An Xbox One engineer has spoken at length about the console that would have been released to the public had Microsoft not made it's massive U-turn over game trade-ins and internet connectivity.

The explanation, posted on Pastebin under the title "heartbroken MS employee", explains just how game sharing would have been carried out. It sounds rather good, when detailed in full, compared to the explanation Microsoft gave which caused so much upset.

"Family sharing, this feature is near and dear to me and I truly felt it would have helped the industry grow and make both gamers and developers happy," the poster writes.  "The premise is simple and elegant, when you buy your games for Xbox One, you can set any of them to be part of your shared library. Anyone who you deem to be family had access to these games regardless of where they are in the world."

Those games could have been played in a sort of demo mode, which could last for up to an hour, after which you would be re-directed to the Xbox Marketplace to buy it proper. As near and dear as it seems, surely sharing a disc and getting the full experience is better? Although cloud-based family sharing could mean more could play your game. 

"The difference between the family sharing and the typical store demo is that your progress is saved as if it was the full game, and the data that was installed for that shared game doesn't need to be erased when they purchase the full game!"

He goes on to explain how Microsoft is planning to build its own social network within the Xbox. Every Xbox Live account would be given what is called a "home space" that would show things like your high scores or best gameplay moments. It would work with Kinect 2.0 so that you could use voice dictation to post notes or chat to friends.

The engineer speaks of Microsoft's failings to convince the public of its vision for the Xbox One. "We at Microsoft have no one to blame other than ourselves for failing to convince those hesitant to believe in our new system." 

While no one can confirm if this is a genuine Microsoft engineer or not, if it turns out to be true, it certainly gives an insight into what could have been the Xbox One.