According to Polygon, apparently Xbox One owners will still be able to borrow and lend friends’ games without paying a fee.  By the sounds of things, installing a game on your Xbox One registers you on Microsoft’s servers as the owner of that game, thereby deactivating the game on whichever account it was activated last.  That is to say, if I have a game installed on my Xbox One and lend it to a friend, as soon as said friend installs the game on his Xbox One, the game is deactivated on my account and registered under my friend’s account until the game is returned to me.  When I receive my game disc back and put it in my Xbox, it is reactivated on my account and deactivated on my friend’s account.  From there, if my friend would like to continue playing that game, that’s when the fee would be required.

As convoluted as this sounds, it’s really not going to be complicated for the user.  You as gamers will be able to borrow and lend your games as you normally would on current hardware with this activation/deactivation process being automated on Microsoft’s servers.  It’s also a completely understandable measure.  Since Xbox One game discs will not be required to play games after they are installed, if the game wasn’t deactivated on your user account, you would be able to play the game while it’s lent out.  Having this authentication process ensures that your game behaves as it would under normal circumstances; i.e. if you lend out a game you own on Xbox 360, you’re not going to be able to play it until it’s returned to you, likewise an Xbox One game shouldn’t work for you while you’re lending it out.

This is certainly good news for gamers as it seems to alleviate the rumors that Microsoft would block us from being able to lend out our games.  I’m certainly breathing a sigh of relief and this makes me a whole lot less skeptical regarding the Xbox One.

Source:  The Verge