In a stunning reversal of the announced capabilities and restrictions of the Xbox One,Microsoft has just made the next generation console racemuch more interesting.Confirming a report from Giant Bomb earlier today, Microsoft has announced today that they’ve listened to player feedback, and are lifting two of the most important restrictions of the console. Here they are, pulled straight from Microsoft’s blog. The link may be not working, but rest assured the post was live at one point.
- An internet connection will not be required to play offline Xbox One games – After a one-time system set-up with a new Xbox One, you can play any disc based game without ever connecting online again. There is no 24 hour connection requirement and you can take your Xbox One anywhere you want and play your games, just like on Xbox 360.
- Trade-in, lend, resell, gift, and rent disc based games just like you do today – There will be no limitations to using and sharing games, it will work just as it does today on Xbox 360.
In addition, they’ve done away with region locking, and it should be noted that these changes come with a price.
“These changes will impact some of the scenarios we previously announced for Xbox One. The sharing of games will work as it does today, you will simply share the disc. Downloaded titles cannot be shared or resold. Also, similar to today, playing disc based games will require that the disc be in the tray. ”
But what’s been shouted from the rooftops the past few weeks is that this is a price most customers are more than willing to pay.
This seems like the best of both worlds, and it’s more or less identical to what Sony has proposed for the PS4 on first glance. You can stick with disc based games to lend and share if you want, or you can build a digital library, understanding you can’t share it. And though the online check-in would have realistically affected a relatively small percentage of the player base, that group is surely celebrating right now. The same goes for those affected by region locking, which in truth is probably the bigger deal.
This whole sequence of events is, quite frankly, shocking. Microsoft was ultimately led to the right decision regarding these policies, but they had to be dragged kicking and screaming through the mud to get there. The past month has been nothing but a PR nightmare for them, with E3 possibly doing serious, lasting damage to the Xbox One. Even with these changes, it’s unclear what sort of trust and good faith they’ve lost along the way.
It’s hard to see this as anything but surrender from Microsoft to both outraged fans and Sony. Obviously Sony isn’t being mentioned at all in these new proclamations, but their shadow looms large here as these new policies mirror their own. I have to wonder how this affects any deals Microsoft had cut with publishers regarding used game policy, as there were surely many of those in place leading up to this change.
This was a necessary, direct response to public outcry, as even longtime loyalists were starting to swear off Microsoft as a result of these policies. And it wasn’t just rabid fanboys, the entire Xbox-loving military took offense to an internet requirement policy that seemed to say to them, “the Xbox One is not for you.” In truth, that’s how many people felt, those who liked lending discs, trading in old games for new ones, or having the ability to play completely offline. The Xbox One was not for them.
The question is, what happens now?
How forgiving will Xbox fans be with Microsoft here? To what degree does this pull them back on equal footing with Sony? There are still issues aplenty for the Xbox One, even with always-on and game lending/resale sorted out. There’s still the increasingly creepy Kinect, with its all-seeing and hearing eyes and ears that’s a mandatory part of the system. And most importantly, there’s still that $100 price difference from PS4′s $399 to their $499.
Before, the choice was incredibly obvious between consoles as the PS4 had way less restrictions and cost less to boot. Now, they essentially have the same capabilities, but one is $100 more. Between that fact and the goodwill Microsoft may have lost for good among customers, the PS4 is still in a pretty great position heading into November, even if the playing field has been leveled somewhat.
Still, it’s rather insane that the backlash to this was so great that it actually caused Microsoft to do a full 180 here. Perhaps it was mandatory with how much the Xbox One was getting slammed by the press and the public, but it’s still amazing they actually did it. Imagine how many headaches they could have saved by just having these policies from the get-go. This was Sony throwing a wrench in their works, plain and simple, and they were forced to respond. If the PS4 had simply fallen in line with Microsoft’s utopian vision of a new era of digital downloads and constant internet access, the resulting outcry would have surely been met with silence by both companies.
This console war just got even more interesting, and now it’s likely to be a much closer race in the early stages than before. This development obviously requires much more follow-up, and we’ll be checking in with Microsoft, publishers and fans for more angles to this breaking story.
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