Here's apparently another MS "engineer" speaking about how Family Share would have worked.
Heartbroken Xbox One employee lets rip. | HeyUGuys GamingHeyUGuys Gaming
Thank you very much for that link. My opinion now is
based off of the assumption that this is true:
Playing a friend's game via their shared game library would have been awesome. Even playing
X amount of times in increments of up to an hour would have been cool... my brother lives on the other side of the country, and he would have shared FIFA 14 with me. I haven't bought a FIFA game since FIFA 98 (I was able to play that one at an EB Games, and was sold), but my brother LOVES soccer and buys every game that comes out. I REALLY want to see this new IGNITE engine that EA Sports is using, and see how great this game is - for free. I would buy it if I liked it enough. This functionality currently doesn't exist for full retail games, as there are no demos whatsoever for full retail games.
15 minute demos you could only play once would be fairly weaksauce; it's what I imagine EA and Activision would require on their games.
That being said... if these demos were the reason for the prior DRM enforcement, then
I think Microsoft made the RIGHT move in reversing course and stripping DRM. The 24 hour check-in was
far too strict just to be able to share demos, play without a disc, and have a centralized library area where you could access your games from other consoles. Game sharing, as it was described by this engineer, just didn't offer enough to warrant a very strict 24 hour check-in. Maybe 24 hours won't be very strict in 10 years depending on world infrastructure, but it is now.
Speaking of DRM... Indie Games on Xbox 360 have a really good system set up. I know I'm not the only one in these forums who has played Indie Games. When you are playing a demo of an Indie game: You must be connected to Xbox Live the entire time, you have full access to the game (unless the dev decides to strip some features out), and there is a strict 30 minute time limit. No saves. Once you buy the game, you STILL must be connected to Xbox Live to play, but the game is fully unlocked and yours then. My point is that Microsoft already has a really good, working DRM system in place for Indie games - and it works real well. Perhaps game sharing can come back in the future, but with the Indie games DRM system on top for those that don't own the game. That's all they need to do... 24 hour checks aren't required for that.
Of course, the real reason for 24 hour checks was to give publishers/devs kickbacks on used games. We're clearly not ready for that in any capacity, and another approach should be attempted in some other way in the future - by all console manufacturers and the industry at large, working together to keep gaming alive and publishers well funded. I think family share was an afterthought. Somebody needs to look at the Indie Games model over there aat Microsoft and bring it back. I still want game demos of retail games, and this would be the best way to do so.