The stingy Xbox One used games policy has been picked apart considerably by the media and gaming world over the past couple of days, and now it has emerged that Microsoft’s next-gen console may not function in unsupported countries. While Sony has stepped out and explained that the PlayStation 4 will have no issues with used games, ambiguity and uncertainty surrounds the Xbox One, and now a disclaimer posted on the Xbox.com website throws up a potential region-locking issue.
Naturally, gamers are concerned about some of the comments made my Microsoft in this disclaimer, which notes:
[The Xbox One] requires account on Xbox Live in an Xbox One-supported Xbox Live country. . .Xbox One games are for activation and distribution only in specified geographic regions.
Nobody seems quite sure as to what this will entail for the gaming world. But the consensus seems to be that the Xbox One will be rather limited in where it can be used, and although this won’t be problematic for those who keep their games console in one place, traveling gamers have already have been interpreted by some to mean that the Xbox One will impose strict limitations on how it can be used around the world. It appears that the console will not fully work in regions where it has not been officially released.
At launch, there will be 21 Xbox One-supported Xbox LIVE countries. Xbox One wont be available in any one of the Asian countries until fall 2014.
The official Xbox Support Twitter account has been inundated with questions from concerned gaming fans, some of whom are planning to travel with their console, or purchase from abroad and import. Those on the move, should they drift into unchartered, unsupported territories have been advised to "play when [they] return home," while those looking to jump the gun and grab the console from a supported marketplace have been told to exercise some patience and "wait until the console is available in their region."
The PlayStation 4, as we learned earlier this week, will be region-free, and even though no prospective next-gen console owners will have even clocked a minute of gaming time on the forthcoming machines, the post-announcement period is one in which many minds are made up.
Microsoft, at this point in time, is giving an abject lesson in how not to appease gamers prior to the release of a console, and although the early sales figures will determine which of these two titans the world has truly been waiting for, it has to be said that Sony is winning the one-upmanship game at this point in time.
(via: TheVerge)
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