna be you know, a 24 -hour check -in and

they had Actually a lot of the stuff that they

were talking about outside of the 24 -hour check

-in Was straight -up steam like the steam store

for anyone that doesn't know That isn't a gamer

that listens to this I don't know why you do

But there is a video game store and if they just

like the sound of my voice. That's true. That's

true I often fall asleep to listening to my podcast

with you talking I was gonna I was gonna I was

hoping you're gonna say to the sound of his voice

whispering sweet Nothing's upon your earlobes.

Literally. I'm falling right behind him I'm falling

asleep right now. No. What's that book in me?

It's a store on PC and Mac where you can buy

all of your video games digitally and every once

in a great while, it seems like every week almost,

they have some kind of crazy sale going on. I

think I've never heard of this thing before.

Where you can get PC games for crazy cheap. First

dumping, then steam. I see where you're going

with this. It's a steaming pile of dump. Yeah.

And the Xbox One, outside of the 24 -hour check

-in to make sure that you are authorized to play

your content, shared a lot of similar properties

with Steam. I know a lot of people were up in

arms about what was going on, and originally

this week, I still want to talk about Xbox One.

But there was a, whether there's any truth to

it or not, or if it can be verified, there was

a letter from an Xbox engineer that was leaked

online and it was, he's basically explaining

the merits of the Xbox One DRM structure and

they're always online stuff. And if I remember

correctly, Danner, I sent the link to you and

didn't you say that he should be the one up on

stage? Yes. Talking about why it's beneficial

to gamers Because one of the things he brought

up was the vision of the future where publishers

are aware that they're going to get a cut of

their game No matter what and so they might sell

it for four thirty forty dollars instead of the

usual sixty And when I read that article and

you know like Dan is that he agreed to it was

like that guy should have been up on stage explaining

this stuff to the gamers and not make it sound

like we're trying to make everyone out to criminals.

But then at that same, I think it was like that

same day or the next day, Microsoft released

an official statement that they were going to

sell their first party games at sixty dollars.

Which totally, yeah, it's it's kind of like,

you know, I I've I've brought this up as an example,

I believe, before I don't know if I've done it

on the podcast, but it's almost like like what

EA did with the origin store. They came out at

one point and said video games are too expensive.

You know we want to pass the savings on Can you

not hear me? I can hear you. Apparently, Shauncey's

having trouble hearing me. No, I can hear you

just fine. You gotta read it very carefully,

what do you say? Nice Love that you pause that

there's ah well cuz I only got the little notification

in the top corner of my screen. I couldn't see

everything Now I lost my train of thought Because

your voice is making Sean as hard as a rock yeah

Yeah, I don't know what you're talking about

huge boner Rage oh no it's steaming if I may

It's like it's like when EA said that you know

video games are too expensive And we don't think

they should cost that much for the consumer,

and then they launched their own online store

and turn around and charge everyone $60. It's...

What a bunch of dill holes. Yeah, I mean... Douche

nozzle, even? And Microsoft basically said the

same thing, only they didn't... It was, you know,

it was a... Supposedly it's a... An unnamed Xbox

employee that said, you know, in the future they

want to be able to give you games at a discounted

price. Nobody ever got up on stage and said,

this is our vision. Like... Well, the problem

is is there's a difference between a vision and

then actually following through on the vision

I remember very distinctly What was it somebody

said? That you know there's gonna be this thing

where somebody they're both gonna talk a bunch

But only one of them is gonna probably follow

through on the things that they say Who said

that you? You know you did I did you did? Peter

Molyneux never says anything worth it. Well,

no Peter Molyneux says plenty. No, he never falls

through on anything. He says Well, I think he's

the nose he's the new spokesperson for Xbox Which

is funny because before all the conferences I

would have flipped it the other way saying Like

PlayStation would turn around on whatever it

said next box would be study as a rock So not

so much now My words rock a lot He Mike brings

it out in me literally okay, so I was of the

opinion that For me the Xbox one came down to

the price the for $4 .99 for the system That

that you know I basically felt especially after

Sony announced $3 .99 for their box I especially

felt like I'm paying $100 for hardware that I

will never use It's basically the connect and

the hdmi pass -through thing which I would never

know it's it's not You would use the connect,

but not willingly, but you well. No I wouldn't

I wouldn't talk to my Xbox one Why would I do

that the case? I have doesn't you'd be talking

to it regardless if you wanted to I believe you'd

like saran rapture Xbox go after yourself It

would probably just like disconnect from the

internet and wait 25 hours Never sign on again,

but no the the connect is still mandatory, but

the the It was the hdmi pass -through is just

they want to be input one on your TV so whenever

anything is on like your cable box is connected

to Your TV you get an Xbox one overlay and a

guide and it can control your cable box You can

plug actually they they confirm that you can

plug any HDMI source into it So you could plug

your PlayStation 4 into it and that way you would

always be able to see who was available the game

on either system Or an Xbox one or a PC Anything

with a or anything with an HDMI cable can hook

into the back of the Xbox one And it will just

put an Xbox one overlay on it But that's something

that's that's a technology that I don't need

And I will never use. Um, an Xbox will never

be input one on my TV. Uh, the PlayStation isn't

even input one on my TV. So. And I don't fee

- I feel like that hundred dollar, now it's like

a hundred dollar surcharge, is me paying for

hardware I don't want or need. So, now I'm kind

of bummed because today, they've announced a

total - they totally backpedaled on their DRM

policies. Yeah, but it could they could have

backpedal a week from now, so well. Yeah, exactly

Um it's all well and good them announcing stuff

on Twitter or where did it get announced well?

No, they it's on their public website Yeah, like

a week like oh somebody hacked us that wasn't

us well They've done, then they've also done

interviews damn anonymous anonymous, but I feel

like No They took away a couple of things with

removing the DRM and the and the 24 -hour check

-in I feel like they just they're like well you

can't play nice We're just gonna take our shit

and go home Because I feel like all they had

to do was remove the mandatory 24 -hour check

-in And they could have still done what they

wanted to do because steam doesn't have a 24

-hour check -in It's it's okay though because

if you want to Xbox consoles play offline just

get a 360 yeah well the What's interesting is

because they removed that 24 hour check, they

also removed your online game library. So you

won't be able to share your games with 10 friends

anymore. You'll actually have to send them a

physical copy. They won't be able to like log

into your system or your shared folder and download

the game onto their system and play it. You won't

have that feature and it'll be just like it is

now where the game will get ripped to your hard

drive and you'll have to put the disk in to do

your authentication check. Wait, I can't share

games with people. We've never been able to do

that before and it was so oh wait I could do

that on the ps3 now never mind Yeah, but the

ps3 you can only do with one other person I don't

think that was I don't think that was hey you

can share this with someone I was like hey, there's

a way you can get around it, and they don't had

didn't make it not happen No, it's not it's it's

not a way to get around it It actually says you

can share your content with one other person.

Oh Yeah, your tag just has to be on their system

So Danner and I have shared a number of games

and Danner and Joe have shared a number of games

that way. I was under the impression that I can't

play those at the same time you guys are logged

on, is that? Yes, you can. Yep, you can. Awesome.

Yeah, it's Xbox you can't. But Microsoft was

going to do that, basically that same idea, but

it was going to be with 10 people. But the way

that policy was going to work is only you and

one other person can play the same game. So it's,

you know, 10 people can't all be playing one

copy of the game. It's two people can be playing

a copy of a game Which you know for Ali and I

in this house would be really nice to be able

to buy like the copy of the copy of a game And

yeah, and just have it work on both systems.

I would be nice Sounds way too convenient for

me. Yeah, well see the thing There's a lot of

nice features, and you know like I said they

just like what you know what we can't have our

future So we're not gonna give you the nice things

to play with so they took it all away Now the

the the kind of neat thing that's coming out

of this is And I'm pretty sure it was this way

before They're still keeping that in where if

you take now if you take your disk over to a

friend's house and you put it in their system

the game gets ripped to their system and You

can play it as long as you're there with your

disk But when you leave that game is still on

their system, but they can't play it But they

can still like if they really liked it they can

buy it They don't have to waste time downloading

it because the game is already on their system

So it's basically you could buy one copy of a

game At a store and you'd only have to have one

copy in the house instead of like I have two

copies of Borderlands 2 in my house right now

I'd only need one copy of it and one would be

digital and the other one would be I'd have to

have the disk in the system to play it so I'm

I'm kind of bummed that you know I I think dander

and I are in agreement kind of would have had

a little more respect if they would have just

stuck with their guns on it and Shown people

yeah, how can you trust what there's I don't

see I can't trust anything they're saying now

I Just I just wish they would have stuck with

their guns and and force people to see why it's

better We talked a little bit about before we

started that a lot of the DRM stuff is going

to be removed with a day one patch So I I figure

Somewhere down the line when they do an x I love

that they did this because now we can just call

it the xbox 180 Instead of the x -bone Totally

calling it that forever. Oh yeah the 180 or x

-bone at the xbox 180 I I feel like down the

road. They could release a 180 slim without a

drive on it and Just force people to go with

the digital stuff after they have the install

base, and they have the the people there playing

their games, and they can still achieve that

future that they want people to see. And once

the price drops to $3 .99, I'm kind of, you know,

I'll probably pick one up, because I actually

wish that they were both the same price, because

now it would really come down to the games. Which

I know Daner was looking forward to on Twitter,

it being just about the games. Yeah, I think

it'll be interesting now that it's gonna be I

think it's gonna be more so about the games instead

of a bunch of dumb Policies, I mean I was expecting

Microsoft to do what they usually do and just

wave the halo banner as long and hard as they

possibly can but You know whatever It's important

to note that with all these policy changes the

system is still $100 more than the ps4 Yeah,

and there are still a handful of games that will

require an always online connection to play coming

Yeah, cuz they're still gonna be people are Game

developers making games that need to be on look

well like I've heard that content of any kind

yeah, well I've heard um Division is gonna be

in oh division is always online always online

Divisions always online watch dogs has a major

online component although. It is yeah offline

Obviously Titanfall, which is a 360 exclusive

at the moment or an Xbox one exclusive at the

moment and There's like the crew the best parts

of four is a five will be always need an online

connection I just I there's a apparently there's

a lot of people on Twitter that are completely

dumb and asinine to this whole thing that they

think because the system doesn't need to always

be online that Games will no longer need to always

be online, but developers are still making games

that have an always online connection No offense,

but you know I think it's pretty obvious that

most the customer base is kind of they hear what

they want to hear Well, and I agree. I'm just

saying like I at least want our listeners to

be informed of the fact that Yeah, sure it doesn't

have to connect to the internet every 24 hours

anymore But there are still gonna be games that

are gonna need the internet Don't listen to us

those guys are all idiots yeah Screw those people

it's interesting that Everybody got so angry

about that 24 -hour check -in when you know when

was the last time even now when was the last

time my Xbox was disconnected from the internet

I and it's just as soon as they took that freedom

away saying it has to be connected That's when

everybody got cranky, but like that really when

was the last time I mean you see that that's

that's been my point of view this whole time

is my stuff is always connected. At least, you

know, when I turn it on, I don't not sign into

Xbox Live. Maybe I'm just, I'm less pissed off

that it needs to be online all the time. I'm

more pissed that I can't give Art a copy of this

game and he goes and plays it because it's gonna

wanna check in in 24 hours and screw it up. No,

but that's where, but see, that's where the game

sharing thing was so unique. You could do that.

You could make Joe part of your 10... your 10

friends. I mean, Joe, you can make Danner part

of your 10 friends and Danner could see all the

games that you had on your system and he could

download them to his system and he could play

them without you having to sign in. Oh, if they

had that feature, there's no way those games

will ever be less than 60. No, they that's what

Microsoft had going. Like that's what was going

to happen. But now it's out out the window. It's

gone now. Yeah. Which is why games will never

be less than 60 now. Yep. That's which I mean.

Inflation wise, that's still compared to what

games were when we were younger. That's not a

lot. That's I still paid more than 60 bucks for

Mario Brothers 3 from the Kmart. Yeah. And what

year was that? Wow. Frick, I should go grab a

copy of the game. Wasn't like Killer Instinct

like 80 bucks on N60. There was a there was a

lot of N64. And even if you go back to like NES

games or Super Nintendo. Yeah, that was 60, 70,

80 bucks. Conker's Bad Fur Day was, I think,

the most I paid for a game. The other the other

big that that was back in those dollars So I

don't even want to know how much those would

that be like a hundred dollar game today See

here's what I find interesting also with this

is like everybody There's also been this huge

since Microsoft did this there's been this huge

backlash against GameStop like Nobody forces

you to buy anything from GameStop Yeah, like

it never it makes it seem like all this stuff

makes it seem like game stuff is the only place

to buy games Well, that's not true because Tanner

and I happen to know that if you buy three games

at Best Buy you get a fourth one for free Pretty

much. Yep new games off of their list you get

20 bucks every time you buy a game. I mean Been

GameStop free for I don't know since September

of last year. I think Borderlands 2 is the last

thing I bought from them Yeah, the only thing

that keeps me GameStop is pre -order bonuses,

usually. Usually they're whatever I want is they're

not somewhere else. I mean, I know Amazon will

do pre -order bonuses. Best Buy will do pre -order

bonuses. And well, you know, what's dumb about

that is they sit there and everyone bitches and

complains about GameStop, but it's the developers

that put those pre -orders in place with GameStop.

Oh, yeah. Like, yeah. GameStop is giving that

company a fat dime to get the good pre -order

bonus, I think. All these sellers bid on which

pre -order bonuses they get and GameStop has

deep pockets when it comes to things like that

But it's just like why you know if GameStop is

hurting you so much. Why give them pre -order

bonuses? Like why are you working with them?

Like they're not the only place to sell Stuff

and that's been the ridiculous thing about the

DRM stuff coming out is they're hurting GameStop

the people who are selling their console and

you know instead of I mean they're smacking him

with one hand trying to shake their hand with

the other yeah, and they're just caught in the

middle of it I I just you know I I'm excited

to see if they can eventually still pull off

their the future that they wanted because I really

feel like they were going to try for something

and Well gamers don't like change. Oh, I don't

want that future. I mean there's I don't but

I I'm weird you barely want the future you have

now Joe exactly it's like I just want to go back

to the NES I want cartridges again who doesn't

want to go back to the Super Nintendo I do I

Just I have that legacy mint dude. I haven't

had to blow into a system in years, and I really

you haven't blown into anything today No, I said

system Wait, is a zipper technically a system?

No? Okay, then we're good. I just... I don't

know. Does anyone else have any thoughts or opinions

on this? I mean... I want to talk more about

John blowing things. Yeah. I think it's really

good for gaming that Microsoft backpedaled in

it. You know, even though they were siding with

the enemy and siding with the publishers, in

the end, while they realized they weren't gonna

get their money, But they're back with us now.

I mean, they're they're looking at the customers

saying, wow, we I don't think they're doing I

don't really think Sony's doing that. Recessarily

either. I mean, it's such a lofty. I don't know.

It's not like they're going. Yay. We love customers

have free games. No, they're going. Oh, shit.

I think we need to give them this or they're

not going to get our shit. I think in the long

run. Yeah. Basically, it wasn't it wasn't. We're

gonna give them what we want. It's oh crap. We're

not selling as many Xbox ones as the PlayStation

4 it's I just And neither neither company is

taking a stab at the at the game pricing like

they're both They both said our games are gonna

be 60 bucks I mean the best thing Microsoft could

have done with you know showing everybody the

future is if they had said our first party titles

are $40 like across the board and That would

have turned like that would have been the equivalent

of You know Sony saying their system was $100

less. Yep, and they didn't do that It's like

they they chose to charge everyone the $60 versus

sticking with their dream and charging everyone

40 Microsoft really has to do right now I mean

if they want to make up any ground since you

know they're throwing everything out there. He

said Anyways, they could just throw in a year

of Xbox live off the bat. There's no there's

nothing saying they're not doing that either

I know so that that that could also happen I

I just and here's the other thing that the dark

side of this that we kind of I don't know if

I got this on the beginning of the record or

not is That you know, it's a day one patch so

they can patch it out, but there's nothing stopping

them from patching it back in later That seems

like I don't know that's kind of a bar beware

scenario If they did patch it back in could you

imagine the class -action lawsuits? why for all

the people who would actually kind of come out

and lie about actually I lost my content and

I want it back sort of thing you know even though

if they really didn't well just the fact that

they could take it away remember remember now

technically there's a lot of people in this world

that would possibly take advantage of a multinational

corporation that's worth billions of dollars

yeah surely isn't so that's like saying people

live off of government funding ridiculous I just

they would totally totally come at Microsoft

with lawsuits. Well, there's there's another,

you know, well, it depends on how Microsoft does

it. If they just sneak it in there. Yeah, I can

see that. But if they go this update that we're

pushing, you know, this this Xbox, this dashboard

update that we're pushing in the fall is going

to put is going to bring back our digital rights

management. Yeah. Do you realize what they could

put in that except to doubt if you want to download?

You don't download. You can't get on Xbox Live.

Well, they could just put that in the user agreement.

No one would ever read it. No, but no, no, no.

That stuff would be known. It would say, like,

you need this update to play. I mean, everyone

knows that you need the PS3, the Xbox. Both of

those, they need to be kept up to date, or you

can't get online with them. So that's a known

thing. So if they go, our dashboard update this

fall is bringing back our digital rights management,

and you get that little thing that says accept

decline, if you're OK with it, you hit accept.

If you hit decline, then you are cut off. And

that is your decision. Mean tech tech companies

do that all the time Another sign that they're

not on our side Well, it just depends on but

here's the thing tech companies a lot of people

have the console industry we talked about this

before the The handheld devices you know the

phones and the tablets and stuff that we have

right now those came about after the launch of

the last generation and I there are apps that

You know I have from my very first iPhone that

still run on my iPhone 5 and That's like I think

seven iPhones later. It still runs on it and

I think that Consumers expect there's there's

a level of there's a certain level of backwards

compatibility that More mainstream consumers

expect now because of these devices And I think

that Microsoft and Sony is are they're also aware

of this is which is why they went with the architecture

that they did because there's a roadmap for x86

and It means that backwards compatibility with

this stuff will be easier to maintain going forward

I Just I I feel like they're they're aware of

that and you don't have to worry about them You

know, you don't have to worry about stuff being

taken away from you. They're becoming more and

more PC like they're just getting you know their

own skin I Just kind of wish they would have

stuck with their guns That way we could see if

they they did what they want if they could have

pulled it off Just kind of bums me out that's

all I Hate I just and I like I said earlier I

hate that there's a only a hundred dollar price

difference between them I wish that wasn't there

so then it would truly come down to the games,

but I The only way that I think Microsoft could

fully come back from everything that they lost

at the TV press conference and at e3 is If they

and they won't do this part But if they somehow

manage to junk the connect from it or be able

to disconnect from it Yep, you'll be able to

get it for 500 with the connect But if you want

we have this dumbed down version doesn't have

a connect and it's 350. It's 400 that I think

would make people stop and go, well, no DRM and

none of that crappy NSA spying on me masturbating

Kinect. OK. You know what? I either way, if it

if it drops to three ninety nine and it has the

Kinect, I'm I'm perfectly fine with that. If

it drops to three ninety nine and it doesn't

have the Kinect and they lose the HDMI pass through,

I don't really care. I mean, either way, as long

as it's three ninety nine or less, I'm I'm fine

with the with. with an Xbox one eighty as long

as I mean, and I'm still going to wait a year.

That way they're all their crap can get sorted

out and everything can get, you know, figure

out where the industry is going and all this

stuff. But I just know there's there's not enough

on that. I mean, I'm going to miss Forza, but

that's not enough for me to want to buy both

systems. I've heard I don't care about anything

else. I've heard crazy good things about Need

for Speed Rivals. So. Yay racing games so exciting

Sorry That's okay. You need to come over to my

house and set another lap time on my top gear

track at least that's interesting. That's good.

I Enjoy your little setup that you have there

with the racing cockpit so That that at least

makes me feel like it's a Full full -on experience

we're playing a racing game with a Joystick is

like I Don't really have any super anything super

stupid to compare it to so I'll just say racing

games are dumb with controllers When you build

an entire cockpit Awesome, I actually had fun

playing hot pursuit with you. I pursue isn't

bad I enjoy hot pursuit because it feels like

there's a point Because you have cop. It's not

just hey. I got to get to this place quick Okay

Yeah, my wife's pointing out the fact that I'm

contradicting myself now. Nobody pays that much

attention to what I say on here, so it doesn't

really matter. So, like, when a racing game has

more of a point, I can find motivation in it.

My issue is with racing games where it's just

like, race to be number one so you can be the

biggest greaseball On the track well when you

have like cops versus robbers like we've been

playing in need for speed hot pursuit I could

get behind that. There's some kind of motivation

Well, just getting off getting off topic real

quick because I just want to I want to tell Joe

and and you about this because you like the whole

pack But there's a point and you like being the

cops and the and the racers rivals the neat thing

about it is it's one of those it's one of the

you know the newer style games where the single

player and the multiplayer are both the same

thing there's no difference between the two and

so when you start playing um like joe and and

danner and you know shaunzy all like the four

of you can the three of you can merge into my

game and we can go and we can do different races

together as a racer you earn like speed points

and you keep racking them up racking them up

and it's like combo points and stuff like that

and eventually what will happen is Cops will

appear in the game in the game world and the

game will go and pull other gamers that are playing

as cops and they'll pull them into your game

and They try to bust you and if they take you

down then they get all the points that you just

earned Unless you get back to your safe house

first And the same thing works the other way

So if you sign on and the four of us are rolling

around, you know as cops like busting computer

races in our game Eventually, it'll spawn actual

players playing as racers in our game and we

have to go take them down It's all seamless like

that. They become the like they're taking that

whole journey approach where everything just

put other players just come into your game and

you have to engage them and Race against them

or take them out or whatever It's a great idea,

but I'm never as good as these other players

who come into these games and I'm gonna get beat

by these people. You won't. It's Need for Speed.

Plus a lot of it is, especially when you're playing

as cops, it's more of a teamwork thing. So it's

kind of like what will happen with Danner and

I is like I'll take off after whoever's up in

first and Danner will stay behind me and keep

everybody else from getting up to the first place.

But the reason Dan and I stopped playing hop

or suit is because we started realizing everybody

stayed at the starting line doing donuts And

it was just Dan and I racing towards the finish

line Which we couldn't understand why. It kind

of sucked a little bit of the fun out of it,

so I Just and you know like Shauncey said they

could change their mind next week And they seem

to be changing their mind on a weekly basis.

That's gonna say like there's nothing to me that

makes it Solid enough that they can't just be

like, oh, yeah, we want to do this now I mean

at this point I think the next big hoopla thing

is gonna come when the consoles actually launch

and people go to get their Day one updates or

whatever because it's not like the ps4 is gonna

have a day one update Of course, it's going to

they all do and you know, the system's gonna

The network's gonna die like if yeah, totally

if the networks don't die for either console

more power to Sony and Microsoft, you know, whoever

whoever's don't crash, but I'm thoroughly expecting

to get my Xbox or my PS4 from Amazon, bring it

in the house, get it all set up, sit down on

the couch and put in my PlayStation Network ID

and all of a sudden it says, cannot connect PlayStation

Network services. Fully expecting that to happen.

You said that with PS3. It's consistency. Yes,

it is. Anybody else have anything they want to

add? About about anything they might be doing

or about the Xbox stuff Did anybody hear about

the bricked ps3s this morning? I I have I've

been following it because I have one that might

be susceptible to it I've heard it's only the

big ones with big hard drives, right? Well, it's

oh Supposedly it's anyone that changed out a

hard drive and it's ones that are like 500 gigs

or bigger It was of them because a couple people

without with less sub 500 gig hard drives were

in it could be that the ones that they were changing

if they ever swapped in and out because I know

Jason updated his yesterday just fine and Darren

you said you updated yours I didn't even see

it well I have PlayStation Plus so it would have

updated without me even well the system updates

don't update without you knowing yeah they do

yeah they do plus they do Yep, you can set your

time. Mine was set for 4 or 5 in the morning.

Yeah, mine was set for 2 in the morning, so it

did all the updates last night. If it did it

at 2 a .m., you might have a bricked PS3 right

now. No, I've played it already today. Mine was

set for 4, and I came home and turned it off.

Mine was set for 4 as well, and it got in after

they pulled the patch, but there were people,

I think it got pulled after 2 o 'clock. Well,

I I mean I turned off my like I said mine was

set to update at 4 and I got home at 2 a .m.

And turned off the auto update thing because

oh no I haven't even turned mine on yet today.

Maybe mine's bricked. I hope you're alright I

I turn I turn mine on today and it works and

I cuz I downloaded scenes row 3 so I can play

that later I have my ps3 on watching Netflix

Tron uprising when I read the article and said

oh shoot. I better not let it update Oh wait,

it would have already. I think I'm okay But I

did change it to never do auto update again So

just in case but yeah, like I said most of the

stuff I should live dangerously Just let it do

what it wants to do and most of the stuff I saw

was a line You know hard drives larger than dude

if it breaks you can just put it with your rest

of your video game collection This used to be

a functioning model now, what is it? And if I

plug it in space heater hey nice Here's the thing

I don't like this brick stuff these systems are

not bricked The the debt like they they turn

on and they get to the ribbon, but the XMB does

not come on there You know when it first started

happening people were contacting Sony support

and Sony was saying Just one second Well, the

I heard the work around to the repair was going

to come from you download it on your computer,

put it on a flash drive, put the flash drive

in the system and boot your PS3 into safe mode.

Yes, because that's not intrusive or obnoxious

at all. That's what you have to do. If you completely

restart your system, that's what you have to

do anyways. It's like but what was happening

when people were first experiencing it and they

were calling for like technical support, technical

support was telling people to completely wipe

their drives and start completely over from scratch.

And so there are some people that are like, you

know, and so they that got kind of blown out

of proportion because technical support didn't

know exactly what was happening at the time because

it was a new thing. But the more it became known

is that these systems aren't actually bricked.

All your stuff is still there. You just need

to wait for the right patch to come out and then

you just throw it on a thumb drive, which will

download faster on your computer than it will

on the PlayStation. and just, you know, boot

your system into safe mode and update it. It's

not that big of a hassle. It's really not. It's

a lot better. It's a lot less of a hassle than

reformatting your drive and having to re -download

all of your content again. Sony has also said

that they do not support drives larger than 500

gigabytes, so anyone that does this happen to,

that's your own damn fault. Well, my buddy might

be in trouble because I think he's running a

terabyte. Thought about putting a terabyte hard

drive in there now. I'm glad I didn't Well, he

has that he had a terabyte that I think he has

a five Tara external one two full of shit Jesus

I have a one this the scary part is is he used

four and a half of the five? There but I don't

even know what on it's scary. I've got almost

three terabytes full up TV shows Yeah, and he

has tons of movies and just crazy amount stuff

All right What was that crazy? Crazy is that

are you are you talking through a kazoo? Sorry,

I was eating with the chocolate chip cookie in

my mouth. So yes, you're talking through kazoo,

okay? So did Joe do you want to plug your geek

radio or not geek radio? The geek garage sale.

Yeah radio going on this weekend 22nd and 23rd

in the parking lot of apparitions comics. We've

got In Grand Rapids, Michigan and Grand Rapids,

Michigan. Yes Right on 28th Street there got

about 10 to 15 vendors potentially if they all

show up they better But either way, we'll have

a lot of people there selling a whole bunch of

cool geek merchandise, comics, video games, action

figures, movie stuff, even somebody selling some

Doctor Who knit plush things. Hardest caps. Yeah.

It'll be fun. And it probably won't be raining

because Michigan weather is fickle. And you know

what the better part of why everybody should

come out? The fact that it's a guarantee that

Sean won't be there. Oh, fuck you. I have never

hoped to get herpes more in my life. Alright,

if you want to get in touch with us - Evil herpes.

Thank you for that. You're welcome. If you want

to get in touch with us - I'm here. To interrupt

you. Are you done? If you want to get in touch

with us - Yes, I'm done. I knew that was coming.

I did too. Okay, I'll stop now. If you want to

get in touch with us, you can comment on our

parent site at geekcastradio .com or send emails

to us at feedback at geekcastradio .com. Just

put the show title in the subject line and we'll

make sure that the email gets to us. You can

find myself, Michael Powers, on Twitter, Xbox

Live, and PlayStation Network at boothninja81.

Daner? You can find me on Twitter at artdaner

or on The PSN network at X 51, the machine man.

God, that was smooth. Shonzi. Ben Shonzi, you

can find me on Xbox Live at weapon eighty seven.

You find me on Twitter at Shonzi Brown Joe. And

you can find me at Eakstuff. What? Eakstuff garage

sale on Facebook page. Search for that and it

should pop up. Uh, PlayStation Network V -V -Ildfire

405. V -V -Ildfire. Dan, do you want to close

this out? Have a wonderful evening or morning

or afternoon, depending on when you're listening

to us, because it's a podcast and there's no

specific time you really got to listen to it

at all. And you can do it when you want. You

can have a do it in the morning. You could do

it tonight. You could do it when you want to

do me. Yodel -ay -hee -hoo! That was brilliant,

I like the lack of Danner So Danner did you see

the new Man of Steel? No, I only like to waste

my time watching good superhero movies Because

he hates Superman doesn't mean it's a bad superhero

movie Hey has Superman and so has to be right

banner. I'm going to punch my dog No, can I do

it? I have to believe that the movie has to be

good The ending is just because it's like the

worst superhero ever doesn't mean it's gonna

be a bad movie Give me one second. I gotta let

my stupid dog out Don't know. I still don't think

the bet the old ones the crisper re were bad

like well. Yeah, the first one the first one's

not bad. Oh No, I I compare the other superhero

movies now. Yeah back Yeah, well, I think it

was always bad because it wasn't Superman. It

was he had weird crystals and fortress of solitude

and Superpowers that the comic character didn't

have and no that's why in the first one Not when

he started developing the vision that can fix

things and it's why the very first superman movie

was just normal With Gene Heckman as a don't

terrible To get our movie version Lex Luthor,

that's terrible What no Lex Luthor it's not gonna

be at all No mention of him. I think - No, I'm

saying that I just don't - I don't like movie

version Lex Luthor because he's just - He's a

slimy real estate agent. Alright. That was proof

I didn't get any of my tech -to -tech dismissal.

Oh, me? Isn't it though? Or me? Okay. We are

on episode 19. Everyone say yay! Yay! Really?

Only 19 episodes? Well, 19 numbered episodes.

Because of all the specials. Yes. Yeah, because

we're special. Technically, it's... Mostly because

of you, Sean. I'm always special. You do the

best Bobo voice of all of us, so... I know, but

I use you as my inspiration. Heh. That's right,

I inspire you. Technically, we're on episode

23. Actually, it doesn't seem right either. Or

actually, on episode 24. We don't know. I don't

know what the actual numbered episode is number

19. We have 24 recorded episodes. I guess I would

make it up to 25 So Happy years worth Yep, I

think we're about ready. Don't ready to call

it in and be done Yeah, I'll say possibly missed

a lot in there. We usually get to 25 and stuff

Well, it's good to have traditions This week

on off the cuff We're gonna call them like to

huh