All those negative Internet reactions and ridicules have probably led Microsoft to believe that the Xbox One would be better off without its DRM-focused approach. That’s because it has reversed its stance on the matter, much to the delight of Xbox fans. The next-gen console from the technology giant will now be able run used games just like the 360, while it won’t even require gamers to connect to the Internet every 24 hours. And that’s not all; regional restrictions on games have also been scraped off by the company.
According to Microsoft, this decision has been taken keeping in mind the feedback which has come the company’s way ever since it unveiled the Xbox One. But it’d be foolish to believe that this choice has nothing to do with the big blows that Sony had dealt at E3 by revealing that the PS4 won’t feature any restrictions on online connectivity as well as used games. Following this, pre-order charts for the machine had skyrocketed, leaving the Xbox One to suffer in the process.
But now, with Microsoft’s U-turn, things finally look like they could fall into balance soon. In a press release it issued yesterday, the company disclosed that no kind of an Internet connection will be needed for gamers to play offline on the Xbox One. And of course, they will not even be required to mandatorily connect to the Internet every 24 hours. This will come into effect only after a day one patch however, so buyers of the console will indeed be directed to connect online at least once in their lifetimes.
Trade-ins, lending, reselling, gifting and renting disc-based games will work just as it works with the 360. This means, all the complicated sharing scenarios that had been announced earlier have been discarded. Through these new changes, the One console from Microsoft finally looks like it’s in the race once again. Can we expect a total bounce-back?