One user who got their hands on an Xbox One after an American retailer started shipping early, has revealed that they're unable to play Call of Duty: Ghosts offline on the console. This has once again caused fears regarding Xbox One DRM and connectivity to resurface.
In response to the retailer sending out the deliveries early, Microsoft put temporary bans on the consoles in question. The bans stopped users from accessing online features, and one such user posted the following on Twitter: "Just a quick update, with my temporary console ban in place, I CANNOT play Ghosts offline. It requires online, and the ban prevents Live," before later adding: "To be fair, I do not know if I can play Ghosts offline if I was not banned. I am banned, and right now I cannot do anything. That is all."
In response to the reaction from these revelations, Microsoft's Albert Penello took to Neogaf to calm concerns: "FYI it's 11pm on a Sunday, so people aren't exactly quick to respond to work email. I wanted to check in before I shut-down for the evening. This is what I believe is going on:
We still have two more weeks before launch - the console is in a pre-release state. We are doing regular updates - I personally took one a few minutes before he posted. His build is now old. This is why we were saying we didn't want people on early - it's not done yet. This behavior is only because we are in pre-release. When we launch, console will work exactly as you expect today on 360.
For sure this has nothing to do with requiring a connection. There is no "DRM removal" in the Day One update because none of the consoles were ever built with that stuff in it. This also has nothing to do with COD. The Day One update just brings the SW up to date with the latest versions vs. what's on the box. But there is no 24 check in, that's for sure."
This news comes just days after Penello confirmed that users would have little choice but to update the console with the Day One update, after admitting that the Xbox One would do "very little" without it.