Xbox One Reverses 'always' on and used game policies

Microsoft has officially reversed their Xbox One online policies. It has come as quite a surprise that a corporation like Microsoft is not standing behind their policies after putting years of development into their next generation gaming console. Some of the policies Xbox One was implementing were utterly ridiculous like requiring a 24 hour check to ensure players were connected online or their console would be unplayable. If they had dropped the console's price to $399 to match PS4 I would have thought this whole debacle was intentional.

Xbox Head Don Mattrick posted a statement:

"Since unveiling our plans for Xbox One, my team and I have heard directly from many of you, read your comments and listened to your feedback. I would like to take the opportunity today to thank you for your assistance in helping us to reshape the future of Xbox One. You told us how much you loved the flexibility you have today with games delivered on disc. The ability to lend, share, and resell these games at your discretion is of incredible importance to you. Also important to you is the freedom to play offline, for any length of time, anywhere in the world."

Directly from the Xbox site:

An internet connection will not be required to play offline Xbox One games

After a one-time system set-up with a new Xbox One, you can play any disc based game without ever connecting online again. There is no 24 hour connection requirement and you can take your Xbox One anywhere you want and play your games, just like on Xbox 360.

Trade-in, lend, resell, gift, and rent disc based games just like you do today

There will be no limitations to using and sharing games, it will work just as it does today on Xbox 360.

This is a huge relief to gamers around the world. Xbox One Amazon pre-order sales have surpassed the PS4 after this recent DRM turnaround. I personally am not convinced that the Xbox One is a console worth purchasing day one. If Xbox One would realize that requiring the Kinect to be connected 100% of the time is also a horrible idea, they could sell a bundle without it and match the PS4's price point. I would then be a lot more inclined to pick one up right on release.