Microsoft defends the Xbox One's used game policy

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In an interview with Ars Technica, Microsoft's marketing chief for Xbox, Yusuf Mehdi, has defended the licensing and used game policies of the Xbox One, stating that the reaction from gamers was "kind of as we expected". In the long run, he expects that gamers will see the benefits of the policies on the console, as the gaming market shifts to digital-only in favor of physical discs.

He said that Microsoft is "trying to do something pretty big in terms of moving the industry forward for console gaming into the digital world", adding that "we believe digital is better". In the future, Mehdi believes that the move to all-digital will provide the capabilities for different licensing models, although for the time being it's a "big change" that Microsoft needs to educate users about to "make sure that people understand".

Speaking directly about the situation surrounding Microsoft's controversial Xbox One used game policy, Mehdi stated that they weren't simply "giving in" to publishers with the policy, instead they were trying to balance the needs of consumers ("first and foremost") as well as publishers, retailers, and Microsoft themselves.

"Within that, we've tried to optimize, and I think we've found a great balance across all of those dimensions. But there are tradeoffs. We do want to support everyone in that system, beginning with the consumer. But we want publishers to get paid for the great IP they work on. We want retailers to be able to drive and sell our products and make a profit. So we are trying to balance across all those."

Medhi also clarified the situation regarding the sharing of your Xbox One game library with up to ten "family members", despite not being able to give all the details at this stage. According to him, a "family member" doesn't actually have to live in your house - they could be 3,000 miles away - and you'll be able to link/add Xbox Live accounts to access your shared game library, although only one person can play a copy of a shared game at the same time.

Finally, Mehdi also said it was "hard to say" what the reaction from the greater community will be over the Xbox One's various restrictions and policies.

"I think it's fair to say there's a segment of consumers at this show in particular who really pay attention, who are very passionate about all aspects of gaming, and that we listen to closely. In a broader set of community, people don't pay attention to a lot of the details. We've seen it in the research, we've seen it in a lot of the data points."

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Source: http://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-defends-the-xbox-ones-used-game-policy

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"Microsoft defends the Xbox One's used game policy" :: Login/Create an Account :: 124 comments

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platyuiPosted:

Yin As technologically advanced as we are, I really don't think leaning towards a digital-only model is smart at the moment. It's still too early for that. They should have waited to do this in the next generation of consoles (if there is another one.) I just don't think it's time.


But these generation of consoles are going to last 6+ years until they come out with another one. Like Microsoft has been saying, it's going to be better in the long run and PS4 is going to be way behind

platyuiPosted:

I-DA-KING I hope that they don't move to Digital only yet, If my account gets banned that my console gets fried i just lost $500 - $750 in games


If it was digital only it would be on the cloud and synced to your profile not the console itself

beats91Posted:

The Xbone just sucks

I-DA-KINGPosted:

I hope that they don't move to Digital only yet, If my account gets banned that my console gets fried i just lost $500 - $750 in games

YinPosted:

As technologically advanced as we are, I really don't think leaning towards a digital-only model is smart at the moment. It's still too early for that. They should have waited to do this in the next generation of consoles (if there is another one.) I just don't think it's time.

platyuiPosted:

County_Cavan I really think people are being extremely narrow minded when they think about the Xbox One.
It annoys me when people say they've failed and PS4 is going to be so much better. Ok there's about a $100 price difference, sure, it is a decent amount of money, but if you already spending at least $400 surely another $100 won't kill you, for a console that's going to last you for years to come.
People saying it's a 'tv system' are wrong. It's still going to be a great gaming system, it will still be at least on par with all gaming features of the PS4. Why don't people see the tv/entertainment element as a bonus for the Xbox?
No second hand games has been explained above and the 'always online' feature is similar. They need to change things to stop piracy and companies losing out on money they deserve.
The Xbox One will have many exclusives and features the PS4 won't have, aswel as the PS4 having some the Xbox One won't. There are positives and negatives to both.

I'm not an Xbox fanboy, I kmow the PS4 will be a great consle. It just annoys me how people say the Xbox One won't be..


Thank you, I have been trying to get this through peoples heads ever since they announced the consoles. It seems like all of the well educated population knows that the xbox one is going to be just like the PS4 but everyone else is just going with the bandwagon and saying that it sucks and going to buy a PS4.

I'm always going to stick with Microsoft when it comes to consoles. They have better security and better ideas for changing the future of gaming.

zredstarv2Posted:

County_Cavan I really think people are being extremely narrow minded when they think about the Xbox One.
It annoys me when people say they've failed and PS4 is going to be so much better. Ok there's about a $100 price difference, sure, it is a decent amount of money, but if you already spending at least $400 surely another $100 won't kill you, for a console that's going to last you for years to come.
People saying it's a 'tv system' are wrong. It's still going to be a great gaming system, it will still be at least on par with all gaming features of the PS4. Why don't people see the tv/entertainment element as a bonus for the Xbox?
No second hand games has been explained above and the 'always online' feature is similar. They need to change things to stop piracy and companies losing out on money they deserve.
The Xbox One will have many exclusives and features the PS4 won't have, aswel as the PS4 having some the Xbox One won't. There are positives and negatives to both.

I'm not an Xbox fanboy, I kmow the PS4 will be a great consle. It just annoys me how people say the Xbox One won't be..


piracy will never be stopped! people will always create mods and cracks to make the console work offline. Microsoft is doing this because they wan't to make more money by cutting out the middle man and preventing you from selling their property. It's all about the greed.

VampiricPosted:

Would rather have the PS4.
Microsoft are overcomplicating things that don't need to be overcomplicated and changing things that don't need to be changed.

xboxking707Posted:

in All fairness i wouldn't mind if Microsoft stop making discs and it was all bought of the Xbox BUT... The prices on Xbox Marketplace are far to high, for i game i could buy secondhand in a game store for 15 pounds ( i live in the UK ) Xbox are still selling it for 50 pounds. i bought NFS Most Wanted 12 For 13 pounds secondhand and not even a scratch on the disc and on The Xbox Marketplace it was still going for 49.99 pounds. i have never paid over 45 pounds for a normal edition of a game and i never really want to. if Xbox one games were all going to the market place the prices would probably be around 80 pounds when first released. i would rather go buy a ps4 and get the game second hand for maby 30 pounds, i have been an Xbox fan boy for about 9 years and i will admit to that but i think my time has come to an end! I'm sorry Microsoft but you blew it this time, Sony you now have one more True Xbox fan who is converting to PS4, Xbox you let 100,000's fans down now your going to pay the price! if you don't agree fine whatever everyone is entitled to their own point of view and this is mine, PS4 Here i come :D

zredstarv2Posted:

For the digital bull crap to work, you would need 90% to have a 150 dollar CONNECTION or Google fiber. I don't know about you, but my internet sucks. Were a good 5-10 years before the mass has a Gigabit connection. Until the time being, I'm not going to wait 15 hours to download a 20-30 Gigabyte game. I want the game downloaded in a matter of minutes when the time comes. It's a console for a reason, its suppose to be efficient and easy. I download games on the computer because I don't mind waiting. It's a gaming computer, If I want to play a game on MAX Settings and download a trillion mods I can because it's gaming computer that cost 2 grand. Console's are cheap and suppose to be easy. There's no point in requiring DRM, product codes, and downloading games from your stupid market on this upcoming generation, unless your a greedy company known as Microsoft that wants to take advantage and control of everyone.

Besides 500GB Hard drive WTF? That's I got to say.


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