(Illustration: GamingPlanet.nl)
Microsoft is reversing its controversial policies for the Xbox One. The console will no longer check disc games online every 24 hours, and players will once again be able to lend, sell, give away and trade their games as they do on Xbox 360.
The Xbox One has not even reached the shops, yet its original licensing system is already being replaced. Microsoft presented the restrictions as part of a modern digital library. Many players mainly saw a console turning every physical game into permission that had to be confirmed repeatedly.
Microsoft is now choosing a simpler answer: anyone buying a disc can use and pass on that disc. It does not sound especially innovative. After the past few weeks, it feels almost revolutionary.
Microsoft unveiled the Xbox One in May as a console working continuously with internet services and the cloud. On 6 June, the company published its concrete connection and game-licensing policies. Only then did it become clear how strongly physical games would also be tied to that system.
A disc would mainly provide a quick way to install the game on the hard drive. A digital copy would then be linked to the console and account. This offered an attractive advantage: the player no longer needed the disc in the drive and could access the library from another Xbox One after signing in.
An online check came with it. The primary console could remain offline for up to 24 hours. Anyone accessing the library on another Xbox One had to reconnect every hour. When that period expired, games were blocked until the console connected again. Live television, Blu-ray and DVD playback would continue to work.
Xbox One did not therefore need to be online literally every second. In practice, it still had to prove regularly that the player remained entitled to use the game. For many players, the difference between “always online” and “compulsorily online once per day” was about as reassuring as the difference between being woken every night and only six nights per week.
The largest change was not installing games, but what happened to the disc afterwards. On Xbox 360, a disc is an independent copy. You can take it to a friend, lend it, sell it or trade it. The recipient needs no permission from Microsoft or the publisher.
Under the original Xbox One model, publishers would decide whether disc games could be resold. Trade-ins would only work through participating retailers. Microsoft said it would not charge a platform fee, but a publisher could refuse resale support or impose commercial terms on retailers.
Giving a game to a friend was likewise possible only when the publisher allowed it. The recipient had to have been on the player's friends list for at least thirty days, and each copy could be transferred only once. Lending and rental would not be available at launch at all.
This altered the nature of the purchase. The disc remained a physical object in the player's hands, but the important usage rights became software features controlled by the platform and publisher.
You could hold the box, inspect the disc and even hand it solemnly to somebody else. Whether that person could then do anything with it remained a question for the servers.
The original plan was not built exclusively to obstruct players. Microsoft was trying to combine properties of digital downloads with physical retail.
After installation, a disc game could start without the disc. The entire library could be opened on any Xbox One by signing in. Everyone on the home console received access to the games, while up to ten family members could use a shared library from other consoles.
That family plan was unusually generous. Microsoft described a family member visiting a friend and receiving access not merely to one game they had carried along, but to the entire shared collection. The owner and one family member could play from that library at the same time.
These were useful ideas. A player did not need to transport a pile of discs, and a damaged disc mattered less after installation. The console could manage downloads, patches and access automatically.
The problem was that Microsoft did not offer these benefits as a choice alongside traditional disc ownership. The physical game was pulled into the same digital licensing system. Removing the need for the disc also removed the freedom to pass that disc on without permission.
Convenience and control arrived as one package. Players mainly asked why they had to accept the second to receive the first.
During E3, Sony made clear that the PlayStation 4 would not require an online check for offline games and that physical titles could be lent or sold normally.
Sony then published an instructional video explaining how to share PS4 games. The entire demonstration consisted of one person handing a game to another. “Thanks,” said the recipient. End of guide.
The joke worked because Microsoft now required several rules, conditions and exceptions for the same act. Something that had always been an ordinary property of a disc suddenly became a competitive product feature.
The contrast made it difficult for Microsoft to keep the discussion focused on cloud features and a digital future. Players mainly heard that one console needed repeated permission and the other did not.
Microsoft's explanations did little to improve matters. The company continued emphasising what the connected model enabled, while the questions became increasingly simple. Can I take a game somewhere? Can I lend it? Does the console work when the internet is unavailable for a long time?
When the answer to “may I give my own disc to somebody?” requires a policy document, perhaps the player is not the one struggling to understand the future.
Don Mattrick, president of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business, announced today that the policies are changing. After a one-time system setup, disc games require no internet connection. The 24-hour check is gone.
Disc games can be traded, lent, sold, given away and rented as they are on Xbox 360 today. There will be no Xbox One restrictions on using or transferring the physical copy. The announced regional restrictions are also being removed.
Games purchased digitally through Xbox Live can likewise be played offline. Digital downloads cannot be resold or shared through the original family plan, however.
A familiar action also returns for physical games: the disc must be in the drive during play. That is less convenient than Microsoft's first plan, but it makes proof of ownership local and transferable again. Whoever has the disc can start the game. Giving it to somebody else also passes on the ability to play.
Microsoft consequently loses part of its new digital model. Players regain something that barely needed announcing as a feature until last month.
This discussion extends beyond one online check. Microsoft has shown how easily a physical game can be turned into a managed digital licence.
The player still buys a box and disc from a shop. The platform can nevertheless decide how frequently the game connects, which retailers may accept it, who may receive it and how many transfers are allowed. The visible form of the product remains physical while practical control moves into the account infrastructure.
This matters because physical media is often treated as protection against digital dependence. A disc only helps when the software on it remains independently usable or at least functions as lasting proof of access. When a server must grant permission every day, the disc mainly preserves data rather than certainty.
Microsoft is reversing the system before the console launches. The original model will therefore not become reality for consumers. The proposal has nevertheless demonstrated that the boundary between a purchased copy and a temporary licence is not determined by the product's physical form.
A disc can sit inside a box while behaving exactly like a download tied to an account.
Microsoft writes that it has heard players through reactions, comments and direct feedback. The company acknowledges that freely lending, sharing and reselling games matters, as does the ability to play offline for as long as people need.
This makes the reversal more than an adjustment to an unpopular feature. A major platform attempted to rewrite the standard rules for physical console games. Players made clear that they did not accept those rules as inevitable progress.
The digital future is not disappearing. Xbox One games will be available as downloads on release day, and Microsoft continues to believe in cloud features and connected systems. The difference is that the physical option now becomes a genuinely different choice again.
Anyone buying digitally accepts the benefits and restrictions of an account licence. Anyone buying a disc keeps a copy that works without daily permission and can be transferred to another person.
Whether Microsoft can fully restore the trust lost before launch remains to be seen. The console has at least received a rare system update before its first sale: not for the hardware, but for the idea of who should control a game after purchase.
Today, the answer is simpler again.
The person holding the disc.
Sources: Xbox Wire: Your Feedback Matters, Xbox Wire: How Games Licensing Works on Xbox One, Xbox Wire: Xbox One A Modern Connected Device, PlayStation: Official PlayStation Used Game Instructional Video.
