Microsoft will scrap the digital rights scheme that it had planned to implement in the Xbox One.
Announced today, on Xbox.com, Microsoft will now not require Xbox One games to be silently authenticated one per day nor will it place any restrictions on the used games market that currently has been allowed to flourish with the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
“So, 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. Here is what that means:
An internet connection will not be required to play offline Xbox One games – After a one-time system set-up with a new Xbox One, you can play any disc based game without ever connecting online again. There is no 24 hour connection requirement and you can take your Xbox One anywhere you want and play your games, just like on Xbox 360.
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.
In addition to buying a disc from a retailer, you can also download games from Xbox Live on day of release. If you choose to download your games, you will be able to play them offline just like you do today. Xbox One games will be playable on any Xbox One console — there will be no regional restrictions. ” Don Mattrick, Head of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft
So, in effect game developers won’t be able to rely on the cloud to create immersive worlds, less offline users get a seriously bad experience (though the company was already going to allow offline play for a limited amount of time, so that may not be such a huge change overall). No installing games from a disc and getting rid of them either with these changes. And, to top it all off all game sharing seems to be off the table too. This would also mean the early death of being able to access all of your Xbox One games from any console, if users purchased them from a store.
In fact, so many features become compromised by these change, it seems Microsoft might have pretty much killed most of the next-generation gaming changes that the new Xbox LIVE would have enabled.
So many things went wrong with this product launch. I will admit that there were several things about this console that I did not like, namely the used game restriction and the required internet check-in. Those NEVER should have even been on the table, in my opinion, because those do not directly affect the XBOX Live functionality of the system.
However, what’s even worse than that, is that the MS and XBOX teams could not give clear and consistent answers. In short, it was a PR disaster and MS has no one to blame, but themselves. I applaud Major Nelson for trying to take the lead and put the cloud around the issues to rest, but then he gets sandbagged by the other MS folks, within just a few hours of his statement. Truly a nightmare scenario.