Q: Will Xbox One allow players to trade in, purchase and play pre-owned games?

A: We are designing Xbox One to enable customers to trade in and resell games. We’ll have more details to share later.

http://news.xbox.com/2013/05/qa

I think the always one thing came from a misunderstanding of their marketing jargon of cloud powered computing. From what I can see from the presentation it just used to allow for bigger matches.

I don't like them collection data and saving it on the cloud though, just like Sony that opens a few too many opportunities for thieves and Microsoft to make money from it "partners".

This, like with the PS4, still allows room for them to insitute a "used game pass" type system. Because technically you still can playing the games. Though I guess we will hear more at/around E3.

A little shot at EA maybe that is what they are getting out of the partnership, something to replace the online passes. (Half joking.)

I agree a misunderstanding, but a misunderstanding of the power states.  Always on, always has referred to the power states the console can be in.  The Xbox One will be Always On in a low-power stand-by state.  That way, it can be updated automatically, or when a user walks up and says "Xbox ON" it'll turn on.  The Xbox 360 didn't have multiple power states, it had OFF and ON.  So when Kinect was in development (Beta testing) one of the most requested features wasn't possible.  Even when Microsoft was asked about it after the fact, they acknowledged it wasn't possible because of the inability for the Xbox 360 to enter a stand-by power state.

The always on feature will also allow the console to function as a communication device.  By permitting the console to be in a stand-by state, the device can "activate" when an incoming call is received.  Reviving the system to allow a person to take a call.

However....playing used games requires a fee paid to Microsoft.

So yeah.