Microsoft confirms 'pre-owned fee' for Xbox One.
Mandatory game installation required for all games; second install on separate Live account sits behind paywall.
Microsoft has confirmed that all Xbox One games will require mandatory installation onto the system's hard drive and, to install the same disc onto another user's drive, a fee must be paid.
Individual games will be tied to Xbox Live accounts, Microsoft said, meaning that the software giant can detect whether a game has been sold to a retailer and repurchased, or handed from one friend to another. In such instances, the second user must pay a fee.
"On the new Xbox, all game discs are installed to the HDD to play," a Microsoft representative told Wired.
The company added that, once discs are installed on the hard drive, games can be played without a disc being in the tray.
The Wired article then elaborates: "What follows naturally from this is that each disc would have to be tied to a unique Xbox Live account, else you could take a single disc and pass it between everyone you know and copy the game over and over. Since this is clearly not going to happen, each disc must then only install for a single owner."
It added: "Microsoft did say that if a disc was used with a second account, that owner would be given the option to pay a fee and install the game from the disc, which would then mean that the new account would also own the game and could play it without the disc."
Microsoft did not disclose what the second-user fee would amount too, and did not clarify further on the matter.
The article claims that there is no sweeping 'always-online' requirement for future Xbox One games.
Update: Jon Hicks, the editor of Official Xbox magazine, has claimed that pre-owned games will be un-installed from the previous owner's system and installed onto another's. It is not clear if this process would negate a pre-owned fee.
***The main reason why I post this is because I am wondering how will all this affect Nintendo's online strategy.
****Nintendo is the only one who has not implemented a system like this. Nintendo is the only one being blacklisted by EA. Coincidence? I think not.
***Sony said they wouldnt block used games, but it left it up to the individual publishers.
Mandatory game installation required for all games; second install on separate Live account sits behind paywall.
Microsoft has confirmed that all Xbox One games will require mandatory installation onto the system's hard drive and, to install the same disc onto another user's drive, a fee must be paid.
Individual games will be tied to Xbox Live accounts, Microsoft said, meaning that the software giant can detect whether a game has been sold to a retailer and repurchased, or handed from one friend to another. In such instances, the second user must pay a fee.
"On the new Xbox, all game discs are installed to the HDD to play," a Microsoft representative told Wired.
The company added that, once discs are installed on the hard drive, games can be played without a disc being in the tray.
The Wired article then elaborates: "What follows naturally from this is that each disc would have to be tied to a unique Xbox Live account, else you could take a single disc and pass it between everyone you know and copy the game over and over. Since this is clearly not going to happen, each disc must then only install for a single owner."
It added: "Microsoft did say that if a disc was used with a second account, that owner would be given the option to pay a fee and install the game from the disc, which would then mean that the new account would also own the game and could play it without the disc."
Microsoft did not disclose what the second-user fee would amount too, and did not clarify further on the matter.
The article claims that there is no sweeping 'always-online' requirement for future Xbox One games.
Update: Jon Hicks, the editor of Official Xbox magazine, has claimed that pre-owned games will be un-installed from the previous owner's system and installed onto another's. It is not clear if this process would negate a pre-owned fee.
***The main reason why I post this is because I am wondering how will all this affect Nintendo's online strategy.
****Nintendo is the only one who has not implemented a system like this. Nintendo is the only one being blacklisted by EA. Coincidence? I think not.
***Sony said they wouldnt block used games, but it left it up to the individual publishers.