Microsoft’s surprising Xbox One Eighty announcement earlier this week — which reversed the next-gen console’s draconian used game DRM policy and online requirements — revealed that users will first need to perform a “one-time system set-up” before using the hardware. Microsoft has now confirmed that this brief online requirement is to install a day-one system update.
Speaking to Joystiq, Xbox One chief product officer Marc Whitten confirmed the patch, saying:
“There has always been a plan to have a day-one update of the software for Xbox One. That’s [due to] the differences between the hardware manufacturing schedule and our software schedule. You have to get that downloaded, and you won’t have to connect online after that.”
Anyone planning to use their Xbox One console exclusively offline, will need to first connect it to the Internet to set-up the hardware and download the day-on patch. After that, the system should allow users to access all of its offline features without ever having to reconnect to the Internet.