Microsoft's Xbox One policy reversal is 'a win/win for consumers,' says GameFly exec

Microsoft's sudden reversal of its onerous Xbox One DRM policies yesterday is "a win/win for consumers," said GameFly co-founder Sean Spector in an interview with Joystiq.

Yesterday afternoon, Microsoft announced an about-face on its policies regarding always-online connectivity and game licensing on Xbox One. Earlier this month, the company said that all Xbox One games would have had to check in with Xbox Live every 24 hours to ensure authentication. In addition, third-party publishers would have had the option to restrict users' ability to resell or gift disc-based Xbox One games, or disallow the practice altogether.

Loaning or renting of Xbox One games would not have been possible, either, which would have been a major problem for GameFly, a long-running service that lets users rent games by mail. Now, none of those policies will be in place; instead, the Xbox One will resemble the Xbox 360 in those respects, except that games will now be region-free.

"I think the original proposal would have been detrimental to lots of people's [business] systems. Not just GameFly. And, most importantly, gamers," said Spector, who also serves as the company's senior vice president of business development and content.

"Today is a win/win for consumers, as well as GameFly," he added.