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Reading this made me remember why I stopped playing my Xbox One: never-ending updates. I never played it very frequently so I disabled the sleep mode so it woul

by nkrisc 3mo ago

Reading this made me remember why I stopped playing my Xbox One: never-ending updates. I never played it very frequently so I disabled the sleep mode so it wouldn’t just stay on in my media cabinet heating my house. But of course that meant any time I spontaneously felt like using it there were 10 minutes of updates to download, so I would get annoyed and just do something else. Oh it can also play movies? Sorry movie night is ruined thanks to 30 minutes of downloading and installing updates. Eventually I just never turned it on again because all it did was download and install updates. It really just killed all my interest in it because I couldn’t just turn it on and play a game unless I let it stay on all the time wasting energy and downloading constant updates in the background.

botanrice 3mo ago
Same boat as you. It's wild that I can turn on the xbox, wait 20-30min for mandatory updates, then need to re-sign in or occasionally reset my wireless mac address due to some bug, then re-sign into my Xbox account even if I am fine playing offline but of course I forgot my password so now I'm on my phone doing 2FA to remember which email I used to reset the password. Then I will need to update the game I want to play (somehow FIFA 23 still requires updates?), then re-sign in to EA whose password of course I also forgot so now I'm on my phone resetting my password for EA. Now it's been 45minutes and I'm frustrated and realize I could have loaded up Steam or Switch and been playing this whole time. Not to mention that once the Xbox itself is working it will be running slower than the Nintendo Switch I own which is only about 2yr newer than it. just a bad system! I legit got my old PlayStation 2 back up and running so I wouldn't deal with this. (sorry been needing to vent all this lmao)
- drewnoakes 3mo ago
  I wonder how many of these updates are security fixes. I wouldn't be surprised if a majority were.
  - antiframe 3mo ago
    My gaming machine is isolated and well protected through firewalls in and out. I don't store any sensitive information like payment information on them. Why can't I choose when to update them? Let me use my thread model to keep myself secure. Respect my time. Let me manually update when I want.
    - dezgeg 3mo ago
      Ah, but you see Xbox security updates won't be for your security. They will be for protecting the console's security against jailbreaks etc.
Flere-Imsaho 3mo ago
> Reading this made me remember why I stopped playing my Xbox One: never-ending updates. My experience with Steam is very similar (I don't have it run on startup because I like my PC to do other things from playing games). Online updates really have ruined gaming for a lot of people. Just like vinyl, humans seem to prefer a physical "thing" they pick up - put in the machine - and instantly have access to the "thing". It's simple, predictable, fixable (generally) and swapable. The digital revolution is not what we had hoped for...
- shaewest 3mo ago
  I don't think you could say humans prefer a physical thing, as for a majority of mediums, digital is the winner, by a significant margin. Of my friends who own vinyl collections, they almost always use Spotify/Apple Music 90% of the time.
- operation_moose 3mo ago
  I've been replaying a lot of Gamecube (emulated) games recently and its kindof shocking just how quick you can get into the game. From hitting run Run to first Player Input is seconds in most cases. No console bootup, no system updates, no game patches, no agreeing to game EULA version 5.129912342, no denying the game access to online content on every third screen, etc. I'm sure its loading slightly faster emulated, but 90% of it is just not having the junk that has accumulated over the last 20 years.
  - pezezin 3mo ago
    I had a Gamecube back in the day and I remember its optical drive was quite fast and loading times were short, but other machines were nowhere as fast, the PS1 and PS2 were notorious for long loading times.
  - orloffm 3mo ago
    Pretty much the Switch experience. It sometimes downloads updates, but system updates are like 10 seconds, and games are updated in the background seamlessly. I don't play Fortnite, but it's also always updated in the library. Yes, if you don't keep it powered, it won't do that, but why wouldn't you if it just stays in the dock dark and quiet?
dom96 3mo ago
I've had the same experience with my PS5. It wouldn't even let me play 007 First Light a few weeks ago because it needed to update the system. Starting to wonder if I should/could just keep it offline to stop it from updating incessantly.
CivBase 3mo ago
It surprises me that there isn't simply an option to postpone the update for up to 12 hours until shutdown. I'd much rather let my system take 10 minutes to shutdown when I'm done than have to wait 10 minutes on startup before I can use it. How often could they realistically have updates that seriously need to be installed ASAP? Especially if you're not even doing anything that requires going online.
wodenokoto 3mo ago
While there are plenty of online updates on the switch, I never remember not being able to play a game without first running an update.
dsign 3mo ago
What are the updates for, I wonder? Video games, like all forms of art, are about stirring emotions. I don't own, nor have never owned an Xbox. But when I think of the device the first thing that comes to mind is "Microsoft" and "Windows". So I consider all the little beancounters and MBAs at Microsoft who are always optimizing for profit and that have made Windows nightmarish, and I imagine them with access to an "emotions machine" they can manipulate to make number go up, and can't help but think that the device is a pocket dimension of hell but more or less useless otherwise. All said, in order for Microsoft to fix XBox, they will also need to fix the Windows desktop experience. Otherwise people will think "ouch, I don't want to buy a cousin of that creature. Better go for a Nintendo or Steam Deck or something..."
- Gigachad 3mo ago
  These days it’s probably all CI automated. So your Xbox updating probably means dependabot bumped some package automatically and it got built and deployed despite zero end user impact.
Hugsbox 3mo ago
This is what drove me to get a PS5. My xbox one would have 30 minute updates nearly every single night, and it doesn't allow you to access anything on the internet unless you let it do the updates. It was always inevitably at 7 or 8pm, when I'm trying to wind down after a day of work and just watch a show or a movie or something. It was a constant interruption to my daily routine - I like my shows before bed. And then sometime in the last year and a half or so it became nearly unusable, constant crashes, poor performance, it was just such a constant pain in my ass. Feels like Microsoft just don't give a shit.

by nkrisc 3mo ago

botanrice 3mo ago

Same boat as you. It's wild that I can turn on the xbox, wait 20-30min for mandatory updates, then need to re-sign in or occasionally reset my wireless mac address due to some bug, then re-sign into my Xbox account even if I am fine playing offline but of course I forgot my password so now I'm on my phone doing 2FA to remember which email I used to reset the password. Then I will need to update the game I want to play (somehow FIFA 23 still requires updates?), then re-sign in to EA whose password of course I also forgot so now I'm on my phone resetting my password for EA. Now it's been 45minutes and I'm frustrated and realize I could have loaded up Steam or Switch and been playing this whole time. Not to mention that once the Xbox itself is working it will be running slower than the Nintendo Switch I own which is only about 2yr newer than it. just a bad system! I legit got my old PlayStation 2 back up and running so I wouldn't deal with this. (sorry been needing to vent all this lmao)

drewnoakes 3mo ago
I wonder how many of these updates are security fixes. I wouldn't be surprised if a majority were.
- antiframe 3mo ago
  My gaming machine is isolated and well protected through firewalls in and out. I don't store any sensitive information like payment information on them. Why can't I choose when to update them? Let me use my thread model to keep myself secure. Respect my time. Let me manually update when I want.
  - dezgeg 3mo ago
    Ah, but you see Xbox security updates won't be for your security. They will be for protecting the console's security against jailbreaks etc.

Flere-Imsaho 3mo ago

> Reading this made me remember why I stopped playing my Xbox One: never-ending updates. My experience with Steam is very similar (I don't have it run on startup because I like my PC to do other things from playing games). Online updates really have ruined gaming for a lot of people. Just like vinyl, humans seem to prefer a physical "thing" they pick up - put in the machine - and instantly have access to the "thing". It's simple, predictable, fixable (generally) and swapable. The digital revolution is not what we had hoped for...

shaewest 3mo ago
I don't think you could say humans prefer a physical thing, as for a majority of mediums, digital is the winner, by a significant margin. Of my friends who own vinyl collections, they almost always use Spotify/Apple Music 90% of the time.
operation_moose 3mo ago
I've been replaying a lot of Gamecube (emulated) games recently and its kindof shocking just how quick you can get into the game. From hitting run Run to first Player Input is seconds in most cases. No console bootup, no system updates, no game patches, no agreeing to game EULA version 5.129912342, no denying the game access to online content on every third screen, etc. I'm sure its loading slightly faster emulated, but 90% of it is just not having the junk that has accumulated over the last 20 years.
- pezezin 3mo ago
  I had a Gamecube back in the day and I remember its optical drive was quite fast and loading times were short, but other machines were nowhere as fast, the PS1 and PS2 were notorious for long loading times.
- orloffm 3mo ago
  Pretty much the Switch experience. It sometimes downloads updates, but system updates are like 10 seconds, and games are updated in the background seamlessly. I don't play Fortnite, but it's also always updated in the library. Yes, if you don't keep it powered, it won't do that, but why wouldn't you if it just stays in the dock dark and quiet?

dom96 3mo ago

I've had the same experience with my PS5. It wouldn't even let me play 007 First Light a few weeks ago because it needed to update the system. Starting to wonder if I should/could just keep it offline to stop it from updating incessantly.

CivBase 3mo ago

It surprises me that there isn't simply an option to postpone the update for up to 12 hours until shutdown. I'd much rather let my system take 10 minutes to shutdown when I'm done than have to wait 10 minutes on startup before I can use it. How often could they realistically have updates that seriously need to be installed ASAP? Especially if you're not even doing anything that requires going online.

wodenokoto 3mo ago

While there are plenty of online updates on the switch, I never remember not being able to play a game without first running an update.

dsign 3mo ago

What are the updates for, I wonder? Video games, like all forms of art, are about stirring emotions. I don't own, nor have never owned an Xbox. But when I think of the device the first thing that comes to mind is "Microsoft" and "Windows". So I consider all the little beancounters and MBAs at Microsoft who are always optimizing for profit and that have made Windows nightmarish, and I imagine them with access to an "emotions machine" they can manipulate to make number go up, and can't help but think that the device is a pocket dimension of hell but more or less useless otherwise. All said, in order for Microsoft to fix XBox, they will also need to fix the Windows desktop experience. Otherwise people will think "ouch, I don't want to buy a cousin of that creature. Better go for a Nintendo or Steam Deck or something..."

Gigachad 3mo ago
These days it’s probably all CI automated. So your Xbox updating probably means dependabot bumped some package automatically and it got built and deployed despite zero end user impact.

Hugsbox 3mo ago

This is what drove me to get a PS5. My xbox one would have 30 minute updates nearly every single night, and it doesn't allow you to access anything on the internet unless you let it do the updates. It was always inevitably at 7 or 8pm, when I'm trying to wind down after a day of work and just watch a show or a movie or something. It was a constant interruption to my daily routine - I like my shows before bed. And then sometime in the last year and a half or so it became nearly unusable, constant crashes, poor performance, it was just such a constant pain in my ass. Feels like Microsoft just don't give a shit.