Microsoft Exec on Always Online Consoles: "Deal With it"

[Insomniac55]

I wish I could drag him on over to my Uni accommodation, where the following are true;

1) WiFi does not reach my room well enough to connect.
2)While I am provided with excellent wired internet, I am NOT permitted to connect a router or network switch to the cable. If more IPs are detected than the one device I'm allowed to connect, then I'll get fined by the uni.

I currently have my PS3 next to my desk, which I occasionally game on. If it were an always-online console, I'd have to disconnect the Internet from my PC every time I wanted to play. Considering the fact that I'll often be gaming on the PS3 with a guide or some other related stuff open on the PC, this would be a massive pain in the arse. Not to mention the fact that swapping cables/having to buy some sort of switcher would be incredibly annoying.

This exec needs to learn that sometimes, internet access is limited and he needs to learn to deal with that.

 

[Amakusa]

Wow just wow,
Well i guess i won't be getting a next gen xbox 760 then. So not only do i have to pay for the privilege of playing online like my current xbox, i need to be always online now. Well i guess i won't be getting this next gen for xbox. Just have to wait and watch the ps4 details on how it runs now before i think about getting that. In any case seems i'll be just keeping this current gen for much longer heh.

 

[Kael Arawn]

I also probably wont buy one for myself. Well in till there's some universally cool mods available for it, at which stage since it force installs all game to a hard drive im expecting "the scene" to mod in NoCd.xex support which will lead to a FLOOD of piracy kinda like pc (.xex is the xbox executable extension).

But i will be selling them if a customer asks for one and i expect there to be descent demand for them, as opposed to the WiiU which i have only sold 13 of since release (and i haven't bought one for myself yet either).

The main point is that dedicated gamers are being deluded if they think there (our) numbers matter in the long run.

Also has anyone stopped to think that Microsoft might be simply getting ahead of the curb on this one, even Sony thinks that by the time the PS5 roles around game streaming services like on live will dominate the gaming scene and Microsoft might be aiming for the NEXT to be the last console they ever make as by the time the PS5 arrives they can simply start using the grunt of the NEXT to stream games from a dedicated server and that means once again our short term hatred for the thing is meaningless in the long term.

Also its pretty much confirmed that BLURAY will be the last form of physical media advancement we ever get outside of SSD?s and it has a BLURAY drive.

Remember its already confirmed the thing will work with any old usb device as storage and its rumored that it will have 2.5? sata bay as well which will just lead more credence to the concept that its designed to be around for quite a while and is aimed at digital distribution of entertainment first and foremost.

 

[Kael Arawn]

The real solutions to everyone woes, GET A DECENT SHUTTLE PC with a ps3 or 360 control and bind them to it and install steam.

And if its to "pcey" for you pay a nerd to customize the ass out of it so its user friendly

Seriously EVERYTHING you all want is perennially available on a pc (universal backwards compatibility, offline mode etc) and i bet you can get one for less then a new console at launch and there open ended architecture, so you can swap out cards when its under powered instead of buying a brand new console every 5 years.


So pc, less expensive,offers more for much less, plus 1 billion other reasons, and everyone seems to hate where newer consoles are going, so why are ppls still obsessed with gaming on them (consoles that is)?

Catcha - no soup for you, seems strangely relevant

EDIT

Also with the fact that backwards compatibility seems to be thrown by the wayside with the direction the current consoles are headed it should mean that xbox 360s and there game collections retain some semblance of value just like the snes etc, unlike the PSx which was worth about the same as a brick once the PS2 launched due to backwards compatibility.

So there is that as a bonus

 

[Agow95]

"Every device now is "always on". That's the world we live in."
Really? my Xbox 360 isn't "always on", the PS3 isn't "always on", and the PS4 won't be "always on", and even my laptop isn't "always on"
So tell me, what devices exactly are "always on"

 

[Madman123456]

Bwahahahaha.
I'd like to know if someone from the Company later told him that people don't like that much. Also, the later comparison with the vacuum cleaner sucks, the thing requires energy to run and gets this energy by electricity.
So do the consoles and my PC isn't running with a steam engine either.
Everything we know about the durango thing is that it will play videogames. As of now, we have several devices that play the latest videogames that don't require online connections.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

Someone's done a Hitler Rant to go with the other Meme pics regarding this debarkle.


And there are unconfirmed reports that Adam Orth no longer works for Microsoft.

http://4playernetwork.com/blog/2013/04/adam-orth-article/

Relevant information is at the bottom

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

I will deal with it. I won't buy it, that's the best way to deal with it

 

[Cid Silverwing]

No.

We're not gonna "deal with" shitty DRM, you condescending little [POST EXPUNGED].

Now you have to "deal with" severely reduced sales due to your fuck-up now.

 

[Something Amyss]

Yeah, we certainly weren't bypassing that crap since it's beginnings.

And you kind of invalidated your argument there.

 

[Littaly]

What concerns me the most about the "always-on" approach is not that I could be kept from playing because my connection is down today or tomorrow, although that thought doesn't really appeal to me either. What concerns me is if these games will still be playable ten or twenty years in the future. What happens when Microsoft's servers are shut down? Will my copy of the game be useless?

It both bothers me because I wanna be able to go back to the games I'm playing now in a couple of decades, but also because it says something about how publishers look at the games they put out. I mean, isn't a game worth more to them than some use-and-throw entertainment meant to be played only when it's new only to then be forgotten and never touched again? You don't even have to be of the opinion that games are art in order to believe that they are worth preserving and have value that lasts more than a couple of months after launch.

It's not just always-online DRM schemes that are worrisome in that regard (there's a similar problem with DLC), but the most infuriating because it's hard to see what benefits we really get from it.

 

[TheSteeleStrap]

I never had a PS3, but it looks like I'm looking into a PS4. I can live without any more Halo and Gears. The next Xbox (whatever they're calling it) WILL flop, there's just no way around it.

 

[jamail77]

I can't add much to the conversation that hasn't already been said. In the sense of "always on" that SimCity was or Durango is rumored to be no, there is no device that is "always on" like that and it is ludicrous and downright insulting to think such a world exists. To twist the meaning of those words and people's understanding of our technological landscape insults his fans, Microsoft's followers, and his own position and the experience that comes with it.

It's opinions like that which continue the dangerous corporate world we live in. Companies keep doing things based on the mantra that "we're in it to make money" (which isn't completely the reason for their existence but that's a whole other issue) until one day they do something that could make them that much more extra money from a certain perspective. In reality, the execution of that idea proves disastrous and companies that form a big part of the economy and foundation of a country collapse and never recover or are never trusted again. This causes a lot of problems as we are seeing now (partial reason) This is because it inconvenienced and angered its consumers; to make money you have to be willing to compromise and do things that sound bad for you at first (sell a digital copy of a AAA for $5?!?! OUTRAGEOUS?!?!) but actually help sustain your company.

This is very basic thinking really. We can't keep living in a world where there's 1 to 3 big players that are too big to fail and have most of the public flock to them. Our economic system encourages that (or the U.S.A.'s does anyway). We need an economic system that encourages diversity and marketing that lets consumers know they have other great options available in similar sectors. They can flock to one or can they flock to multiple places to get different advantages for the same service or product but no one equally talented business gets overshadowed by their much bigger, more stagnant counterpart.

 

[Techno Squidgy]

c)If the power goes out, no one is going to blame the vacuum company. People will blame you when they can't use the product they paid for, and they won't be able to use the product they paid for at all times.

if electricity goes out, you don't blame the vacuum creator, but if YOUR INTERNET goes out, you blame Microsoft? double standards FTW?

Let's say we're playing a game together. We're both sat in your living room, console hooked up to the TV, playing a game split screen.

Now Let's imagine this is an xbox 360 and we're playing Halo 3, just for the sake of argument. The internet goes out. Notice how we're still playing the game? Yeah. That's because the console doesn't always need to be online.
Let's say the internet comes back on but I've gone home. You fancy playing some Red Dead Redemption for the story, so you whack that in the drive and fire it up. Through some unforeseen series of events, a meteor strike occurs and knocks out your ISPs network. You don't even notice. You're still playing RDR quite happily.

Now let's imagine it's a 720. We're playing Halo 5 or whatever number they're up to now. You're just about to line up a perfect headshot from the other side of the map. The internet goes out. Suddenly, we're back at the home screen! There's an error message saying we were disconnected from the internet! But wait a minute, we weren't even using the internet, all the processing was being done on the xbox and sent straight to the TV! What the hell Microsoft?! Now I've gone home again, and your internet is back online. You decide to play Half-Life 2 Episode 3. It doesn't even have a multi-player mode. You're Gordon Freeman again, crawling through air vents, to push a button and stop the combine from doing whatever it is they're up to this time. You've just navigated a really tricky section, shot your way out of hell and come out with a handful of hitpoints. You can see a health dispenser. You run towards it. Suddenly the I.S.S. falls out of orbit and lands on top of your local switch board, cutting off your connection. You're inches away! BAM, BACK AT THE HOMESCREEN, DO IT ALL AGAIN WHEN YOUR INTERNET IS BACK ON. HOW ELSE ARE WE SUPPOSED TO KNOW YOU DIDN'T STEAL THIS GAME?

Fuck always online.

 

[jamail77]

Not to mention the energy costs that "always on" forces on people who can do it but don't want to. No matter how advanced our technology gets that's not good for consumer satisfaction, the economy, technology, energy usage, or the government. It is not a sustainable business model. Period.

 

[Kargathia]

Except that I'd be extremely surprised if SimCity turns out to be profitable. At this point it's safe to say that it'll be selling way below expectancy.

SimCity was still #1 in computer games on Amazon weeks after being delisted. I have no idea if it's still there, but if you think that's unprofitable, or anything of the sort....

I don't even know what to say, honestly. People have gone so far as to take their own expectations and portray them as fact and then act surprised when things don't turn out that way (and to be fair, they still MIGHT, but I suspect "below expectations" will only be an issue because these are the same guys who thought Dead Space 3 should be able to sell 5 million units).

I call it "Fox News Syndrome," based on the 2012 election, but I suppose at this point "disgruntled gamer syndrome" would work just as well.

SimCity is the kind of blockbuster where if it were selling at anything below #1 in a period not shared with an even larger behemoth (CoD, AC, WoW), you would know for sure it had bombed horribly.
Dead Space needed to shift 5 million copies because they threw busloads of money at it, and needed to recoup that, along with the losses suffered on less successful projects (past or future).

SimCity is a full re-boot featuring an entirely new engine (no recycling of assets), requires substantial server space, and additional server space band-aids due to the widespread connection issues at launch. All these things do not come cheap.

A substantial amount of its sales figures also stem from pre-orders, further excarbated by that pre-views were critically well-received. This matters because DLC is a sizeable chunk of expected revenue, and this will take a big hit if the playerbase quickly dwindles, as it's doing right now over at Diablo (initially sold like hot cookies despite the widespread complaints and issues).

My guess is that financially this is not an outright disaster, but it won't do much more than scrape even - a bad thing in a business model centered around blockbusters paying the bill for all the smaller and less successful games.

 

[Daveman]

Does he not get that if the power doesn't work, we blame the electricity company rather than our vacuum cleaner company? The issue isn't that we don't trust our own internet connections, it's that we don't trust the servers provided to function, as was the case of the Diablo 3 and SimCity launch. Also the fact that the internet connection is entirely unnecessary to the functioning of the device as opposed to the mobile phone network for a phone to work and electricity for a vacuum cleaner to work.

That's kind of the thing with analogies. They're shit.

Edit: My mate has an Xbox 360, he can't go online with it at university because they don't let them on the network in our halls. He would therefore be unable to play ANY games at university if this was the case. I guess the next Xbox isn't for anyone who might want to go to university?

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

All the more reason not to waste money on it. Online is extra not default, get over that.