The Xbox Series X and S introduction revealed the world of next-gen gaming to us. The much-improved resolutions with high refresh rates proved revolutionary in gaming, where you were previously stuck with a mere 30 FPS in most games. Though Xbox Series X and S have been well received by the fans and with each update, we see betterment too; now there has been a major problem looming over the heads of Xbox Series X and S users. 

Xbox users have been unable to game on their consoles for 4 days now. Since Friday, there has been an issue where users haven’t been able to play offline games if the console isn’t connected to the internet. This is known as the DRM issue. The technological restrictions employed by copyright owners of digital content to identify, trace, and protect their content are referred to as digital rights management (DRM).

DRM issue has plagued the Xbox Series X/S. The console must be connected to the internet to verify that purchases are legitimate and conform with the console’s DRM regulations. This is, of course, an issue for any player who wants to play offline. While the world may be permanently connected to the internet, even gamers need to disengage from time to time, something the Xbox Series does not allow. The complaint has been recorded by many Twitter users and has been a hot topic in many forums. Xbox Support team recently reached out to the users on Twitter to announce that the problem has been for resolved however, most of the users are still experiencing this problem. 

Even with Xbox claiming that it has resolved the issue the problem has persisted creating an even bigger out roar. Moreover, this has also been a topic of debate on a popular forum ResetEra where people have been discussing the problem and an Xbox dev came out and acknowledged the fault and then put out an explanation for why this problem has occurred:

Having watched the video and read through the discussion here, my main takeaway is that we (Xbox) need to improve our on-console error messaging; the very generic and unclear error messaging clearly adds confusion and can lead to mistrust of the system. There is actually an effort internally to revamp licensing related error messaging, and I will ensure that this feedback is heard internally to continue driving that effort.

You can read the whole thread via ResetEra where he provided technical information to spread light on this issue.

The thing that has infuriated the fans, even more, is that the competitors like PlayStation 5 (disk or digital) don’t have such limitations. Once you have downloaded an offline game you can play it anytime even without having an internet connection. Also, on PC platforms such as Steam, for a downloaded offline game, you don’t need an active internet connection all the time.

After the last Tweet of the problem being resolved while it hasn’t been for most users, we haven’t heard from Xbox since. It will be really interesting to see Xbox responds to this problem because the issue has really disappointed the long-term fans of Microsoft’s console lineup.

Do let us know your thoughts on this issue and if you are facing the same problem with Xbox Series X or S.

More interesting news: Xbox Will Join Gamescom 2022 Event In-Person, Unlike Last Year

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Abdullah Waseem
News Reporter Abdullah is an avid gamer who primarily plays single-player titles. If you can't find him anywhere, he'll probably be at his desk playing The Witcher 3 for the millionth time. When he isn't playing games, he's either reading or writing about them.