Xbox One Games Require Installation, Console/Account-Linked (Updated)

Games will require installation to Xbox One, and will link to Xbox Live accounts to allow players to re-install them to other machines... for a fee.

Updated

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While the reveal of Xbox One did not answer the questions about used games or the like, the questions members of the press were able to ask afterwards gave a lot more insight into the concerns and curiosities the internet has been abuzz about.

One of the primary issues that has been repeatedly brought up is the question of used games. The days of being able to take a game purchased over to a friend’s house to play there are a fast-fading memory in the modern age of DRM and piracy paranoia.  With the upcoming console war, whether or not players will be able to trade in or buy used games has been a big issue for gamers, and a huge one for retailers like Gamestop who make a very measurable amount, up to 40%, of their total revenue from used game sales.

Used Games Y/N?

The Xbox One, sadly, looks as if it will be, at least, very punishing to the idea of a used game, if not completely economically unfeasible.  All games purchased will install to the Xbox One’s hard drive.  They will also partially install to the Xbox Live account, connecting them to the gamer’s account.

Once that disk has installed the game once, it is fully capable of doing so again… for a fee.  This means any used game purchased for Xbox One will have an additional fee, set by Microsoft, in order to be playable.  This will almost certainly push the price of many used games well above where people consider them worth buying, and will reduce the overall revenue made from sales of them.

The system does have its advantages.  It does not require the disk itself to play the game once it is installed, and it provides a means by which someone whose console breaks, malfunctions, or is stolen can still play their games.  The fact it will require an additional fee per game is, sadly, not part of the good news.

Or maybe not? (Update)

According to Xbox Support, the fee for installing previously-activated games is inaccurate, despite being apparently confirmed by other news sources.  More information as it is made available.


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Writer, gamer, and generally hopeful beneath a veneer of cynicism.