The past 24 hours has been difficult for Microsoft, as it cleared the air about some serious questions about its new console, the Xbox One, including users needing to connect to the internet every 24 hours and restrictions on sharing used games and much more.
However, major games retailer Gamestop has sent out an email to all its power up rewards members today which discloses some major information regarding the console-maker’s used-game policy. Gamestop firstly discloses that there will be no fee which will be needed to pay for trading in first-party Microsoft titles. This means players will be able to trade in and buy used games from participating retailers without any extra fee. Other publishers might have different rules regarding the sell of used games however.
Another major news which has been revealed is that other publishers might decide NOT to have the 30-day restriction which Microsoft has imposed before you can lend a game to your friend. This means you might not be required to have a guy in your friend list for 24 hours before being able to give him your game if it’s some other publisher. What it also means is that you might NOT be able to give your game at all to your friend if the other publisher prevents it.
[quote style=”1″ author=”Author”]Third party publishers may opt in or out of supporting game resale and may set up business terms or transfer fees with retailers. Microsoft does not receive any compensation as part of this. In addition, third party publishers can enable you to give games to friends. Loaning or renting games won’t be available at launch, but we are exploring the possibilities with our partners.[/quote]
Microsoft is playing it safe it seems as they don’t want to be the first publisher to charge consumers a fee for buying a used game. It appears they want someone else to bear the outrage by introducing such a system.
Gamestop has also shed some light on why the console requires you to log in every 24 hours. They claim that it is due to the console requiring to check if you’ve traded any games to others during this time.
Below is the full email sent out by GameStop. We’ll update the article if we find any other important points we missed.
