Microsoft Muddies Statements on Online Requirements, Used Games Policies

On Tuesday, Microsoft finally unleashed its next generation console, the Xbox One, on the masses. While the press conference was full of interesting concepts, what followed when the press was allowed to ask questions about the console was a bit of a hot mess.

During the post-show interviews, Microsoft's Xbox executives spun many tales about what the Xbox One can and will do when it arrives. Unfortunately, Xbox Support was passing incredibly different information on to solicitors. The end result was a mixed bag of possibilities, with few clear answers and quite a bit of confusion.

Late Tuesday night, Microsoft attempted to wash all the confusion away by passing any and all information off as "potential scenarios." According to Polygon, reports that the Xbox One will require daily connections to the internet were not entirely accurate. "There have been reports of a specific time period — those were discussions of potential scenarios, but we have not confirmed any details today, nor will we be," Microsoft said in a statement.

Additionally, there was discussion that used games on the Xbox One would require a small fee to be used by another player. "While Phil [Harrison] discussed many potential scenarios around games on Xbox One, today we have only confirmed that we designed Xbox One to enable our customers to trade in and resell games at retail," Microsoft told Polygon. It's not an outright denial, but it's also curious just how secretive Microsoft is being about a console coming out in just a few months. These aren't small features. These are a major part of the culture and the console.

That the company still doesn't have its act together this late in the game is somewhat troubling. The Xbox One will likely be fine once it does arrive. The issue is how little Microsoft actually seems to know about the device its pedaling.