Earlier tonight Microsoft announced the decision to reverse their planned policies regarding always-on connections and DRM for their next-gen console, Xbox One.
For some it will be too little, too late, although it's likely that the majority of gamers will welcome the change of tact by the platform holder. As a result of the company's decision to back-peddle on these universally unpopular policies, some of the planned initiatives MS had for Xbox One will now be scrapped, and replaced by this new stance.
In the post by Microsoft's Don Mattrick, it was stated:
"These changes will impact some of the scenarios we previously announced for Xbox One. The sharing of games will work as it does today, you will simply share the disc. Downloaded titles cannot be shared or resold. Also, similar to today, playing disc based games will require that the disc be in the tray."
We can assume that one of the previously announced "scenarios" Mattrick is referring to is the planned family sharing initiative, whereby users would be able to share content with up to 10 family members (or friends) without them having to buy it for themselves. As the new policy is: "will work as it does today," we can deduce that MS will revert to their current model as used on the Xbox 360.
Given the furore surrounding Microsoft's previous plans, it's likely most people won't mind losing this novel feature if it means the other policies will now not be implemented on Xbox One.