Xbox One Will Require Game Installs And Have A Fee For Pre-Owned Games

One of the cooler aspects of the Xbox One may turn out to be somewhat of a headache for gamers, it seems. All Xbox One games will require a mandatory installation onto the system’s hard drive, but afterwards you’ll be able to play the game from your HDD without needing the disk. While it’s fantastic that the consoles are catching up to PCs in regards to ease of access, this does leave the major question of how will pre-owned games work out?

Well, according to a Microsoft representative speaking to Wired, the answer to this quandary is a fee. If the game is used with a second account, that owner will be given the option to pay a small fee and install the game on their own console. We don’t know if account refers to an entirely new console or a separate Live account as of yet, but we’ll try to keep digging here.

The other question that has gone unanswered so far is if players will be able to play a used game right from the disc without installing and paying a fee. It’s pure speculation at this point, but I wouldn’t give my hopes up. We also have no idea what this fee will be. I would like to think it would be on the cheaper end, but if this is being used as strictly a DRM tool, it could be costly.

It’s a bit strange that none of this was mentioned in the (lackluster) press conference, but with E3 right around the corner, we can probably expect to hear more in the near future.

Let us know in the comments how you feel about this latest Xbox One news, and what questions you would like answered.