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[darkwing]

And people will eat it up, just like they did for Simcity, Diablo 3 and so on. If you got powerful IPs, and good marketing, shit like this won't matter much in the grand scheme of things.

sadly, you are correct

 

[evangd007]

They got away with charging for XBL, making consumers pay for a service on top of their ISP service. They also got away with raising the price of XBL. Everyone was up in arms, but they still pay.

They were already invested. Sunk costs and all that jazz. Microsoft thinks that Live subscriptions and membership in that community is a sunk cost that will convince their userbase to persist with them and upgrade to the next Xbox. They will be wrong. The userbase will drop it faster than FarmVille.

 

[Evolution_1ne]

dat third console curse

 

[Persona86]

Well, maybe there is some option to play offline anyway. Like a one-time fee, or a subscription model.

LOL "XBOX OFFLINE GOLD, pay monthly and play your games offline!!, a revolutionary new way to play games!"

 

[Adamm]

I'm already convinced that I want a Ps4 this Holiday, you aren't making things harder for me Microsoft. Always online helps out who exactly?

Publishers!

 

[Rayven_king]

Living in a country where the internet is shit, this isn't the console for me

 

[sappyday]

No way Mincrosoft is this dumb.

 

[Lambda Pie]

They'll get away with this. I still only expect this console to be massively successful in NA, however.

Xbox Live for most of Europe is a turd. we got like, 5% of the content NA gets, 20% of the UK.

i bought a 3 month code to play Halo 4 online, 9.99€. never again.

 

[Pyrokai]

I'm starting to think that Durango will be a "subscription only" console, cheap to buy like a cell phone.

Definitely makes sense, doesn't it? The whole thing seems like it's going to be a service. The box is the delivery system. Very interesting times are upon us.

 

[Mithos]

It's when my Internet goes down I mostly boot up my consoles.

 

[rpmurphy]

Well, maybe there is some option to play offline anyway. Like a one-time fee, or a subscription model.

This past gen: MS charges people for them to be able to use the internet capabilities of the console.
New gen: MS charges people for them to be able to not use the internet capabilities of the console.

Awesome!

 

[Can Crusher]

This has to be bullshit. They are gonna cut off too many people.

 

[Steroyd]

MS makes more money by taking that existing non-Internet 50% and dividing them up into those who will connect to play and those who will not (or cannot).

Connected people buy digital goods and services. They buy more content. Most importantly, everyone needs to pay given the always-on security. And that removes the temptation a lot of gamers have to pirate, which is an increasing concern as a generation is brought-up looking for loopholes to avoid paying for digital content. My wife and I make over $250K a year, and even I am tempted if the loophole is wide enough (such as R1 carts for NDS).

Cannot connect? At least the PS4 and PC are there.

I think piracy is too easy to justify these days. "Everyone else is doing it, so I'm not a bad person if I do too." Kudos to MS for putting their foot down, with a solution that will not impact me at all. My internet has gone down for 3+ minutes a handful of times in the past few years. I just don't care.

Dear lord, isn't it possible that people buy their stuff online, but stay disconnected to play their games? Like I said in an earlier post, those who have limited bandwidth and has to "budget" their bandwidth every month is screwed.

 

[Hoo-doo]

It's not about the likelihood of it happening, it's about the principle. It's an unneccessary roadblock that doesn't serve the end-user experience, and it honestly verges on an assault of the very concept of ownership (along with blocking used games, etc).

You are talking to millions of people who pay 60$ a year to "unlock" their consoles for online play. I don't think principles are high on the priority list.

 

[x-Lundz-x]

Number of times my internet has been out this gen = once or twice

Number of times I have not been able to play a single player game because of "always online" connectivity = nonzero

Do you understand the real problem?

You do understand I'm on your side right? I'm saying this is Bullshit if true, even though I have amazing internet.

 

[KageMaru]

"Xbox 720 needs to be online to handle next-gen calculations not possible on an inferior offline console. Technology is now a connected experience. Get used to it folks." - Gies after Xbox E3 reveal

Wow some of you console warriors are really invested in this war, and it hasn't even started.

 

[Pie and Beans]

After SimCity I'd say no way this could happen, but then Microsoft always manage to find a way to surprise unpleasantly.

 

[BloodMoney]

Hey thanks for calling me, and others, a stupid, uneducated, moron consumer.

did you buy 3, 4 or 5, xbox?

 

[strikeselect]

xbox live required to access online
online required to play games

lol in seriousness this would be such a bad move by MS, there's a huge percentage of 360 owners who not only don't have gold but don't even connect their boxes to the internet.

Those 360 owners that don't connect online and aren't Xbox Live Gold members don't contribute to MS's revenue stream.

Xbox Live Gold, Gamerpics, Avatar items, Map packs, Horse Armor. It's time to force these savages into the civilized world of 2013.

 

[Plinko]

Where's Miles Quartich? He was adamant that this wasn't true--to the point of insinuating that other posters who thought it was true were insane.

 

[Vexxan]

If that network troubleshooting thingy is as good as the one for Windows things are going to be really interesting, HEHE.

 

[Metalmurphy]

I don't buy it.


MS would have to be really fucking stupid to do this. Don't they even look at their own stats? There's like 40 million XBL accounts for 70M+ consoles.

 

[A.R.K]

That does not make sense at all...why whould MS do that when they know a lot of folks don't have internet connection specially in other less developed countries. They don't plan to sell their box to the demographic who can't always be online??? that makes 0 sense.

Well I am buying the PS4 anyways, so don't care really either way

 

[daveo42]

The more I think about this, the less I personally worry about it. My consoles are almost always connected to the internet when I use them. The only issues would be:

1. If your internet is down for any reason, you're screwed.
2. If you are in a place with no internet, you're screwed.
3. If Microsoft's servers can't handle the load, you and Microsoft are screwed.

These situations are quite rare these days, except for issues server-side. Buying the console, I'm sure that over the course of the lifecycle, you'll have 95-99% uptime. If MS wants to go through this route, the internet will most likely groan and populace at large will completely ignore it or not be aware that's the case.

I'm not saying it's a good idea, but I'm sure that you won't experience much in the way of downtime when playing if your Durango has to authenticate.

Great movie and pretty much spot on about Gies.

 

[dragonbane]

Apparently there are some people who are not informed about Arthur Gies:

 

[Katana_Strikes]

SimCity - The Console.

So every major game, is going to be a clusterfuck at launch when the servers can't cope?

That and the fact not everyone has online or when you have what happens if it's down? Yikes!

Do not want!!

 

[graboids]

whenever my internet goes out I can only play the trial versions of any XBLA games I have bought, so they are just transferring this to ALL my games...? great.

 

[fertygo]

Living in a country where the internet is shit, this isn't the console for me

This.

I love how some people here act everywhere in the world share 40MBps network speed.

 

[ironcreed]

I'll say it again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGDIZoXXdg8

 

[i-Lo]

You are talking to millions of people who pay 60$ a year to "unlock" their consoles for online play. I don't think principles are high on the priority list.

Pretty much this.

MS are smart. They're capitalizing on the being always connected model. Some sacrifices are needed for the sake of progress. MS is trying to both the vanguard and pioneer of this change.

 

[UrbanRats]

You can blame the morons that bought three, four, or even five 360s because of the red ring. Or the people that still paid for Live even though they raised the price. Or the people that shelled out ridiculous amounts of money for things like WiFi adapters and hard drives. Or the people that love a paywall. This is the fault of stupid, uneducated consumers that have no problem shelling out cash for anti-consumer business practices. This has made Microsoft arrogant as hell.

Guilty.
Bought the first one around launch: RROD, and so did the one they gave me from the assistance.
Bought the second one (an Arcade on sale, to be fair) because people on forums assured me that "the problem was not present anymore, since they changed the claps" or whatever: RROD, and so did the one they gave me from the assistance.

Years without a 360.
Bought a Slim last year to play RDR, GTAV and a bunch of other titles i had, bought a 4 GB for cheap on Amazon and this time i made sure these new models didn't RROD, for real.

On the bright side i never paid them a cent for Gold, but i still feel like a dumb ass for buying that second Arcade.

 

[GuardianE]

I wish this thing would reveal so that I know how much to be outraged already.

 

[Adamm]

That does not make sense at all...why whould MS do that when they know a lot of folks don't have internet connection specially in other less developed countries. They don't plan to sell their box to the demographic who can't always be online??? that makes 0 sense.

The only reason they could be doing it to get some exclusive deal from publishers

 

[NullPointer]

Gotta say though, this fits perfectly with Microsoft's M.O. when it comes to adding value to Gold.

Its not just for multiplayer anymore!

 

[The Incarnation]

Not sure making the features of a new console worse than the old ones is the way to go.

Still call bullshit on most of the rumours though.

 

[Wthermans]

If it happens, I'm eagerly sitting on the sidelines with a bag of popcorn.

The 360 generation died for me after the RRoD BS and I'm not missing that much.

I've always thought the industry needs a good crash and hopefully this will quicken the pace.

 

[Chamber]

MS can't be this dumb.

 

[Glorified G]

Plenty of people in that sdk thread are looking really stupid right now.

 

[Kibbles]

So if XBL or our internet goes down, we're fucked?

 

[GiantBreadbug]

You "Everything is connected now, everyone should have a reliable internet connection, if not you're out of luck" folks can go jump in a fucking lake.

 

[JJD]

I would have no problem if you needed internet connection to start the game for the first time (to register it online or whatever) and then never again.

But I won't support MS if this last rumor is true, that you always need an internet connection and have a 3 minute lenience if the connection drops.

 

[Voice of Reason]

Fortunately, I only bought one more additional 360 and that's because I moved from one continent to another. I'm part of the XBL problem though.

 

[Deadstar]

Jump out?

 

[KageMaru]

did you buy 3, 4 or 5, xbox?

I did buy 3, but not due to broken systems. I always sold my older models and purchased a new one. I've also paid for Live since 2001, which he's also thrown out insults for.

Still, to call an entire group of consumers morons because he doesn't like the system is just pathetic.

 

[pswii60]

Whilst I do have concerns about 'Always Online', I have to say that I've never had any problem logging in to Live since that debacle back in 2006/7. Not once. I couldn't imagine playing games offline - I always like to see what my friends are up to etc.

That said, the Blackberry fiasco a couple of years ago shows what happens when things go wrong when devices require your servers to operate.

 

[JeTmAn81]

whenever my internet goes out I can only play the trial versions of any XBLA games I have bought, so they are just transferring this to ALL my games...? great.

Yeah, I noticed this when I had some people over to play fighting games recently. One guy brought his Xbox, and another brought his hard drive with some games. Everything was just demo versions. Pretty ridiculous. I finally was able to connect one of the Xboxes to the internet and we could play the full versions on that one, but how insane is it to not be able to play an offline game because you aren't connected to the internet? We're already experiencing how awful this idea is now.

 

[Instro]

Too funny to be true.

 

[Miles Quaritch]

That said, a caution and a caveat: other sources familiar with the codenamed Durango console have told us that they are still unaware of any Microsoft plans regarding an online requirement. No one has been able to say it's not true and some have speculated that this is required at the operating system level and therefore isn't something Microsoft has to tell all developers or retail partners. Microsoft also has the ability to change this type of requirement seemingly at a moment's notice through changes in firmware or networking infrastructure.

I found this interesting. What if it's something they intend to trial or perhaps something they intended to implement, but have since changed tact?

Every person we've talked to about the always-online connection, internally and externally, has been incredulous. They predict a fiasco. They detect hubris in a Microsoft riding high off of the Xbox 360's incredible post-Kinect sales performance. But they also detect, as I have, an intensified interest in Microsoft's part to position the next Xbox as an entertainment device, to not emphasize games as significantly as they had with past Microsoft consoles. Add that to far shakier rumors of the next Xbox working as a cable box or DVR or some other TV-viewing enabler--something not a single source of mine could confirm--and you might wonder: if my cable box always has to be connected, why not my next Xbox?

Oh dear. It's post PS2 Sony all over again.

 

[eXistor]

Man, these rumors are starting to become really persistent. I just don't believe a company would be so dumb to go through with this.

 

[Viola of the Abyss]

I said it already but if this turns out to be true I won't buy one no matter what.

Next gen is last gen, 2nd vidoegame crash confirmed. Lets see what awesomeness can crawl out of the ashes. Last time we got Mario and Zelda.

Plus 3-5 years of no releases to recover all the backlog. Sounds like a good idea!