Xbox One Setbacks: Used Game Fee, No Backwards Compatibility?

Microsoft unveiled their next-gen console, the Xbox One, but left many questions from concerned fans unanswered. And shortly after the media event ended yesterday, reports began to emerge that some of the disheartening rumors may in fact be true.  

Wired had a chance to go over the Xbox One prior to the big announcement today and revealed that the system will require games to be tied to a Xbox Live account.

"On the new Xbox, all game discs are installed to the HDD to play."

This policy would allow Microsoft to lock players out of games that had already been registered to an account, in other words, any used game.

Unfortunately, this seems to be exactly what Microsoft will be doing. Linking a used game to a second account will be possible, but will come with a currently undisclosed fee.

These two "features," in conjunction, would basically prevent a user from bringing a game over to a friend's house for them to try. Not only would they have to install the game to their hard drive before playing, they'd also be charged for the privilege.

Microsoft has since replied to the Wired report.

"We are designing Xbox One to enable customers to trade in and resell games. We'll have more details to share later."

Wired also reports that while the Xbox One will not be "always online," there is some truth to that rumor. The new Xbox will give developers the ability to create games that utilize Microsoft's Azure cloud computing service. This would allow them to offload some of the processing to Microsoft servers. If a game developer chose to go this route, their game would obviously need to be constantly connected to the internet.

A Microsoft executive stated to Wired that while the company is not forcing this feature on to developers, they "hope" developers will utilize it.

Additionally, Microsoft has confirmed that the Xbox One will not be backwards compatible with Xbox 360 or original Xbox games.

"The system is based on a different core architecture, so back-compat doesn't really work from that perspective," Xbox Live Vice President Marc Whitten said. 

The PlayStation 4 will likewise not support backward compatibility, as the x86 CPU is a significant switch from the PS3's PowerPC architecture.

Unlike the Wii U, Microsoft also has no current plans to release Xbox 360 and original Xbox content via streaming or download sources.

"Microsoft does, however, plan to keep selling the Xbox 360 alongside the new console for the foreseeable future," Whitten said.

"This isn't about getting rid of the Xbox 360."

The lack of backwards compatibility and the used game issues have been on the forefront of many of the concerns raised by Xbox users. It is especially interesting that Microsoft chose not to address them at the media event itself, but instead the information is slowly seeping out in its aftermath.

Will the Xbox One's limitations affect your choice of next-gen consoles? Let us know in the comments section below.