Most Xbox games released in the last decade are at less risk of becoming unplayable in the future. That’s thanks to a change Microsoft has quietly made to how its current consoles handle user rights to their games.
Why it matters: It’s a win for video game custodians and anyone else who envisioned running the latest Xbox games in the distant future without worrying about the status of any remote servers.
- Microsoft is essentially supporting a digital rights management, or DRM, approach for select games.
Details: The change removes the requirement that the disc version of most Xbox One games check for an internet connection before running on the newer Xbox Series X consoles.
- In “the vast majority of cases”, the discs will simply install into the system and run the game, according to Microsoft engineer Eden Marie, who addressed the change on Twitter this week.
- Microsoft made the change in its “2206” update to Xbox mid-year, according to Marie.
- Fans who have been passionate about this Microsoft DRM policy noticed it first this month and are now largely cheering the change.
Between the lines: The switch brings Microsoft more in line with rivals Nintendo and Sony, whose systems don’t require an online check-in for disc- or cartridge-based games, according to data compiled for Axios from video game operators. Do you play? online advocacy account and some like-minded players.
- Previously, these gamers considered Microsoft to be outliers because Xbox One game discs would not work if inserted into an Xbox Series console that did not have an Internet connection.
- This issue was not only relevant for games from the Xbox One generation. Many current Xbox Series games only ship with the Xbox One version of the game on disc and therefore will not work under Microsoft’s DRM restrictions.
- Note: There are stricter DRM restrictions for downloadable versions of games on all major platforms.
What they say: “Thank you Microsoft for something that should have been there from the beginning,” said YouTuber Hikikomori Media in a video testing the update.
- “They did well, so I have to give them props.”
Yes, but Microsoft’s DRM critics still love the company to drop the requirement that every new Xbox console be connected to the Internet before it works.
- This presents its own storage pains.
The big picture: The digital nature of games goes both ways in terms of storage, giving games some advantages and disadvantages compared to trying to save, say, hardcover copies of a great novel.
- Digital media can be stored and transferred with relative ease.
- But the code requires a platform to run it on, and it depends on whether those platforms will continue to work and allow those games to continue to run.
Sign up for the Axios Gaming newsletter here.
