Microsoft announced that it will change its policies concerning anti-piracy measures on the Xbox One. The company will no longer require the console to connect to the internet every 24 hours. Besides that, also limitations that should prevent usage of second hand games on the console will be removed.
In a blog post on the Xbox website Microsoft writes that the console will need to connect to the internet for a one time system setup and afterwards it's possible to play any disc based game without connecting to the internet again.
Trading, lending, reselling and gifting games is also no longer restricted. This means that you can share, resell, and trade discs. However, downloaded games can't be shared or resold. If you want to play a disc based game, the disc has to be in the tray in order to play the game. Microsoft states that in practice this means it will work just as on the Xbox 360.
Microsoft claims it makes the changes due to the feedback it has received from it's customers. In reality the company is battling head to head with Sony for the game console market. Microsoft and Sony recently both announced their next generation consoles, the Sony Playstation 4 and the Microsoft Xbox One.
Soon after the launch it became clear that the Playstation 4 had less restrictions that the Xbox One which resulted in heavy criticism on Microsoft's upcoming console which required internet connections once a day and didn't allow sharing of games.
With this announcement from Microsoft it becomes clear that the competition between the two is good for customers and putting restrictions on bought products is generally not a good idea.
