Do I Actually Own My Xbox Games???

you can go to your friends and sign in and dowload a game and play together, as long as you are online, has been this way since the 360 days for digital games and will never change.

but once you sign out thats it you then cannot play as you get one console licence which is on the home console and one account licence for when you are signed in at another location. nothing has changed as it is always like this.

simple answer, no.

since the 70's any software either game or program is owned by the respective publisher or dev. you own a licence to use that software, this licence can be terminated with notice at any time, this is what you agree to when either installing or opening the box.

can be physical media or digital media, they can make the game useless and not play at anytime but this rarely happens.

when you buy physical games you only own the plastic and a licence thats it.

technically you can lend a physical game to a friend but only if it states this in the licence, the whole second hand market is a grey area which rarely gets enforced.

you can log in to any console and play your games even with friends, but when leaving you MUST log out and remove the password so nobody else has access to your account.

the reason for the home xbox is that you can have one console that can play offline and other members of the household can play those games on that console, any other console needs you signed in and online to prove you own the licences to play those games.

you agree to these terms when you purchase and install a game.

When you buy a digital purchase (anywhere, not just Xbox), you're buying a license to use the content, not the content itself. So your access to that content is limited to how the service allows you to use the license.

When it comes to Xbox games, the system has to see that you have the license to play a game. Discs games make it easy because the license is on the disc. For digital games, you're given a console license and an account license. The console license allows you to access your content offline because the license is on the console. The account license allows you to play the games on any console, but if the console license is not on that console (basically your non-Home console) the system has to check the server to make sure you have a license. If it can't access the servers, it can't check for your license so it doesn't think you own the game.

simple answer, no.

since the 70's any software either game or program is owned by the respective publisher or dev. you own a licence to use that software, this licence can be terminated with notice at any time, this is what you agree to when either installing or opening the box.

can be physical media or digital media, they can make the game useless and not play at anytime but this rarely happens.

when you buy physical games you only own the plastic and a licence thats it.

technically you can lend a physical game to a friend but only if it states this in the licence, the whole second hand market is a grey area which rarely gets enforced.

you can log in to any console and play your games even with friends, but when leaving you MUST log out and remove the password so nobody else has access to your account.

the reason for the home xbox is that you can have one console that can play offline and other members of the household can play those games on that console, any other console needs you signed in and online to prove you own the licences to play those games.

you agree to these terms when you purchase and install a game.

I also know all of this as well. The question is: why? Why would it need to go online and verify anything, if I was signed in at the time of download? Shouldn't that be suitable to prove I owned the game?

And I'm also not just talking about offline either. I have had this happen when I am online. I went weeks without being able to play CoD: Black Ops Cold War because I kept being told I needed to sign in with the profile that purchased it. Seen MANY others with the same complaints. This happens largely due to issues with the console ID nonsense.

So, if it is possible to stamp a download with the ID of the account that is downloading it (and it is), then why can't they just do that, and let it be sufficient? I'm pretty sure that's how it used to work. Why the need for console ID now?

Yeah, I know how all that works. What I am saying is WHY does it have to work that way? Why isn't the user license good enough? Why do I need a console license too??

As I stated, if I took the game to my friend's house, on a disc, this would not be an issue. So, by the exact same token, I should be able to download the game at his house, and play it there as long as I am logged in, should I not??

And, if not, WHY???

Because it doesn't make a single bit of sense for me not to able to do that, aside from keeping me from essentially giving the game away. But what is to stop me from doing that with a disc? I don't need some special key with a disc, and I can give it to whomever I want. I'm not suggesting that the system should be that way for digital, as that obviously creates a piracy issue, but my friend can't play my game when I leave his house, unless he owns it or I am logged in.

So, again, why does it have to work that way? I know for a fact that it didn't used to, because I never had a problem playing any of my games offline, on any of my consoles, a couple years ago. So why did they change it??