With Microsoft"s recent reversal of the "always on" Xbox One, there was one popular feature that was put on the backburner: Family Sharing. Although details of the program were limited, the basic concept was that you could share your gaming library with up to ten family members. There was no mention of how you select who your family members are, but Microsoft claimed that both you and a single family member could play a game at the same time.
Last week, we told you about a message posted on Pastebin discussing the Xbox One"s DRM philosphy. Today we found another message on Pastebin, this time lamenting about game developers and used games, discussing the proposed Family Share plan (which is since on the backburner), and hinting at a Microsoft social media platform built within the 360. While the used game topic has been beaten to death, and the social media platform is a logical next step in the Xbox Live progression, the alleged details on the Family Share plan is a bit surprising.
The author paints it with a positive brush, but states that family members would only have been allowed 45-60 minutes of gameplay before being sent to the marketplace to purchase the game themselves. This "demoware" isn"t how Microsoft was selling the feature at E3, but given the rest of the PR bungles, we wouldn"t be surprised if this is true.
We"re not sure if Microsoft employees just recently figured out how to use Pastebin, or if these posts are pranksters making stuff up in order to get a rise out of fellow gamers, so take this report with a grain of salt.
Source: Pastebin