We may have mentioned it a few times on the site already, but Microsoft's unveiling of their newest home console, the Xbox One, didn't exactly go that well. Although their hour long broadcast spent longer promoting the console's capabilities as a set-top box than it did mentioning the few games that were present, it wasn't until after the event that the true scale of the calamity started to unfold. For weeks before, we'd heard rumours about how this was going to be one of the most restrictive consoles ever, with harsh, unprecedented measures designed to restrict what you can do with the games you've bought. Rather than coming out and allaying everyone's fears at their event, Microsoft instead stoked them to boiling point by completely ignoring any concerns while on stage, and offering only a series of washy statements, guarded answers, and even contradictory responses afterwards - all of which led you to think that Microsoft either really didn't know what they were talking about, or had a very big secret to hide.
As it turns out, it seems it's rather more of the latter.
Having seemingly decided they couldn't let the uncertainty go on any longer (or preferring to get it out the way before they show off their games this coming Monday at E3, in the hope it'll all have blown over in the mean time), Microsoft have put up a rather long statement on the internet that hopes to clear up some of the key concepts of the Xbox One. Somewhat incredibly, it's still not entirely clear how certain aspects of the machine's anti-used game measures will work, such is the incredible amounts of complexity within them, but in summary, the main points are as follows.
- When you buy a game on the Xbox One, for all intents and purposes, you're buying a license, not the game. Although you own the physical disc, you can only do with it what the game's publisher will allow.
- Once you buy a game, whether on a disc or as a download, it's added to your library, and locked to your account and console.
- The console will then have to connect to the internet once every 24 hours when you're logged in, in order to check that the licenses for the games you own are still valid. If your internet, or Xbox Live is down for more than 24 hours (and that isn't without precedent), you won't be able to play any games, single player or otherwise, until your connection is restored.
- If you're playing one of your games on a friend's console, the machine will need to connect to the internet once every hour to check the license's status.
- Microsoft will be allowing for some sort of family account. Up to ten members of your family will be able to access a single library of games, across any Xbox One. If you have several consoles in the same house, you'll be able to play one game on the one machine while another family member plays a different game on a different console. It appears that this may be limited to a maximum of two people accessing the same "library" of games at any one time, however, as the official release states: "You can always play your games, and any one of your family members can be playing from your shared library at a given time.", with the emphasis being on "any one".
And then things get a bit sinister.
- Individual publishers get to decide whether you can trade your game in or not. While Microsoft have announced you'll be able to trade their games in, other publishers may choose to block it, with all eyes currently looking at EA. Other publishers may allow you to trade games in, but only for a fee, letting them control the price of the market.
- You'll only be able to trade games in at certain, approved retailers. It hasn't yet been revealed which retailers these are, but it doesn't look good for indie stores, eBay, or individual sellers.
- As a result of the draconian DRM (digital rights management) and license checking, renting or loaning games will not be possible on the Xbox One, at least "at launch".
- Borrowing a game from a friend is impossible.
- Publishers get to decide whether you'll be able to pass a game onto your friend permanently. Again, while Microsoft have said you'll be able to do so, even they plan to put restrictions on the terms - you'll only be able to do this once per game (after which it'll be locked to your friends account - so forget passing it around a group of friends), and you're only able to give a game to someone who's been on your friends list for more than 30 days.
In a nutshell then, the Xbox One is a console that has been built from the ground up to require an internet connection to work, that then uses that connection to actively restrict, monitor, or otherwise control what you can do with your games. It's a bitter enough pill to swallow, but the tone of the official release makes things even worse. "Publishers can enable you to give games to friends." "We designed Xbox One so game publishers can enable you to trade in your games at participating retailers. " Enable? Publishers can enable you to do something you've always been able to do since consoles were invented, and we should feel in some way privileged? The whole tone implies that actually, the DRM measures don't take away rights, they aren't restrictive, but actually, they're a positive, and we should all be grateful to those kind and benevolent publishers who enable us to trade in, or share our games with our friends. From the sounds of the release, if publishers can "enable" trading in games, then it'll be "disabled" by default. And that's a very scary thought indeed.
At a time when seemingly nary a week goes by without an article predicting the death of consoles, due to competition from Facebook, iPhones, or other platforms that really aren't competing, Microsoft seem to have just given everyone a reason to be worried. If you buy an Xbox One, any games you then buy would appear to be on borrowed time. Making you jump through hoop after hoop after hoop just to do something as simple as lending a game to your friend, and without rules that will seemingly differ from publisher to publisher, at least now we know why everything seemed like such a confused mess after the official unveil. It's because that's exactly what it is.
Meanwhile, those with a passing interest in games will be watching Sony very closely next week. Nintendo have already played their hand - their console doesn't support the same restrictive DRM. You'll always be able to trade in games, you'll always be able to pass them on to your friends, and even if your internet goes down, they'll still work. For their efforts, they've been rewarded by publishers pulling their support, as the suits put their bets on the console that lets them be as restrictive as they want. For Sony, the answers are less clear. While it was rumoured they'd also be restricting used games, several senior staff have since gone on record stating that the PS4 will not require an internet connection, which would seem to suggest the draconian DRM of the Xbox One may be another Microsoft exclusive.
Either way, it's going to be an interesting - if critical - few days for the games industry, and for everyone that enjoys the games it puts out. If there's enough of a backlash, there's a chance that publishers may not risk making use of the Xbox One's many restrictive features, if they're concerned they stand to lose more than they may gain, but as things stand, that's looking like little more than a pipe dream. On the Xbox One at least, we could be entering into a corporate dream, and a consumer's nightmare.
