Thankfully, a Sony rep clarified this to Eurogamer and stated that, “As SCE [Sony Computer Entertainment] announced at E3, consumers will be able to sell or share their PS4 disc products.”

President for Sony Worldwide Studios at SCE Shuhei Yoshida stated the same over Twitter, quelling much of the concern that came with the reveal of the terms & conditions.

If you are concerned about our new European TOS, we confirm that you are able to sell or share your disc PS4 products, including in EU.

— Shuhei Yoshida (@yosp) November 12, 2013

The PlayStation 4 will be launching on November 15th in North America and November 29th in Europe. Now that much of the fear over used games being sold or not has been silenced, will you be picking one up on Friday? Let us know below.

CEO Paul Raines stated that, “Through two quarters, the year has played out as expected. During this console transition period, our financial results have been supported by the continued growth of our emerging businesses. Of course, excitement continues to build for the upcoming new games and the launch of the PS4 and Xbox One. As the global gaming leader, GameStop is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the new, innovative products coming to market.”

Pre-owned game sales fell by 6 percent with new software sales down by 9.3 percent and new hardware sales down by 19.4 percent. The latter would most likely be in the wake of announces for the release and pricing of PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

(Source)

These included 24 hour authentication of the console via internet connection; the ability to lend games to friends but only once, with selling left up to the publishers as to whether a fee would be charged; the Family Policy, which allowed up to 10 individuals to access the game library off a single Xbox One console from apparently anywhere (concurrent use was never explained however); region locking, with an Xbox One from the United States only authenticating with the US Xbox Live servers (forget playing games and whatnot); and other such unrelated but troubling issues such as an always-on Kinect.

Microsoft recently announced that it was doing away with these policies – except the always-on Kinect though. That means no region-locking, no restrictions on used games, and absolute freedom to do what you want with your game library. However, it seems that certain pockets still aren’t satisfied. Why is that? For one thing…

1. We Want Change But Don’t Want to Invest in it

It was initially revealed via a Pastebin from an anonymous individual working at Microsoft that the Xbox One was aiming to mimic Steam’s model of digital downloads. Microsoft never explicitly stated that same, however. Meanwhile, most of the paying public forgot that even Steam itself wasn’t widely accepted when it was first introduced.

It took amazing deals on games and loads of content to finally convince the vast swathe of PC gamers – and even then, Steam is more restrictive about sharing games than the Xbox One was (though that appears to be changing with a recent update).

So here’s the problem: We implicitly understand that the Xbox One was supposed to help usher in a new age of digital downloads and gaming for consoles, eventually making purchases cheaper while returning money to the developers. However, putting down $499 and not even having a choice in the matter? At least PC gamers can choose whether or not they want to stick with AAA titles like Tomb Raider and Metro: Last Light without needing Steam.

But some people still pick up their games from Steam itself. That’s because…

2. We Want Change But Not Right Now

Given enough time, digital downloads of even regular PC games are cheaper on Steam compared to purchasing them at retail. You’ll have far better chances getting a great deal off of a popular PC title on Steam than you would at retail (unless it’s Call of Duty, and honestly, that’s no big loss).

Steam also fosters a small developer and indie community that is consistently bringing out excellent titles on a regular basis. This isn’t counting all the great deals that exist already. The problem is the Xbox One has neither the strong push for indies as Steam (or even on

Sony’s PlayStation Network for the PS4) does or have a ton of great deals to start off with. So while we understand, somewhat, just why Microsoft wants to go with forcing a digital download-based console onto gamers, they have neither the gaming line-up nor push that Steam brought.

A bigger problem is that Microsoft never stated that digital downloads of games would be cheaper than retail copies. It did state that you’d be able to download a digital version of the game and purchase a retail disc on the same day of release. But one being cheaper than the other? This leads to our third problem…

3. We Want Change But You’re Not Telling Us What You’re Changing

Probably the most damning hurdle that the Xbox One faced was Microsoft’s own marketing and PR department shooting itself in the foot repeatedly when revealing information about it. The reason for a 24 hour authentication being in place was to update your games library whenever you had lent out or gifted titles to your friends.

However, there was a restriction placed on lending games as is. Would gamers really be lending out games on a 24 hour basis? For that matter, why did it have to be 24 hours? Why not weekly? Why not bi-daily? Why daily? Not even Steam needs you to authenticate your library every 24 hours.

This was presumably done to close a loophole that exists in Steam in which you can download games on someone else’s PC from your own Steam account, and the other person could enjoy said games offline for as long as they wanted while you could access it online just fine through your own system. However, not one single person – not Don Mattrick, not Phil Spencer and not Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb – stated that this was the case.

That’s probably because…

4. We Want Change But Do You Know What the Hell You’re Talking About?

“Family Policy allowing up to 10 individuals to share a single Xbox One game library? Sounds awesome! What if we want to play it concurrently, like me playing Halo 5 and my buddy enjoying Dead Rising 3 on another Xbox One, but accessing the library? What’s that? You don’t know? You’ll provide more information in the coming months? Well, alright.”

That would seem like a typical conversation one has with Xbox Support (and in fact, several people have received the same answers). But when it’s Microsoft Games Studios head Phil Spencer saying it, well, then what do you do? Over the past two months, Microsoft has been unable to present a single unified front in its message for the Xbox One’s policies. It could’ve simply gone with “We’re trying to be Steam for consoles”, but no.

Thus we got Don Mattrick saying offline users should stick with an Xbox 360 even as Major Nelson revealed that even mobile internet will work fine and that bandwidth requirements will be ridiculously low. We got Phil Spencer saying the console was “x” number of times powerful and then changing the statement 3 times within the span of 24 hours.

If no one knows what the hell they’re talking about, then can you blame your consumers for not knowing what the hell to think? Or rather, can you really backtrack on all your policies and expect to be forgiven? This leads to the final reason we’ll never be satisfied…

5. We Want Change But We Also Have Alternatives

Microsoft could’ve presented the Xbox One as something more. It could’ve appealed to TV viewers, sports fans, social networkers and gamers alike. It might’ve caught the attention of the first three groups but completely floundered on its key audience, the fourth. There are some people who just want to get to the games. Yes, it’s nice to talk about the future and how we can have an ecosystem like Steam. Yes, it’s great that you’re investing so much into unique and new IPs.

But why do you need to restrict people?

Why do you not want to launch your console in countries like India, Poland and the entirety of Asia until one entire year later? Why do you want to tell people who don’t have an internet connection to effectively “f**k off”, especially when they’ve been so loyal to you for so many years even through calamities like the Red Ring of Death? Why do you think people will just swallow whatever you give them, based on good faith and a “we’ll wait and see when the consoles are released” approach?

It’s because you think we don’t have alternatives, which couldn’t be further from the truth. Even those who can’t pick up a PlayStation 4 will stick with gaming on PCs and their Xbox 360s before dropping $499 on a new console that they may or may not be getting anyway.

Even if Microsoft had soldiers on and done everything perfectly, even if it gave us the Steam Box we so desperately wanted, one wrong move is all it takes for any consumer to trade in an Xbox One for something else.

So change is great and all. It really is, even if we’ll never be satisfied with things in the beginning. But there is a right way and wrong way to go about it. Steam was the right way, even with its multitudes of problems. Hopefully, the next time a console manufacturer tries this approach, it’ll just outright tell us what they’re doing rather than sticking with the “wait and see…maybe?” approach that Microsoft took.

Microsoft’s official statement, from Don Mattrick himself:

“You told us how much you loved the flexibility you have today with games delivered on disc. The ability to lend, share, and resell these games at your discretion is of incredible importance to you. Also important to you is the freedom to play offline, for any length of time, anywhere in the world.

“So, today I am announcing the following changes to Xbox One and how you can play, share, lend, and resell your games exactly as you do today on Xbox 360. Here is what that means:

“An internet connection will not be required to play offline Xbox One games – After a one-time system set-up with a new Xbox One, you can play any disc based game without ever connecting online again. There is no 24 hour connection requirement and you can take your Xbox One anywhere you want and play your games, just like on Xbox 360.

“Trade-in, lend, resell, gift, and rent disc based games just like you do today – There will be no limitations to using and sharing games, it will work just as it does today on Xbox 360.

“In addition to buying a disc from a retailer, you can also download games from Xbox Live on day of release. If you choose to download your games, you will be able to play them offline just like you do today. Xbox One games will be playable on any Xbox One console — there will be no regional restrictions.

“These changes will impact some of the scenarios we previously announced for Xbox One. The sharing of games will work as it does today, you will simply share the disc. Downloaded titles cannot be shared or resold. Also, similar to today, playing disc based games will require that the disc be in the tray.”

This is huge, for sure, and if it doesn’t put Microsoft back in the good graces of gamers – despite still having concerns with an always-on Kinect and $499 starting price – we don’t know what will. Stay tuned for more.

“I’m sure it’s been an issue but that’s because games have been too short.”

Speaking to EDGE, Sundberg stated that, “I mean when you can play a game through from 8 to 10 hours, I would return the game too, because there’s no reason for players to play it again.

“If you’re offering little variation, then there’s no motivation for the player to keep that game – unless they want to have a nice bookshelf. That’s why we answered that with Just Cause. I go into game stores each week and I always go to the used game boxes – I usually don’t find that many [copies of Just Cause].”

Earlier, Avalanche co-founder and CTO Linus Blomberg gave his own take on used games, particularly for the Xbox One’s fee structure regarding the same where he indicated that, “The economies in games are changing; they have to in order to be sustainable.”

Did Yoshida think many publishers would jump at the thought of charging a fee for used games? He retorted that, “The trend is that more and more games are becoming a service. It’s a transitional period. It used to be just what’s on the disc and then that became what’s on the disc, plus additional content.

“Now it’s becoming what’s on the disc, plus additional content and additional services. So when it becomes more and more like an online services model, going forward publishers will need to get revenue from these additional services they are going to provide. It’s just natural. It’s not like ‘used’ or ‘not used’ – these are services. You cannot use services and give them to other people. It’s going to be always account based in that case.”

The PlayStation 4, meanwhile, won’t have any restriction on used games nor will it restrict the sale of the same. It has also been reported that Sony won’t allow an “online pass”-like system for PSN.

Miyamoto talked about how he wants Nintendo to act more like a traditional toy company. “As a consumer you want to be able to keep those things for a long time and have those things from your youth that you can go back to and experience again.

“I really want to retain that product nature of the games that we create so that people can do that and have that experience. To me that’s something that’s very important about entertainment itself. So from the approach of continuing to create things that are entertaining for people, that’s an important direction for me that I want to maintain.”

Nintendo had a solid if uneventful E3, in which it announced Super Smash Bros, Mario Kart 8, Super Mario 3D World and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze and showcased gameplay for The Wonderful 101, Wind Waker HD and Bayonetta 2.

As Sebastian noted. “In our view, it is still unlikely that publishers will block used games; however, they may try to extract a retail fee.”

Pachter explained that, “We expect the majority of the large publishers to enable used gaming, at least in the early years of the Xbox One launch. In our view, any publisher that disables used gaming risks a backlash or boycott of its titles by gamers, negatively impacting sales.

And there’s a more revealing fact: publishers who block used game games leave themselves open to opposition from those who won’t. “We continue to believe that the currency generated from used game trade-ins is beneficial for the publishers, as it provides currency available for new game purchases.

“However, many believe that used games sold in proximity to a new game’s release cannibalizes sales of the new title, so we think that some publishers may limit used game trade-ins for a specified period of time following the game’s launch. We expect used gaming to continue to be widespread, to the benefit of GameStop.”

This doesn’t put the Xbox One in the clear regarding privacy concerns of an always-on Kinect, needing to access the internet once a day and much more though.

Source: GamesIndustry International