Microsoft Working To Return Family Sharing To Xbox One Without DRM

Xbox One chief product officer Marc Whitten admitted that Microsoft has done a poor job communicating the console’s real capabilities.

“We’ve got to just talk more, get people understanding what our system is,” a-t-il déclaré. “It’s sort of shame on us that we haven’t done as good of a job as we can to make people feel like [a digital future is] where we’re headed.”

Part of that digital future is Xbox One’s family sharing feature which Microsoft had to remove after sacking the console’s always-online DRM. While most gamers welcomed the DRM removal, more than 10,000 gamers signed a petition asking Microsoft to return family sharing and other digital features, even if means reinstating the always-online requirements.

Fortunately, it seems that Microsoft is working on a way to return those features without forcing the dreaded DRM on gamers.

“We took some feedback and realized there was some stuff we needed to add to the program,” explained Whitten. “To add it to the program, we had to make room, just from a pure engineering perspective, to be able to get that work done. So taking Family Sharing out of the launch window was not about ‘we’re going to take our toys and go home’ or something like that. It was just sort of the logistics of ‘how do we get this very, very clear request that people really want, that choice, and how do we make sure we can do an excellent job of that, get to launch, and then be able to build.'”