Support NeoGAF

[Hero_of_the_Day]

I think this info is false. it really dose it make any logic sense from a marketing stand point.

Well, we haven't seen their spin on it yet. If it's true, it's not like they're going to come out and say "Always on DRM!!!!" They'll show us a bunch of cool features, and then say they couldn't work without being online, just like Sim City.

 

[Tookay]

Perhaps a dev-kit only thing + devs being told different things to snuff out leaks? Sounds like a good way to keep people from leaking stuff from your actual runtime if you ask me.

I don't think you want to spread FUD about your own product. Makes no sense.

 

[GrayFoxPL]

Only Killer Instinct 3 can save Xbox.

 

[WalkMan]

Quite the overreaction, it's just like with netflix, you require internet service to consume. It's obvious that Microsoft will sell their service in a way where you simply won't want to play offline. I already feel bad for people buying PS4 over Durango knowing that Microsoft is playing this wildcard, it just justifies the service that much more if they are implementing such a policy. Can't wait

 

[Aquamarine]

Why?

Why are they forcing an internet connection? What's the incentive on their end?

* Better for publishers (creates a platform that fundamentally discourages used game sales and piracy through always online)

* More revenue for Microsoft (always-online = more adoption of Xbox Live Gold, ads on the dashboard of 100% of consoles)

* Allows MS to focus on their vision of the cloud (Game saving in the cloud, streaming game and multimedia content from the cloud, etc.)

It seems good on paper.....

.....It just happens to be horridly anti-consumer.

.

 

[Gorillaz]

This could honestly be spun into a positive. It all depends what there end goal is.

People are underestimating the power of strong PR...and possibly an MTV special

 

[enzo_gt]

Will Xbox games look significantly better than PS4.. if they handle heavy computing at server side like Simcity ?
Is that why rumored specs of xbox are quite low end?

SimCity doesn't compute anything server side that relates to it's presentation, and the stuff it handles server side is just basic information it uses to simulate some stuff in the absense of the player.

Computing stuff related to what you see on your screen is pretty close to impossible with current internet infrastructure. Cloud gaming is not going to work and become dependable anytime soon, or likely in the next 20 years.

And the specs aren't low-end at all for Durango, not even comparatively to the PS4.

 

[Derrick01]

People love to complain.

This is so transparent to the end-user that I just don't care. I'd wager than 95% of the Xbox population logs into Live at the start of their session. This will force the other 5% to connect.

As far as concerns regarding a 3-minute timer, again -- end-users will never notice. The SimCity fiasco was due to EA servers crapping out. XBox Live has gone down for more than a
few minutes only a few times in the last 10+ years.

This won't impact my play experience at all.

I remember that thread we had not long ago where it gave out xbox live numbers and it left a 20-30 MILLION gap between total 360s sold and number of live accounts there were.

That's a lot of people to leave out in the dust with a forced connection feature.

 

[ShockingAlberto]

People will defend literally anything.

Not surprised to see the spinroom out doing their job here already.

 

[The Omega Man]

Reiko, Baconsammy and Surly on suicide watch.

 

[itsgreen]

This does not feel good. There is NO good reason for me not being able to watch a movie at home, on my network because either MS has a crashed server or my ISP is down.

Not to mention when MS calls it quits and disables the activation server.

 

[semiconscious]

I didn't want to believe that Microsoft would have knowingly sold us broken consoles this gen. I also didn't think that my 360 would turn into an interactive billboard when I purchased it.

This seems like less of a rumor, and more of a reality.

what's funny is, if/when it's finally announced that this isn't true, we will likely never know for certain whether or not this was the initial plan. because it sounds like something they'd be more than capable of doing...

 

[Alebrije]

Who cares, we still have PS4.

 

[L1NETT]

Crickey o'mickey.

The shear wealth of negative rumours about the nextbox is worrying in itself. But this one takes the biscuit.

If this turns out to be true, hello PS4.

 

[JCizzle]

Joke Post?



No.

10 minutes later...

In other news, Microsoft has invested another $750k in polygon for the development of a new documentary!

 

[Kazuma Kiryu]

Does this guy have any credibility at all? I keep seeing his goofy face.

gies and credibility? those words don't go together. he's often quoted because he's a shill.

 

[Haunted]

Great fit for those developing markets.

 

[nasos_333]

So, next xbox is like non existent to me already

I dont game online, i did not even remotly consider buying Diablo 3 because was only online for example

Somehow i doubt will be true though, they would get near zero sales with something like that, especially with PS4 offering real game owenership and such amazing hardware and software support

 

[Voice of Reason]

.

It's not even good on paper, because basic statistics show that a very large amount of people that own an Xbox aren't even connected online.

 

[Oppo]

Wowzers.

I thought it was all a misunderstanding, based around the idea that a one-time activation would be needed. But a connection to start each time, and constant connection to keep running? Hmm.

I mean, it's not a HUGE deal for me, except for the odd time my net goes down...I guess. But wasn't there some crazy statistic about how around a third of 360s weren't net connected?

I suppose MS wants to force all consoles online, since an online console is a more valuable one (in terms of content sales, ads etc.)

If true this also suggests there will indeed be sort of more universal caveats around game sharing and second hand games.

I think the bolded (if this is true) is the long and short of it.

They made a calculation, and decided they'd rather force the issue, and have all customers potentially connected and paying for stuff, rather than cater to those who are offline or mostly offline.

I don't really like it one bit. But I don't find it all that hard to believe.

 

[GulAtiCa]

No. no no no no...

If true, I will VERY unlikely buy the next Xbox.

 

[Pyramid head]

If this rumor turns out to be true, I am going to be pretty conflicted:/

If it's true, conflicted is the last thing I'll be. The decision not to buy will be made with clarity and ease the like of which the world has never seen the like of which.

 

[shungokusatsu]

In all honestly, I doubt any consumers will care. People raged about the RRoD yet they still bought the console in droves, even re-buying it several times (I myself went through a total of 4). The same was said about having to pay for XBL on top of your ISP, yet people still do it without hesitation. Then MS raised the price of XBL, yet the negative was minimal.

Reminds me of the MW2 petition:

 

[Archpath1]

i call shenanigans. hopefully not true.

 

[Live Free or Die]

Wow, so bad. Can't believe people are defending this.

 

[Anth0ny]

There seems to be conflicting reports on this whole issue. I think I'm going to just wait until the big 720 conference before getting too angry.

 

[PsihoPerihelion]

They really, REALLY don't want people to buy the new Xbox. Oh well, if E3 doesn't show anything compelling about it I'd rather buy a nice gaming laptop (I can't go back to desktop PCs anymore) I don't care about the PS4 (never cared about PlayStation consoles before you call me "u fecking xboxerz") and the Wii U, well...

 

[Auto_aim1]

Hey Microsoft, can you please reveal the damn thing already? Thanks.

I don't even understand the logic behind such a thing. It's commercial suicide.

 

[OrlanisWorks]

If it were true and you would still buy, you are a terrorist.

 

[Trigger]

I still can't believe this is a thing. The idea sounds horrid on every level.

 

[JaggedSac]

The thing is, why would MS risk such intense backlash and support issues for something like this? What is the impetus behind it? What features are they wanting to guarantee will always be there for the user? No way they would be doing this just for DRM. Not even MS would risk their billion dollar brand on that. IF this is true, there HAS to be some feature set that MS is banking heavily on, and that feature set requires there to always be a connection.

 

[Derrick01]

In all honestly, I doubt any consumers will care. People raged about the RRoD yet they still bought the console in droves, even re-buying it several times (I myself went through a total of 4). The same was said about having to pay for XBL on top of your ISP, yet people still do it without hesitation. Then MS raised the price of XBL, yet the negative was minimal.

Reminds me of the MW2 petition:

I hate that picture so much. Tell me what the other 800 people in the group were doing.

 

[Voice of Reason]

In all honestly, I doubt any consumers will care. People raged about the RRoD yet they still bought the console in droves, even re-buying it several times (I myself went through a total of 4). The same was said about having to pay for XBL on top of your ISP, yet people still do it without hesitation. Then MS raised the price of XBL, yet the negative was minimal.

Reminds me of the MW2 petition:

Dedicated servers for a $60 game is not the same as overbearing always online connection
for a $300+ console.

 

[enzo_gt]

I don't think you want to spread FUD about your own product. Makes no sense.

It doesn't matter, they're just rumours. MS isn't giving a fuck about rumours right now, and they shouldn't. Rumours become completely irrelevant when an official reveal occurs and everyone is paying full attention, not just in passing to whispers in the wind.

Though more importantly, I'm not sure if MS would do that to snuff out the sources of leaks, but I wouldn't put it past them considering how uptight the rest of their security is.

 

[Aquamarine]

Hey Microsoft, can you please reveal the damn thing already? Thanks.

I don't even understand the logic behind such a thing. It's commercial suicide.

And yet, SimCity has been one of the fastest-selling SimCity games, despite all of the negative backlash.

I don't think it will have as much impact on sales as you think it will.

 

[shandy706]

Out of all the rumors and possibilities this is the one I completely dismiss.

It would be utterly stupid.....literally idiotic to require nearly 100% Internet up time for people to play games.

The "always on" will be for background downloads/updates/social interactions. The console must play games outside of an Internet connection or they'll lose millions of potential customers.

Also, imagine the customer support horrors this would create...yeah...I don't see it happening.

 

[R3TRO]

Still don't believe it, but if it is true I'm still buying it on day 1 for Fable, Forza, and Halo.

 

[Seda]

Dumb move

 

[i-Lo]

Because Mr. Gies is literally the most reliable industry insider in the world, amirite?

Yes "gurl" you're right. One image shows a temporary lapse in judgement. He is fallible like the rest of us but he is more in the know that those who don't work in the industry.

I honestly question how rampant piracy was this generation. Seems to me that the complexity of modding the PS3/360 have kept it down enough that the fear is pretty unwarranted.

Look at the SimCity mess, requiring a connection just to start a game is stupid beyond imagination.

Well it's better to have 10 people who pay $40 each for the game compared to being paid for 5 copies despite the total number of players being 20.

Players don't own the copy of the game, they simply hold the license of usage under their terms. So those people need to deal with it.

 

[Deleted member 1235]

So if my Internet connection shits itself like it does once a month..... Can t even play Xbox until its back online. Fuck that's retarded.
Ms already knows what to do to keep things licensed, they do Kim's licensing with corporate windows products change that 3 minutes to 30 days for offline content for fucks sake.

 

[Replicant]

Yeah, but what if the console itself offers enough amazement that the "always online" aspect is just a single negative bullet point?

If MS are really going through with this, there must be a catch, or compensation of some sort.

Then I hope whoever backing this (ie.EA) also gets the brunt of the backlash. I couldn't tolerate it back when Crapcom did it. I sure won't tolerate it if other company does it now.

 

[inky]

People love to complain.

This is so transparent to the end-user that I just don't care. I'd wager than 95% of the Xbox population logs into Live at the start of their session. This will force the other 5% to connect.

And you'd lose that wager.

This won't impact my play experience at all.

good for you? It will impact others, but keep on spinning, after all we just "love to complain" like, for no reason at all.

 

[Mikey Jr.]

Thats a shame.

 

[Salaadin]

Would this be tied to Xbox Live....like if they have XBL maintenance or if there are connection issues during the holidays like that one year, will users be unable to play any games at all, single player included?

 

[Aesthet1c]

I have a hard time believing they would do this. The only way I could see it happening is if they made some kind of agreement with Sony and third parties, and this will be the new standard. If MS does this and Sony doesn't, then it's basically console suicide.

 

[Steroyd]

People love to complain.

This is so transparent to the end-user that I just don't care. I'd wager than 95% of the Xbox population logs into Live at the start of their session. This will force the other 5% to connect.

As far as concerns regarding a 3-minute timer, again -- end-users will never notice. The SimCity fiasco was due to EA servers crapping out. XBox Live has gone down for more than a few minutes only a few times in the last 10+ years. If MS ended up having bandwidth issues, dropping folks regularly and ruining their experience, then they would change the timers. Pretty straightforward here -- ensure a transparent protection that does not hurt the user experience for 99% of your customers.

This won't impact my play experience at all.

Maybe not yours but I feel for those who are on limited bandwidth per month.

Plus there are no garuntees in life, just the possibility of Sim City part 2 happening on a console wide scale is enough to scare people.

 

[Chuckpebble]

Pretend you are Microsoft for a minute and tell me why this is a good idea.

-100% connected to internet rate, eat your heart out 3DS!
-0% piracy, woohoo!

I'm sure there are plenty more that I'm not thinking of, but I have a hard time getting into the corporation mindset.

 

[darkwing]

people expect/want this to be true? what

 

[Hindle]

No way they go through with this with out serious support. Even then I'm sceptical they're in as much trouble as people on here make out.

 

[Sanctuary]

I think that proves that Kotaku rumour is a bust. In Aegeis we trust. MS won't enforce something like this.

And in reality, most have internet (remember that 22 million figure for XBL gold membership base?).

And most adults have a gas-powered vehicle. Try to keep it in perspective. The only time I actually connect to XBL is a) when watching Netflix (but my PS3 can do that) b) patches/updates and c) playing a fighting game (which I rarely bother with online any longer). Otherwise, it's strictly offline gaming for me.