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You Will Be Able To Trade Xbox One Games Online, Microsoft Says
Xbox One games will require a one-time activation code to use, but you'll still be able to trade and sell them online, Microsoft tells Kotaku—although we're not 100% clear on the details.

Speaking to us at the big event in Redmond today, Microsoft corporate vice president Phil Harrison clarified a couple of details about the system's used game policy and explained that there will be a solution for people who want to trade games with their friends.

Here's how the system works: when you buy an Xbox One game, you'll get a unique code that you enter when you install that game. You'll have to connect to the Internet in order to authorize that code, and the code can only be used once. Once you use it, that game will then be linked to your Xbox Live account. "It sits on your harddrive and you have permission to play that game as long as you’d like," Harrison said.

Other users on the console will be able to play that game as well, Harrison said. So you don't need to buy multiple games per family. "With the built-in parental controls of the system it is shared amog the users of the device," he said.

But what if you want to bring a game disc to a friend's house and play there? You'll have to pay a fee—and not just some sort of activation fee, but the actual price of that game—in order to use a game's code on a friend's account. Think of it like a new game, Harrison says.

"The bits that are on that disc, you can give it to your friend and they can install it on an Xbox One," he said. "They would then have to purchase the right to play that game through Xbox Live."

"They would be paying the same price we paid, or less?" we asked.

"Let’s assume it’s a new game, so the answer is yes, it will be the same price," Harrison said.

But that doesn't mean used games are dead. In fact, Harrison told us, you'll be able to sell your Xbox One games online.

"We will have a solution—we’re not talking about it today—for you to be able to trade your previously-played games online," Harrison said.

The Xbox exec wouldn't give further details on how this system will work, but we're assuming that once you're done with a game, you can trade the code online and it will be erased from your machine. But what will you get? Other games? Microsoft Points?

No matter how the final system works, it is not likely to please GameStop, the world's biggest buyer and seller of used video games, but it could be a tantalizing way to share games with your friends in the virtual space.

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The Xbox One doesn't have to be online all the time, but it does have to be online. Not just once in a while—once a day, according to Microsoft vice president Phil Harrison.

In a Q&A on their press site for the new Xbox, Microsoft tackles the always-on question with a strangely-worded answer: "No, it does not have to be always connected, but Xbox One does require a connection to the Internet."

At the event in Redmond today, Kotaku boss Stephen Totilo asked Phil Harrison for clarification on this. And what Harrison told us might not please people who enjoy playing Xbox on military bases or other locations without Internet.

"There are many devices in your life that require the Internet to function," he said. "Xbox One is no different in that it requires, at some point in the beginning and at various times through its on state, to connect to our cloud and to our Internet. That is to deliver Xbox Live functionality, that is to deliver download content to you, that is to deliver some of the innovations around TV and entertainment that we showed today. But it doesn’t require it to be online all the time."

So how often does it check your connection? "Depends on the experience," Harrison said.

"For single-player games that don’t require connectivity to Xbox Live, you should be able to play those without interruption should your Internet connection go down. Blu-ray movies and other downloaded entertainment should be accessible when your Internet connection may be interrupted. But the device is fundamentally designed to be expanded and extended by the Internet as many devices are today."

And here's the bombshell:

Kotaku: If I’m playing a single player game, do I have to be online at least once per hour or something like that? Or can I go weeks and weeks?

Harrison: I believe it’s 24 hours.

Kotaku: I’d have to connect online once every day.

Harrison: Correct.

So the system is built to work even if your Internet connection goes down, but you still have to be connected at least once a day to use it, Harrison said. We're not sure exactly what would happen if you don't connect once per day—and that timeframe could change—but this doesn't sound good for anyone who was hoping to use Xbox One without an Internet connection.

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Other users on the console will be able to play that game as well, Harrison said. So you don't need to buy multiple games per family. "With the built-in parental controls of the system it is shared among the users of the device," he said.

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