Microsoft Backtracks On Xbox One DRM And Used Games Policy
Xbox One will not require regular online check-ins or place restrictions on game-lending “as a result of feedback from the Xbox community,” Microsoft announced today.
“Today I am announcing the following changes to Xbox One and how you can play, share, lend, and resell your games exactly as you do today on Xbox 360,” wrote Don Mattrick in an official blog post today.
Additionally, Mattrick wrote, players will be able to “trade-in, lend, resell, gift, and rent disc based games just like you do today. There will be no limitations to using and sharing games, it will work just as it does today on Xbox 360.”
This will come at a small cost — despite previous announcements, Xbox One will require that discs remain in the tray in order to play games, and players will be unable to share downloaded games. In other words, it’ll work exactly like the Xbox 360 — for better and for worse.
Originally it was planned that the new Xbox One would have allowed digital games to be shared with ten friends and family, allowing others to log in and play the titles. A cloud-based system also meant that software would be available from any console, even without a physical disc, and downloaded titles could be shared and sold. That would not be the case now.
Now, when the new console is released this November, there will be no need to authenticate the system online every 24 hours – a requirement thought to have been introduced as a digital rights management measure. According to the statement, “After a one-time system set-up with a new Xbox One, you can play any disc based game without ever connecting online again.”
On the other side of the coin, capitalizing on online anger about Microsoft’s policies, Sony took E3 by storm with their announcement that the PlayStation 4 would use no similar DRM scheme.
