Xbox One Might Let You Play Used Games After All *UPDATE: No You Can’t*
With Microsoft’s announcement of their newest console, dubbed “Xbox One”, we’ve been hearing a lot of information about how exactly it will play games. We had heard rumors in months past that the system might prevent people from playing used copies of games, so it came to no shock when we heard earlier that the new console was going to do just that. According to an old report from Wired, the new Xbox One was going to prevent people from playing used copies of games without paying a fee first.
It now looks like that information was incorrect. According to Xbox Support’s Twitter accounts, there will be no fee for playing used games on the system. However, that still leaves some questions to be answered, because according to Microsoft all games are installed on the hard drive. They have also said that the Xbox One is designed “to enable customers to trade in and resell games. We’ll have more details to share later.”
So what’s to stop 20 people from banding together and swapping different games with each other and installing it on their machines? It’s possible that the disc might still have some value, if only to confirm that a person does indeed have the game already. Of course, it’s also completely likely that Microsoft is stretching the truth a bit here, and might not require people to pay for a used game for a few days. It might even be that Microsoft will have some sort “buy back” program, where gamers who are thinking of selling their game can get Microsoft to disassociate their copy of the game from their gamer tag. Here’s hoping that Microsoft officially announces its plans soon, because every hour that it waits to say if used games will work or not on the Xbox One is making the PS4 that much more attractive to consumers.
UPDATE: It looks like the Microsoft Support Team was wrong after all. According to corporate vice president Phil Harrison, you’ll need to enter a unique code to install a game. After it’s been installed on your system, that game will be linked to your gamer tag, and anybody who plays on that console will be able to access the game. If you try to let a buddy borrow your disc and have him play a game, however, he’ll be forced to pay for the game if he wants to play it. Of course, at that time he’ll have that game associated with his gamer tag, but it looks like it’s goodbye to letting buddies borrow your games. Microsoft does have a solution to let people resell games, though they aren’t really saying how it works. It’s also been confirmed that in order to install a game, you need to have a connection to the internet to authenticate your copy. Once you have the game installed, however, you do not need to be online, unless the game calls for it.
I’m liking the Xbox One less and less with every word I hear about it.
