Microsoft xbox app and store

Software & Operating Systems
#1

Ok so you guys know I have a pc and a htpc. both are gaming machines to different extents and I’m sure all of you know how steam works with 2 pcs on a single account… Both pcs can play whatever is installed on them, can stream from one another via the network but only one device can have a game open at once as in you cant play the same game on 2 pcs at the same time on one account.

I presume origin and the rest have the same features to a certain extent and ive never had any issues until the past week.

A lot of people I know game on console and are not into pcs for gaming. This means a lot have xbox live and to microsofts credit they are starting to integrate cross platform games so I can play a game on pc with friends on their xboxs.
It winds me up however that the way its set up is that MS automatically assume you will have an xbox and a pc if you have the xbox app and games on your pc. I personally do not and have no intention.
My MS account will only allow one machine to be enabled for offline gaming. which in its self isn’t a problem, I’m always online but I should be able to play offline on both pcs if they have the game installed, I mean its 2018 ffs if I buy a game surely I have a right to use it on more than one machine if my internet failed. To compound this oversight you can only swap machines 3 times per year. WTF is that!Last Thursday I purchased that Forza horizon 3 to be able to play with friends. Downloaded it to both pcs. had an hour or so on each getting the settings sorted and generally checking the game out. all good on both. I have friends round Friday night and decide to collectively have a pop on the game. It wont open on either device. error code 0x803f8001 on both and its something to do with xbox live account. So I uninstall and reinstall on both pcs, another 110gb and all is well again. fast forward to this week I decide to go earn a car that’s on a new years event and boom. Same issue on both pcs. same error code.
Got on chat with MS. the guy was useless. had me sign in and out of the app and reset the forza app. I mean as if I was contacting MS and hadn’t done as much as I could already… Totally useless and a waste of over an hour of my time. used up 2 of my 3 yearly swaps on his say so for nothing and eventually lost my patience and got a refund. First and last game I buy from the MS store!

To think I was thinking how great it would be if a lot of games that are available on steam and consoles were integrated more with online play but now I’m not so sure. Gabe has a much better system and MS could learn a lot from valve when it comes to device management and letting you play a game for more than 24h without reinstalling

#2

Before the Xbox One was released, MS was talking about making it so that the discs were basically one-time use (or they were tied to your MS account, something like that). So basically, no trading in or buying used games for Xbox, no loaning games to friends, etc. Of course, there was enough backlash that they scrapped the idea, but it’s a lot easier to slip under people’s noses when it’s just an app and not a next-gen console. I’m not surprised that they made it the way they did for the Xbox app.

#3

I just do not understand why I cant have all my devices with offline enabled. if I owned say forza 7 on xbox one I get it for pc automatically and I should be able to use it on my account on anything I have installed on. My account, my license, my devices, my choice?

#4

You SHOULD be able to. I agree, But MS doesn’t agree. They’ll do anything they can to make sure you and only you are the one playing that game. If you had multiple devices offline at the same time, you could be letting someone else play your game, and that just won’t do (according to MS).

#5

indeed allowing my son to play if the internet was down would be ungodly.

The thing is I’m pretty sure this is why my game decides it doesn’t want to work and throws the error code.