To be brutally honest, while the Xbox One did pack a rather decent selection of games into its line-up during E3, when coupled with a rather poorly received announcement conference and being used to boost Sony’s own E3 Press Conference things weren’t looking promising in the build-up to the holiday season console rush. But while it may have seen like some in Microsoft were plugging their ears to demands of their fanbase, Microsoft have today confirmed they were going to do a complete 180 degree turn and bring back some of the features that made the Playstation 4 so well recieved and even a few that made the Playstation 3 my console of choice in this current generation.
The announcements are as follows:
1. There will be no 24-hour check for the Xbox One console.
After a one-time system set-up with the Xbox One, you will be able to use the console without ever having to connect to the internet again.
2. Trade-in’s etc to remain the same as the Xbox360
There is quite a lot of controversy surrounding the Xbox Ones limitations of trading in, lending, reselling, gifting and renting disc based games. They have decided to keep things exactly the same as they were in the Xbox360.
3. No Region Locks
Given that at launch Japan won’t even be a supported region, I am not so bothered about this. However if you want to import a game from North America to Australia or any other number of combinations this should now be possible – a feature that wasn’t mainstream with the Xbox360 but was present in all bar one game release on the Playstation 3.
Of course, as Microsoft claim below this will impact some of the more beneficial perks announced:
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.
While it may not rectify all issues that has been brought up with the platform – including grumblings in relation to the indie game market and the new “Need to have a publisher” requirement – it is good to see they are at least taking some user feedback on board.
