During last month’s Xbox Spring Showcase, Xbox’s head of programming Mike Ybarra met with Game Informer and revealed that the team are looking into how digital game sharing fits into Microsoft’s Universal Windows Platform currently used by Xbox One and PC. Ybarra stated that Steam “has a great family plan right now,” and the Xbox team are in the process of figuring out a digital game sharing model that works best for Microsoft.
While Microsoft’s decision to ditch the always-online feature and the pre-owned DRM policy was a welcomed one, the nixed shared family library idea would have proved beneficial in solving the current issue of digital game sharing. Of course, hindsight is 20/20, and it was just unfortunate that Microsoft’s family shared library plan was communicated so poorly to fans. Seeing as how Sony’s PlayStation 4 Digital Library was eerily similar to the Xbox One’s shared library plan, there is always the question of “what if” Microsoft had managed to get its plans off the ground.
While it’s good to see Microsoft still tackling the digital game sharing issue, things are probably a bit more complicated than they were three years ago. Given that Microsoft is still heavily invested in PC gaming, and the company is seemingly trying to unify its Xbox One and PC businesses, the whole game sharing issue is probably not high up on Microsoft’s radar. If Microsoft does find a new solution to the digital game sharing issue, hopefully it can be communicated far better this time around.
Source: Game Informer
