Retail sources have leaked some information regarding the Xbox One's still mysterious plan for used games. According to MCV, retailers will still be able to sell pre-owned titles, but Microsoft and its publishers will now take a cut of each transaction.
Microsoft has reportedly briefed certain retail partners on this plan, but has yet to report anything official to the press. According to inside sources though, consumers will only be able to trade in used Xbox One games at stores that have agreed to Microsoft's terms. These stores will then have to integrate the company's Azure cloud server technology into their own system.
This will allow the traded in titles to be de-linked from the previous Xbox One account, so that the next person does not receive the old save and data files along with the disc. This would more or less make the game "new" once again.
If true, this would also corroborate the rumors that the Xbox One must connect to the internet at least once every 24 hours, as this is the only way it could prevent people from selling a game and then continuing to play it off of their hard drive.
Retailers would be able to then sell the game at any price, but with a hefty cut of the proceeds going to Microsoft and the publisher.
At this point, it seems very unclear what this fee will be. Consoledeals.co.uk reports that retailers will only receive 10%, which may necessitate raising the price on used games. The site also claims that leaked information from "one of the UK's largest video game retailers" reveals that the rumored Xbox One activation fee will be £35 (about $52). It is not clear if this rumored fee is on top of the used game price, or included in it. Either way, it's basically tantamount to buying a new game.
Microsoft has continued to evade questions on the new policy.
"We know there is some confusion around used games on Xbox One and wanted to provide a bit of clarification on exactly what we've confirmed today," the company stated earlier this week. "While there have been many potential scenarios discussed, today we have only confirmed that we designed Xbox One to enable our customers to trade in and resell games at retail."
"Beyond that, we have not confirmed any specific scenarios."