Microsoft has quickly responded to the swelling demands for a clarification on its stand on used games for its just released next gen console Xbox One saying second-hand games will indeed be supported by the new console.
The hullaballoo began after an article on Wired suggested that Xbox One would require users pay a fee to transfer game over to a second party. According to the report, all games would be installed onto the console's HDD before they can be played.
Here is an extract of the Wired article:
"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.
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.
But what if a second person simply wanted to put the disc in and play the game without installing - and without paying extra? In other words, what happens to our traditional concept of a "used game"? This is a question for which Microsoft did not yet have an answer, and is surely something that game buyers (as well as renters and lenders) will want to know."
Responding to this, a Microsoft sportsperson confirmed to Polygon that Xbox One will support used games. "Xbox One's support for used games and these other scenarios may not look like they have on previous console generations, and that's what we'll be explaining as soon as we're able," the spokesperson said.
In yet another clarification, Microsoft's Phil Harrison has provided Kotaku with further details confirming that gamers will be able to sell their Xbox One games online and that the company is in the process of working out a solution for it. However, when a player wants to use a game's code on a friend's account, he/she will have to pay a fee, which is not some sort of activation fee, but the actual price of that game. "The bits that are on that disc, you can give it to your friend and they can install it on an Xbox One. They would then have to purchase the right to play that game through Xbox Live," Harrison said.
Meanwhile, Microsoft's director of Xbox Live programming Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb acknowledged the prevailing confusion around second-hand games for Xbox One and said, "We know there is some confusion around used games on Xbox One and wanted to provide a bit of clarification on exactly what we've confirmed today. While there have been many potential scenarios discussed, today we have only confirmed that we designed Xbox One to enable our customers to trade in and resell games at retail."
"Another piece of clarification around playing games at a friend's house - 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," Major Nelson clarifies.
Even with so many versions of clarifications coming out from different corners, there is still no clarify on how the new console will impact used or rented games or what really happens when players lend games to their friends.
