Microsoft has acknowledged the screw up by Target in the US, which sent out some preordered Xbox Ones two weeks before the console’s launch and said that anyone who does get one early will be unable to connect it to Xbox Live.
This is the full statement sent to Kotaku by a Microsoft spokesperson:
Due to a retail partner’s system issue, a very small number of Xbox One consoles were shipped to consumers before the November 22 street date. We’re pleased to see the initial response to Xbox One has been so positive, but given we are still putting the finishing touches on our games, UI and online services, as well as confidential partner and media agreements, these console units will be restricted from connecting to Xbox Live until closer to our launch date.
The Xbox One will require a 500MB, day-one firmware update to play games. A total inability to connect to Xbox Live would seem to prevent the download of that title update. We’ve followed up with Microsoft to ask, basically, if any of these early-shipped Xbox Ones are even usable until they’re allowed into the network. If we get a reply, we’ll put it here.
Update: The Microsoft spokesperson reiterated that early Xbox One users will be unable to connect to Xbox Live, but did not elaborate further.
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12 responses to “If You Get An Xbox One Early, You Can’t Connect It To Xbox Live”
One of them already downloaded the 500mb day 1 update.
So correction: for the moment you can connect your console to live, but we’ll ban it until day 1. This will be until live is updated to refuse connection to consumer consoles pre-release, because nothing could go wrong with an update like that once release day hits…
So they’re selling consults in a state where they can’t be used for their intended purpose?
Target are, not Microsoft.
But they’re not going to reflash all the consoles before they start selling them in two weeks, right? So out of the box, they are selling game consoles that can’t play games.
So are Sony, both need a day 1 update. We’ve been playing rush and patch games for years, now welcome to the world of rush and patch consoles.
A lot of people forget that Sony’s PS4 is requiring a day one update before you can use any feature as well.
That’s bollocks. Shuhei Yoshida confirmed that you can play single player games while the update is downloading.
You don’t need it, it’s not mandatory. However with out it it will lack certain features such as playing a blu ray movie. You can still play your games but.
Xbox is forced to update, without it you can’t do anything at all.
Every single advertisement and info page for Xbox One has a statement saying that it must be connected to the internet before use. They have also been saying this for months so if someone thinks they can sue or whatever they are sorely mistaken.
Dude, I just went through the order process at EB Games and I couldn’t see that caveat anywhere. You could say blame the retailer, but MS is going to get some heat from the mums and dads that don’t know about the update and who don’t have internet. Granted, that will be a small minority, but it will be interesting to see how it goes.
Everything official page has stuff like “Advanced TV hardware required. Games, add-ons and media content sold separately. Initial set-up and some features required broadband internet; ISP fees apply. Adaptive AI, Living Games, and Impulse Triggers available in supported games. See xbox.com/xbox-one.”
The retailers would seem to hold any blame for lacking those warnings and thus it would be on them to deal with any returns based on it unless they can point to a warning on the box which is also pretty likely. MS might cop some heat but it is unlikely to be anything that holds up in court.