Microsoft’s Major Nelson Clarifies Some Details On Used Games
One of the biggest things to come out of the reveal for the new Xbox One yesterday is how the new console deals with used and borrowed copies of games. Unlike consoles in times past, where you can trade and sell and swap to your hearts’ content, the Xbox One is instead doing away with all that, and won’t let your buddy borrow your copy of a game unless he pays for the price of the game. Each game comes with a CD-Key, and when it’s associated with an account, that is it.
Microsoft’s Major Nelson has decided to try and clear up the “confusion” a bit, and say what Microsoft is planning on doing. According to him, at this time the only thing “confirmed” is that they “designed Xbox One to enable our customers to trade in and resell games at retail.” That might seem to suggest that you should be able to sell your copy of a game to some place like GameStop, but it’s hard to see how that would work if everyone is given a CD-Key for each game. Right now, Microsoft is not saying any more about it.
The other big issue is letting your friends borrow your copy of a game. As it stands right now, unless your friend wants to pay for the price of a game when he boots it up into his console, he won’t be able to use it on his machine and account. Major Nelson has clarified that “should you choose to play your game at your friend’s house, there is no fee to play that game while you are signed in to your profile.” It makes sense, seeing that Microsoft has really been ramping up the whole “cloud” feature of the Xbox One, though I can easily see a scenario where your sibling is playing a game and finds himself getting booted out of a game when you sign on with your profile at somebody else’s house.
