Xbox One Will Utilize Pre-Owned Fee For Secondhand Games

Though Microsoft stayed far away from any mention of always-online DRM functionality for the Xbox One, the company did reveal some interesting measures to counteract used games. The Xbox One will tie all games to one singular Xbox Live account, meaning any other user will have to pay a fee to play.

According to Wired, the Xbox One will install every game from the disc onto the system's 500GB hard drive. This will be mandatory, as each game will then be tied to the user account that first installed the game. You will be able to play any title without the game disc after installation, however, the same could not be said for additional profiles that want to enjoy the same game.

Microsoft told the site if the disc was used with a second account, the person would be given the option to pay an undisclosed fee to install the game. The second account would then also own the game, and could play without the disc. When asked if a second user wanted to play the game without installing, Microsoft offered no answer.

While this is certainly a big deal for the future of the used games market, it's an even bigger deal for multi-user households. Since the game is tied to a specific account, and not the Xbox One console, any user other than the proprietary player may not be able to play the game without paying a second time. That's just ludicrous.

Game rentals will also likely suffer as a result. Now in addition to pay for the rental, you'll also have to pay a second time just to actually play the game. Microsoft had better clarify its policy shortly, as E3 is almost upon us, and there are bound to be plenty of gamers who would rather enjoy multi-platform game without such pay walls on the PlayStation 4.