Xbox moves to calm fears over game ownership, always on, trade-ins and Kinect ‘snooping’

Xbox has tonight made a decisive move to calm the many questions asked about its new next-gen console Xbox One.

Tonight, it has reiterated that Xbox One introduces new licensing mechanisms for games, and that this impacts how the second hand market works.

But the firm says it IS NOT "charging a platform fee to retailers, publishers, or consumers for enabling transfer of these games"

However it IS allowing publishers to charge a ‘second user fee’ if they wish.

Yet gamers CAN lend their games to friends without forcing them to buy it again.

Elsewhere, it has published a further guide about what the ‘always-on’ component to Xbox One means, and that players WILL have to connect their console to the web every 24 hours.

Another guide also talks about Kinect, and moves to calm fears about the device spying on people while in standby mode.

The device will ONLY be looking to hear one phrase ‘Xbox On’ when in sleep mode, and nothing else.

Microsoft also says the settings for these functions can be personalised and tweaked.

You can read the three guides here:

How Games Licensing Works on Xbox One

Xbox One: A Modern, Connected System

How Xbox One and the new Kinect Sensor Put You in Control

Note: We will provide a summary of these documents ASAP.