Xbox One Games Tied to Account and Console, Software Trade-In Plans Not Yet Revealed

The ongoing confusion and vagueness surrounding Microsoft's plan with used games continues to receive clarification and re-clarification.

In an interview with Phil Harrison, corporate vice president at Microsoft, he divulged some but not all of Microsoft's plans with used games and how the Xbox One will handle them. Phil Harrison explained that games will install on the console with the permission to play that game on the original console. Using the example of sharing a game with his son, Harrison said:

"I can give that piece of content to my son and he can play it on the same system."

But if you wanted to bring the latest copy of Halo to your friend's house, the console would require the owner of the game (presumably you) to sign into their Xbox Live account. If you then decide to loan your friend your copy of Halo for your friend to play on his own account, then your friend will need to pay for it. To bring the discussion to a conclusion, Harrison said:

"The bits [game data] are already on your hard drive, so it's just a question of going to our store and buying the game, and then it's instantly available to play."

So to clarify, a game stays tied to both your account and console. As long as you sign into your Xbox Live account on any other console, then you can easily play any game. Any other account used to play something not tied to that game, will require the used game owner to purchase the game at the store.

Trading in software will still remain possible but only under Microsoft's plan.  Unfortunately, Microsoft does not plan to announce any new information on this trading system at this time. 

Source: Eurogamer