Xbox One: No Games DRM or "Always Online"


Recommended Posts

Now if they'd go back and recompile all the XBLA titles to work on the One, I might consider getting one. I can annoyingly accept the lack of backwards compatibility for my physical disc collection, but the refusal to support and forced obsolescence of my XBLA digital purchases is one of the chief reasons I'm against a digital-only ecosystem. Yes, I knew going in that they may not be supported forever, but damn, one generation after the 360? Thats plain insulting! There are many other titles I'd like to buy off XBL, but no way I'm sinking more money into them at this point.

Back up:

 

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.

Someone neogaf got the official xbox blog to load. Here is what they posted...

 

 

Last week at E3, the excitement, creativity and future of our industry was on display for a global audience.

 
For us, the future comes in the form of Xbox One, a system designed to be the best place to play games this year and for many years to come. As is our heritage with Xbox, we designed a system that could take full advantage of advances in technology in order to deliver a breakthrough in game play and entertainment. We imagined a new set of benefits such as easier roaming, family sharing, and new ways to try and buy games. We believe in the benefits of a connected, digital future. 
 
Since unveiling our plans for Xbox One, my team and I have heard directly from many of you, read your comments and listened to your feedback. I would like to take the opportunity today to thank you for your assistance in helping us to reshape the future of Xbox One. 
 
You told us how much you loved the flexibility you have today with games delivered on disc. The ability to lend, share, and resell these games at your discretion is of incredible importance to you. Also important to you is the freedom to play offline, for any length of time, anywhere in the world.
 
So, today I am announcing the following changes to Xbox One and how you can play, share, lend, and resell your games exactly as you do today on Xbox 360. Here is what that means:
 
?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 to buying a disc from a retailer, you can also download games from Xbox Live on day of release. If you choose to download your games, you will be able to play them offline just like you do today. Xbox One games will be playable on any Xbox One console -- there will be no regional restrictions. 
 
 
 
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. 
 
 
 
We appreciate your passion, support and willingness to challenge the assumptions of digital licensing and connectivity. While we believe that the majority of people will play games online and access the cloud for both games and entertainment, we will give consumers the choice of both physical and digital content. We have listened and we have heard loud and clear from your feedback that you want the best of both worlds.
 
 
 
Thank you again for your candid feedback. Our team remains committed to listening, taking feedback and delivering a great product for you later this year.
No more always online requirement

The console no longer has to check in every 24 hours

All game discs will work on Xbox One as they do on Xbox 360

Authentication is no longer necessary

An Internet connection is only required when initially setting up the console

All downloaded games will function the same when online or offline

No additional restrictions on trading games or loaning discs

Region locks have been dropped

 

  • 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 to buying a disc from a retailer, you can also download games from Xbox Live on day of release. If you choose to download your games, you will be able to play them offline just like you do today. Xbox One games will be playable on any Xbox One console -- there will be no regional restrictions. 

Good news, I still don't plan on buying an Xbox180 but it's good to see they are listening.  I do think the game sharing (with friends) was a cool concept, however I think that no forced connect, no forced drm, etc far outweighs the loss of that.

It's official: http://news.xbox.com/2013/06/update

 

The question is, did it change anything about what they wanted to offer in the first place?

 

Looks like you can no longer instal a game and not use the disc again.

Also, looks like sharing has been dropped for disc games

 

Well done fanboy p***ks

It's official: http://news.xbox.com/2013/06/update

 

The question is, did it change anything about what they wanted to offer in the first place?

From what I understand, it's essentially same as Xbox 360. Which is a big ######ing shame!

  • Like 1

They should have kept the original requirements but add the "you need the disk in the drive" and disable family sharing if you ever lose internet. That would have solved the DRM issue without permanently losing the cool features.

  • Like 3

They should have kept the original requirements but add the "you need the disk in the drive" and disable family sharing if you ever lose internet. That would have solved the DRM issue without permanently losing the cool features.

 

Exactly, seems like a knee jerk reaction.

 

There were any number of ways they could have worked this.

Great, now I can't swap from game to game without having to switch discs in and out again unless my games re all digital downloads. 

 

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.

 

There goes the some of the stuff I liked.  meh, I was looking forward to being able to share and give away downloaded titles to. 
 

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Posts

    • Google reshuffles its AI coding team as it struggles to catch Anthropic by Karthik Mudaliar Google is already reorganizing the AI coding “strike team” it created roughly two months ago, as it attempts to find ways to close the gap with Anthropic in one of generative AI’s most commercially important areas. According to The Information, Google DeepMind is expanding the team’s focus to include “midtraining,” rather than concentrating only on coding tools and agents. Midtraining takes place after a model’s broad initial training but before the final stages that prepare it to follow instructions and perform specific tasks. In simple terms, it gives developers another opportunity to expose a model to carefully selected data before it is polished for release. That could help Google improve Gemini’s underlying coding abilities instead of relying only on better prompts, interfaces, or post-training. Previous research has found that midtraining can be particularly effective for code and mathematics, where models must move from general language knowledge to more structured tasks. Google reportedly created the original strike team in April. It was led by Google DeepMind research engineer Sebastian Borgeaud, who previously worked on model pretraining, and focused on complex, long-running programming jobs. Google co-founder Sergey Brin and Google DeepMind chief technology officer Koray Kavukcuoglu were also reportedly involved in the effort. DeepMind researchers were said to believe that Anthropic’s coding tools were outperforming Google’s Gemini models, prompting the company to give the project more attention. Anthropic has made coding a central part of its AI strategy through Claude Code and its Claude model family. The company has continued improving that area, with Claude Opus 4.8 offering upgrades for coding and other agentic tasks, along with the now-unavailable Mythos and Fable models. The reshuffle also comes at a time when Google faces increased competition for AI researchers. Gemini co-lead Noam Shazeer recently announced that he was leaving Google for OpenAI, while two other researchers who contributed to Gemini and DeepMind projects are reportedly preparing to join Anthropic. It remains unclear whether the reorganized team will produce a new public Gemini model or developer product. No release date, team size, or specific performance target has been disclosed. Source: The Information
    • Just remember - Microsoft is a trillion dollar company. They didn't have to raise the price this high. They chose to.
  • Recent Achievements

    • First Post
      kinowa earned a badge
      First Post
    • Rookie
      krychek57 went up a rank
      Rookie
    • Grand Master
      Jaybonaut went up a rank
      Grand Master
    • One Year In
      Philsl earned a badge
      One Year In
    • Dedicated
      Scoobystu earned a badge
      Dedicated
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      413
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      168
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      132
    4. 4
      Xenon
      73
    5. 5
      Michael Scrip
      73
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!