The entire Xbox One turnaround got rid of a lot of undesirable policies about the console, including the heavy region locking that had originally been proposed for it; the Xbox One will not, however, be region locked, something we have known for a while, and something Microsoft confirmed again, in light of renewed fears following Xbox One’s launch being pushed back to 2014 in at least eight territories.
Earlier today we had reported on Kinect planning lead Albert Penello taking to Neogaf and confirming that Xbox One will be region free and now another Microsoft rep confirmed this to Eurogamer.
“When the console launches this November, we will support Xbox One in 13 markets. Xbox One may be used in all countries, including the non-launched markets. In addition, Xbox One games are not region locked. Any Xbox One game purchased at retail can be used in any country on any Xbox One.
“That said, there needs to be a valid payment method corresponding to a supported launch country in order for any transactions to occur over Xbox Live, and some content may not be accessible outside launch markets due to geographic content restrictions imposed by content right holders,” he said.
This is essentially the exact same thing as on the PS4; of course, in this age of online, none of the two are functionally region free, because all online services would require, as Microsoft points out, geographic IP checks, and payment in proper currencies. Still, it’s better than, say, the hard region lock policies that Nintendo applies (or that Microsoft was originally going for with Xbox One).
