Microsoft has cleared up the confusion and speculation behind its new console’s Digital Rights Management (DRM), and in doing so confirmed many South African gamers’ worst nightmare: the Xbox One will require an internet connection to work.

You have to connect the Xbox One to Microsoft’s central servers at least once a day. Which essentially means no internet, no play.

While initial fears centred around the console requiring a permanent internet connection the official take is not much better. Major Nelson, international Xbox community manager, posted full details of the DRM that will be enforced.

Under the sections for licensing and connectivity, we find the juicy bits.

With Xbox One you can game offline for up to 24 hours on your primary console, or one hour if you are logged on to a separate console accessing your library. Offline gaming is not possible after these prescribed times until you re-establish a connection, but you can still watch live TV and enjoy Blu-ray and DVD movies.

This, no doubt, dashes the hopes and dreams of all those 360 owners who wish to upgrade to a One, but have no ADSL connection. While it might be hard to comprehend how somebody has an expensive console and no connectivity, just remember that parts of South Africa – and other countries, too – have no infrastructure for any sort of stable connectivity. There’s plenty of people in South Africa whose primary method of access is a mobile dongle – which means getting another expensive piece of kit to connect it to the Xbox One and paying extortionate 3G/LTE fees for whatever bandwidth Xbox One requires.

Apparently, part of the reason for the always-on connection is so that Microsoft can verify you don’t try and play games you’ve sold on to the second-hand market.

We designed Xbox One so game publishers can enable you to trade in your games at participating retailers.  Microsoft does not charge a platform fee to retailers, publishers, or consumers for enabling transfer of these games. 

That bit about “participating retailers” isn’t promising. We will investigate how local retailers are going implement this, but the system – clearly designed to make the used game market is more controlled – is very controversial.

Xbox One is designed so game publishers can enable you to give your disc-based games to your friends. There are no fees charged as part of these transfers. There are two requirements: you can only give them to people who have been on your friends list for at least 30 days and each game can only be given once.

And just like George Orwell never predicted, but might just as well have, Microsoft now controls the physical goods you own.

With the seeds sown, Microsoft can now only dig a deeper hole or drastically alter its requirements for connectivity and used games and end up with egg on its face. With Sony this past week confirming that the PS4 will have no DRM at all, things aren’t looking good for the just-announced Xbox One. Traditionally, PlayStation is the console of choice for South Africans. It’s not likely to chance in the next generation now.

UPDATE

We’ve contacted Microsoft, and been told that we might get a comment relevant to South Africa some time next week.

Image sources

Xbox, Shutterstock