Faced with a storm of protest from angry gamers, Microsoft has just announced a complete U-turn on its polices for its upcoming Xbox One console, meaning that game-sharing and offline game play will now be allowed.

Writing on the Xbox Wire blog, Microsoft’s president of interactive entertainment Don Mattrick said that the company had listened to the “candid” feedback of its customers and taken that on board. Mattrick, who previously stated that if you didn’t want to play games online then you should just buy an Xbox 360, says that the company will now “reshape the future of the Xbox One”.

“We appreciate your passion, support and willingness to challenge the assumptions of digital licensing and connectivity. While we believe that the majority of people will play games online and access the cloud for both games and entertainment, we will give consumers the choice of both physical and digital content. We have listened and we have heard loud and clear from your feedback that you want the best of both worlds.”

So What’s Changed?

Mattrick has announced a raft of changes from Microsoft’s original policies:

• No more always-on requirement: You’ll still need to connect one time when you first set-up the console, but after that you’ll be able to play disc-based games without ever needing to connect again.
• No more 24 hour check-in requirement: Previously Microsoft insisted that gamers had to ‘check-in’ once every 24 hours to continue playing games – that’s no longer the case.
• Pre-owned games can be traded for free: Anyone who buys a disc-based game will be able to sell, lend, loan, trade or give away that game without having to pay Microsoft a ‘fee’, as was suggested previously.
• Digital game purchases: If you decide to buy games online, you’ll be able to play these offline once the game has fully downloaded. However, digital games can never be shared or resold.
• Disc-based games: Now, gamers will be required to leave the physical game disc in the tray whilst playing it, something that does away with Microsoft’s previous concept of having a digital library gamers could access anywhere (unless they stick to buying digital games only).
• No regional locking: Gamers will be able to play any Xbox One game on any console, regardless of where that game was purchased.

Microsoft Forced To Surrender

To be honest, Microsoft’s backtracking is what the company should have done from the get-go. It’s now offering gamers the best of both worlds if you like – the chance to stick with disc-based games that you can share or sell as you wish, or the option to build a digital library of games, in the knowledge that this can never be sold or shared. As for the U-turns on the always-on requirement and regional restrictions, these were less of an issue, but certainly they affected a not inconsiderable number of gamers.

Microsoft has no doubt made the right decision in listening to its customers and changing its policies, but that doesn’t make this sequence of events any less shocking. Microsoft, the most stubborn company in the world of tech, performing what amounts to a complete about face? Unbelievable, especially when you consider the way its constantly dismissed legitimate criticisms of Windows 8.

Most likely, the company felt it had little choice in the matter. The last few weeks have been an unmitigated PR disaster for the Xbox One – and its deeply unpopular policies were only compounded when Sony announced that the PlayStation 4 would have no such restrictions, twisting the knife deeper into Microsoft’s wounds.

What hasn’t been answered yet is how much trust Microsoft has lost among gamers? It clearly didn’t want to make these changes, but was literally forced to surrender – a recent poll by UK newspaper The Sun showed that a massive 79% of gamers were set to choose the PS4 over the Xbox – game over for Microsoft, in other words. But you could have bet your house on the fact that, had Sony come out with a similar set of polices, Microsoft would’ve stuck to its guns.

The question we have to ask now is, will Xbox fans be prepared to forgive Microsoft now it’s admitted it screwed up?