Kotaku: Next Xbox will require online connection to start games

Why is this a big deal anyway? Who doesn't have an internet connection that can afford an Xbox 360 and an HDTV?

Literally hundreds of thousands of people.
 
Silence and the negative rumor mill is hurting this thing among the core right now.

Not sure if MS cares any more, but that is what the brand was built off of. Ignorant for them to ignore that.
 
And fuck the practicality of it, I just don't want to.

Yep. I hate how the good paying customer gets screwed with stuff like this.

I'm reminded of this gif:

drm.gif
 
Kotaku have gone up in peoples estimations over the last 6 months or so; they still post some shit but am not sure anyones ever complained about their actual investigative stuff.

I remember if someone posted something from kotaku, then he was bashed because "it is kotaku, it is bs". Now, Kotaku is a reliable realiable source...

For me, Kotaku is the same than weeks ago, another webpage with some info, but it is funny how a source can became "reliable" if it said something that I want to hear.
 
This is too bad to be true. I don't believe it one bit. I know people who still don't have an internet connection in their house. Why would MS release a console that prevents people who don't have an internet connection from giving them money? It just doesn't make sense.
 
Microsoft probably thinks that they can just announce another Halo game and all will be right in the world. The said thing is that they're probably right.

What are we, in 2005 again? They don't think that, and if they did they wouldn't be right. They've sold almost 80m 360s, not 80m copies of Halo.
 
Think of it this way. Traditional journalists and reporters need at least three separate sources to verify it before they can go to press.

So, in addition to the leaks/rumors last year and earlier this year, there's obviously more than 3.

I just don't get why some have heard about it and others haven't.
 
Why is this a big deal anyway? Who doesn't have an internet connection that can afford an Xbox 360 and an HDTV?

Have you read the thread? The possible issues that people have brought up or how many people have bandwidth limits or bad internet (ie in other countries that aren't NA).

[The stuff below is aimed at everyone in the below camp]

Saying "Who doesn't have a connection" is incredibly short sighted (and that goes to anyone who is in the "Who doesn't have a connection, my internet is great" camp)

but I suppose if it doesn't effect you, it's fine. They can do whatever they want but as long as you're not effected, who cares right? Yeah...
 
Would be a gamebreaker for me.

It also makes barely sense since console piracy is relatively low compared to the PC
 
Why is this a big deal anyway? Who doesn't have an internet connection that can afford an Xbox 360 and an HDTV?
Me too.. or at least I thought so. I constantly get the 'disconnected from battle.net' message in Starcraft 2. If I got booted 3 minutes later the game would be unplayable.
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.
Only works if theres no competing platforms. 99% of xboxs games will also be on the PS4.
 
Microsoft's focus has moved to the center entertainment console above all else. Gaming is being pushed to the back on this next console. I think if they do the subscription idea (the way they are doing office 360, windows 9) they will likely make more than they currently do. The subscription idea means you would ALWAYS have to have a plan to use the console. Likewise they would subsidize the price of the console: See 199.00 vs PS4 399-450~.

Always online + subscription means they have a constant flow of money. If you don't pay for the service you have a paperweight. The service itself costs Microsoft little to maintain, so its always positive cash flow. Low price point will sell people on purchasing the new console since it is so much cheaper than the alternatives. Being integrated with Netflix/Youtube/The video store/Running all windows 8 apps, and not having to "worry" about selling services or excluding people from anything since everyone will have access due to the subscription requirement.

They could have an additional tier for game streaming, or a tie in with cable companies or something to further subsidize the price if they some how manage to get someone like comcast to accept the console as a DVR.

In the end even if they sold half as many consoles next gen, having 100% gold subscriptions would net them drastically more money than this past generation has.
 
I remember if someone posted something from kotaku, then he was bashed because "it is kotaku, it is bs". Now, Kotaku is a reliable realiable source...

For me, Kotaku is the same than weeks ago, another webpage with some info, but it is funny how a source can became "reliable" if it said something that I want to hear.

You do realize EDGE online, who nailed the PS4 stuff, also reported this months ago, right? It's not just Kotaku.
 
Rösti;52661169 said:
This goes hand in hand with their strategy for their XBOX gTLD (which should launch by September this year). So if this is real I'm not surprised. I'm not really bothered by it either as long as the user policies are reasonable and you don't risk losing any data in happening of a thunder storm or other event. But I'll wait for the reveal to see what this is all about.

It sure would be nice if they actually started talking so we could get some facts and not just a bunch of rumors. April 18th (date of Microsoft's Fiscal Year 2013 Third Quarter Earnings Conference Call) can't come soon enough.

did you just try to link to your hard drive?
 
So people with crap internet or even no internet, people who have shite internet caps so don't want to connect the 720, kids who want the 720 in their bedrooms but don't have internet there etc, none of these people are going to be able to play use the 720?, i can't believe Microsoft would be that stupid or would be willing to lose out on a considerable amount of people (lets not forget that only about half of 360 owners go online).

I still feel that something has been 'lost in translation' somewhere.
 
Why is this a big deal anyway? Who doesn't have an internet connection that can afford an Xbox 360 and an HDTV?

1) A lot of people don't keep their consoles connected to the internet, either because they can't or because they don't want to.

2) It's been proven time and again, that problems do not only originate from the user's end, but the company's.
If they have a problem with their servers and as a result everyone is unable to play their singleplayer games, that's an issue.

It has happened very recently with SimCity and Diablo 3.
 
This makes me think there is an OnLive style component to the system.

It's funny how people assume the reason they're doing it is for DRM. No way would MS limit their customer base just to enforce some kind of draconian piracy protection. It's not even like piracy was a huge problem for Xbox 360.

Obviously there is server side computing going on if the machine is dependent on a server connection.

This is really exciting if true. Hoping they are really thinking big with the next Xbox and going to do something radically different and forward thinking.

People always think the market isn't ready, but they always underestimate how fast the market can change. Look at how Netflix streaming has so many more subscribers than their disc by mail service. People didn't believe that was possible 5 years ago.
 
Some weeks ago, Kotaku wasn't a reliable source for gafers, now, Kotaku is reliable...

let's forget about kotaku then. how about that edge article (edge actually being a credible magazine)? how about the countless rumors we've had on several sites about this? and yes, kotaku has a somewhat shitty reputation, but sometimes they do get things right.
 
How about kids bedrooms and such, or locations where a connection just isn't available like when you take your 360 to a friend's house. A network outage, your Wi-Fi signal dropping, your router dying.
There are plenty of times when people aren't able to get connected, hell there's apparently 30+ million Xbox 360's that have never been online if the numbers are to be believed.
 
It can't be for drm. Only reason I can think of to even begin justifying this is that they're using cloud computing for voice recognition and want to be able to guarantee it for every system so devs can make it a big feature in their games. Still seems insanely reckless
 
You do realize EDGE online, who nailed the PS4 stuff, also reported this months ago, right? It's not just Kotaku.

I know it, there are some rumors, I'm not saiying that it is false, I mean how a web can be "reliable" if it say what I want to hear.

But even with Edge saying things about "always online", as Kotaku said, it can be an speculation from the source, or a misundertanding. I think it is not a confirmation at all.

Also holy crap at the Kotaku 'image comment' thing.

Thanks ;)
 
This- SO much this!

1) A lot of people don't keep their consoles connected to the internet, either because they can't or because they don't want to.

2) It's been proven time and again, that problems do not only originate from the user's end, but the company's.
If they have a problem with their servers and as a result everyone is unable to play their singleplayer games, that's an issue.

It has happened very recently with SimCity and Diablo 3.


Rumor or not- putting trust in Gies or Kotaku never seems like the right path to take.

Speculative as the rumor is, if this is true, my goodness. It'll be really problematic when losing connection in the middle of a session, or having trouble shooting protocols while turning on the Console.

Sigh.
 
On principle I'm opposed but I'm also a lazy realist. If the games are compelling enough, and the downsides as perceived by me aren't too weighty, I'll be getting it.

Fake edit: Shit, I might have used principle incorrectly in another thread. Gotto go fix that.
 
Also Microsoft better make sure its pretty clear that this is whats going to happen when they start advertising this thing because i can imagine a lot of casual gamers that don't look for gaming news on the net are going to be pretty pissed off if they buy a 720 without knowing this, i could see a pretty big backlash.
 
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