Gamers won big today with Microsoft's reversal of its original Xbox One DRM, removing the internet connection requirement and doing away with its strict used-games policy. But if I've learned one thing in my 25 years of existence it's that you can't have your cake and eat it too. The gains we made today did not come without some losses. How poetic of me, right?
So what did we give up by getting the changes we demanded? It seems quite a few of Xbox One's cooler features will be cut as a result of the policy change — most notably the ability to take your game library with you anywhere and the family sharing library.
"There’s a few things we won’t be able to deliver as a result of this change," Marc Whitten, VP of Xbox Live told Kotaku. "One of the things we were very excited about was 'wherever we go my games are always with me.' Now, of course your physical games won’t show up that way. The games you bought digitally will. You’ll have to bring your discs with you to have your games with you. Similarly, the sharing library [is something] we won’t be able to deliver at launch."
Family sharing was actually quite an attractive feature that would let you share any game in your library with up to nine other "family" members. Family members could be defined by anyone you deemed as such. Now the Xbox One will offer the same type of experience as the current Xbox 360 — a disc-based experience that won't require you to register your games online and check-in every 24 hours (or 1 hour if playing at a friend's house). Unfortunately, this means you'll have to say goodbye to your actual game for a bit when lending it to a friend, as opposed to just giving them the digital rights.
"The way to think about it is it works the way it does with 360," Whitten added. "You can give them, loan them, trade them, play them. They will work exactly as they do today."
Additionally, the new changes mean Xbox One owners will have to download a day-one patch to enable the system's offline mode.
Every decision has a price, right? Was Microsoft's decision to move toward a disc-based future the right one? Are you sticking with the PS4 or were you always on the Xbox One side to begin with? We want to know your thoughts on all of the Xbox One changes in the comments below!
