I'll never defend the imbecile at Microsoft that made these comments, but I don't see always online as anything remotely controversial. Just about everybody is online these days. Most of the people complaining in this thread right now, have a solid and reliable enough internet connection to come online and poke fun at this. In fact, most regular gaf users don't have serious concerns about internet access, so what are we really left with? Much ado about nothing.
The real controversy here isn't that Microsoft is defending always online. The real controversy is the disrespectful and foolish manner by which a Microsoft employee, in representing the company, has chosen to defend an always online console. For those believing this somehow wraps things up for Sony and the PS4 with a nice little bow on top, better think again. Always online will, I repeat, do nothing to significantly harm sales of the next Xbox compared to the PS4. For those emotionally invested in seeing one of the two machines fail, you better start placing your bets on something else, because always online isn't it.
they better never have a Simcity level issue
I can't imagine the crazy backlash coming
to be fair my Wii U is always online but I can't imagine not being able to play MonHun because Miiverse is down
And there it is. Xbox Live has never been that unreliable. Nothing on that level happened to the 360, and nothing on that level will happen on the next Xbox. People really believe that Microsoft won't have all their ducks in a row on this thing? Come on.