When the Xbox One was starting to go with several reversal policies, fans were dismayed when they realized that one of its best features, family sharing, was also being thrown out the window in the effort to keep up with Sony's PS4 and its consumer-friendlier tactics.

But this time, it seems that the feature is back with a vengeance, as it makes you (almost literally) one with your Xbox Gold membership.

In a recent write-up from Chief Product Officer Marc Whitten on the official Xbox web site, the sharing of digital games and the Home Gold was announced and detailed.

"We wanted to create a system that was highly personalized, but also social," wrote Whitten in the statement. "It's about celebrating your individual tastes but also making it welcoming and easy for people to share."

Basically, Home Gold is a feature that will be made available to Xbox Live Gold members for the Xbox One, and its main purpose is to allow you to share your Gold features to those in your family and your circle of friends without having to pay additional fees.

Implications of Home Gold: Good or bad?

This means that, even though only one of your family members has an Xbox Live Gold account, that doesn't mean that you would need that person to be with you at all times just to access the Gold features.

What Microsoft aims to do here is to bring the experience of advanced social gaming via the Xbox Live Gold to a more convenient setup--meaning once you have logged in to a console, whether it is in your home or at a friend's house or even both, all of those using that console can enjoy the multiplayer without needing an Xbox Live Gold themselves.

This means that you, your family, and your friends can each have not only a gamertag with a personalized set of games and library, but also access the more advanced features like multiplayer gaming, Game DVR, SmartMatch, and entertainment apps like Skype and Internet Explore--despite not having the Xbox Live Gold.

Already, there are so many implications of this in the first place--as the Xbox Live Gold holder, does this mean that you can easily grant access to as many homes the magic touch of a Home Gold access to all the Xbox Live Gold features in all the homes that you can access?

It certainly sounds like an easily exploitable, but nonetheless generous scheme from Microsoft. After all, Whitten did end on a very suggestive note, perhaps to assure gamers that there won't be any strings attached (hopefully):

"It also means that when you buy one Xbox Live Gold membership, multiple people can enjoy the best benefits of Xbox Live Gold on your Xbox One at no additional charge."

Play both Xbox 360 and Xbox One Games at the price of almost 1 game

Are you one of those who want to play the game immediately when it comes back? What if you are thinking of buying the hottest games coming out for the Xbox 360, but can't seem to decide if you should also play it on the Xbox One?

Now you can easily do this just by adding a few more to the price that you paid the Xbox 360 title to get the next-gen version of it.

This is an option that GameStop is giving its customers as a form of trade-in for the Microsoft consoles.

Videogamer obtained press release from GameStop allowing Xbox 360 games holders to exchange titles and get at least $50 worth of credit for selected titles so that you can upgrade them to the next0gen version of the game by only paying $9.99.

According to the report, you can easily trade in Call of Duty: Ghosts, Battlefield 4, FIFA 14, NFL 25, and Assassin's Creed: Black Flag from the Xbox 360 version to the Xbox One.

This is especially helpful for those who are competitive about their Gamerscore, as Microsoft has recently announced that the Xbox 360 and Xbox One games have separate achievements, regardless if you are playing the same game.

It solves the problem of having to buy two copies of the same game--when you are done with the current-gen version, simply trade it up to get the next-gen at a smaller price.

"This is an amazing opportunity for our PowerUp (PUR) members to enjoy their favourite Xbox 360 game until the Xbox One version becomes available," said Bob Puzon, exec of GameStop, in the release quoted by Videogamer. "This is a great example of how GameStop is helping gamers make the transition to the next generation of consoles economical and seamless."

For the meantime, only U.S. citizens can enjoy this offer, and those that can participate should buy the Xbox 360 version of the affected games within 30 days after its release.

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