First, people complained that Microsoft was too strict on digital rights management (DRM) on the upcoming Xbox One. Then, after Microsoft axed plans that required owners have a constant internet connection, plus new used game sale strategies, people complained that the Xbox One was exactly like the Xbox 360: basically, not progressive enough. For that latter group, it was said that the lack of those new DRM strategies also killed great ideas like Microsoft’s “family sharing plan.” In that plan, it was said that up to ten “family” members could share games, without using the same Xbox One, without living together, and without the need for a game disc one a title was installed.
Today, it turns out that family sharing plan wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. Well, maybe.
An anonymous Pastebin user who claims to be an Xbox One developer has outlined just what that family sharing plan would have allowed. Turns out, you weren’t going to share full titles with your “family,” but 45 minute extended game demonstrations. Here’s the Pastebin content in full:
The premise is simple and elegant, when you buy your games for Xbox One, you can set any of them to be part of your shared library. Anyone who you deem to be family had access to these games regardless of where they are in the world. There was never any catch to that, they didn’t have to share the same billing address or physical address it could be anyone. When your family member accesses any of your games, they’re placed into a special demo mode. This demo mode in most cases would be the full game with a 15-45 minute timer and in some cases an hour. This allowed the person to play the game, get familiar with it then make a purchase if they wanted to. When the time limit was up they would automatically be prompted to the Marketplace so that they may order it if liked the game. We were toying around with a limit on the number of times members could access the shared game (as to discourage gamers from simply beating the game by doing multiple playthroughs). but we had not settled on an appropriate way of handling it. One thing we knew is that we wanted the experience to be seamless for both the person sharing and the family member benefiting. There weren’t many models of this system already in the wild other than Sony’s horrendous game sharing implementation, but it was clear their approach (if one could call it that) was not the way to go. Developers complained about the lost sales and gamers complained about overbearing DRM that punished those who didn’t share that implemented by publishers to quell gamers from taking advantage of a poorly thought out system. We wanted our family sharing plan to be something that was talked about and genuinely enjoyed by the masses as a way of inciting gamers to try new games.
Microsoft’s Marc Whitten, Corporate Vice President of Xbox has taken to Twitter to debunk this claim, saying, “Don’t believe everything you read online!”
Alternatively, Aaron Greenberg, Chief of Staff for Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft, has also chimed in on the issue, adding, “There was no time limit, it was as we described. Team still investing in more digital features over time.”
So, with some saying family sharing was going to be useless, and others amazing, do you hope to see it back one the Xbox One in the future?
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