Next Xbox Practically Confirmed "Always-Online"

[SonOfVoorhees]

I don't take "practically confirmed" news very seriously but yes, an always-online console would put the suck in sucky.

I read somewhere they want you to watch tv on it. So that would need to be always online to enable that. Games, i doubt they will be always online - and even if that is not the case, if it comes with wifi included then i cant see what the big deal is. PC are always online. I think its the DRM and other bullshit companies add that people hate, not the always online, because that in itself isnt an issue. Although, i do agree some people live in areas with crappy internet connections and if you dont play online anyway and just wanted to play a normal single player game then the always online thing would be a major pain in the arse.

My deal breaker would be second hand games. I only buy 5 or 6 games a year and the rest are rentals.....as most games can be completed in 10 hours.

Thing is i really cant see MS alienating a large section of their customer base by implementing all these negative additions. Part of me wonders if they are spreading this news on purpose so when they show off there console they can give all the good news that there is no drm, not online for single player and can play used games. This will be great news and would serve as great positive promotion for there console.

 

[x EvilErmine x]

Well it really wouldn't surprise me at all if it was true.

Who here has an Xbox? Who here has Live Gold for said xbox? I'm betting if you have an xbox then the significant majority of you have Gold too[footnote] According to Microsoft then Live has 30 million active subsribers as of Jan 2011 source link [http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/features/2011/jan11/01-05CESBallmer.aspx][/footnote] . So If the new xbox is always online and you have gold already for your 360 then what's the difference with the new one to what you are already doing now? You are always online if you have gold and a 360 anyway so this is really nothing new.

And that ladies and gentlemen is the logic behind making the next box always online. Microsoft know the numbers, they know that most of their current xbox customers are already always online anyway so it's just a small step to making it mandatory. Most people will not see a real change to their current setup.

For everyone who has a problem with connection dropping out on them, or for every server that goes down unexpectedly then you got to realise that this is really an exception and not the norm. Yeah it sucks for you but then a lot of people won't have that problem so it's not an issue to them. No one ever remembers all the times that stuff just works and goes fine, it's just the times when something goes wrong that stick out, but that's just how the mind works. Microsoft are actually fairly good when it comes to maintaining the Live servers, I can only recall about two times in the last year where I've had a problem with them. Even times where I've had issues then i found that they were resolved quickly, like in no more than an hour or two.
You can bet that Microsoft will put significant resources into making sure that the new servers have the minimum amount of down time possible too. If you are charging a consumer for use of a service then you better make damn sure that it's working properly or it's going to be a PR nightmare and your bottom line is going to end up taking a hit [footnote]And no one wants that, it's all about the moneyz after all...got to have all the moneyz![/footnote]

So you see it's not such a stupid idea from Microsoft's point of view, to them it make sense, and if you squint and tilt your head a bit then it can look like a strange sort of sense from a consumer viewpoint too.

Well if you got this far[footnote] Seriously, a lot of people have the attention span of a terminal caffeine addict these days so i think you deserve a bit of recognition for bothering to read something that's more than a few lines, award yourself a small prize[/footnote] then I bet you think I'm a bit of an MS fanboy. Well i'm not actually, I highly doubt I'm going to get any of the next gen consoles, for i've been seduced by the dark side...I heare the PC master race calling me back to my roots. Funnily enough it's not the always on DRM shenanigans that's turning me off consoles, it's the fracking 'social media' integration everywhere that's really getting on my tits.

 

[spartandude]

I bet a lot of people in this thread have lots of Steam games which require an internet connection.

for multiplayer only games yh sure i know i do. but when i singleplayer game comes out with always online then i say fuck it

let alone and always on console


OT

look it isnt actually confirmed yet so stop burning them at the stake already, by all means get the wood and oil but dont set the fire yet

 

[rob_simple]

Here's a wild notion: how about we abandon all these speculation threads until we have concrete evidence about the state of the next gen consoles?

What's that? You'd prefer to wildly over-react to hearsay and rumour?

Oh internet, you continue to surprise me.

Edit: "Previous rumors suggested that the launch line-up for the next Xbox includes Ryse, a new Forza, a family game and a zombie game."

Oh, be still my beating heart! A family game and a zombie game? Microsoft are really spoiling us with this rumoured launch line-up.

On a side note, is it possible to overdose on sarcasm?

 

[jim1398]

if it comes with wifi included then i cant see what the big deal is. PC are always online. I think its the DRM and other bullshit companies add that people hate, not the always online, because that in itself isnt an issue.

The big deal is that you're being forced to give up the ability to play whenever you want for absolutely nothing in return. An always online console does not benefit the consumer in any way at all and in exchange for that, you have to rely on them keeping their servers running constantly, which they simply can't do. You can have the best internet connection in the world, but it doesn't mean a thing if there are issues on their end. With an always online console, there will be times where you won't be able to play it, it won't have anything to do with your connection and there won't be anything you can do about it.

I struggle to understand how anyone could not see that as an issue, but if you can honestly say you wouldn't care about not being able to play your console whenever you wanted to, then more power to you.


(BTW, it doesn't really compare to a PC or even steam. If I lose connection with my PC, I can still play any game I've got installed on it, well, except for the small number of ones that force you to keep a constant connection...much like the new Xbox, if the rumour is true)

 

[Boogie Knight]

Nice job alienating poor people and folks who live in rural areas with limited internet connection, Microsoft. This won't affect me, though I wonder about how this might affect the industry as a whole. I half suspect quite a few third party publishers would forgo multiplatform, or rather would make games for the PS4 then gradually port them to the WiiU (and vice versa), and may not undergo the expense of putting the game on a console that is not going to do well on account of always online limiting accessibility.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

So Microsoft is that stupid after all. Not surprised. At this point there is absolutely nothing that I'd expect a company not to be too stupid to try.

They're stupid because a blogger who has been consistently wrong has made a new version of his dubious predictions?

Sorry. I was not aware of that blogger's reputation. Well if it is still just a rumour then I stand corrected.
However I still say that there is nothing I'd put past a company on the grounds that "there's no way they'd be that stupid." Yes they would.

 

[Drizzitdude]

I recall just reading an article not long ago about how microsoft had no idea where people were getting the always online thing from, I'll skim my history and edit this if I find it.

 

[Requia]

Well it really wouldn't surprise me at all if it was true.

Who here has an Xbox? Who here has Live Gold for said xbox? I'm betting if you have an xbox then the significant majority of you have Gold too[footnote] According to Microsoft then Live has 30 million active subsribers as of Jan 2011 source link [http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/features/2011/jan11/01-05CESBallmer.aspx][/footnote] . So If the new xbox is always online and you have gold already for your 360 then what's the difference with the new one to what you are already doing now? You are always online if you have gold and a 360 anyway so this is really nothing new.

And that ladies and gentlemen is the logic behind making the next box always online. Microsoft know the numbers, they know that most of their current xbox customers are already always online anyway so it's just a small step to making it mandatory. Most people will not see a real change to their current setup.

For everyone who has a problem with connection dropping out on them, or for every server that goes down unexpectedly then you got to realise that this is really an exception and not the norm. Yeah it sucks for you but then a lot of people won't have that problem so it's not an issue to them. No one ever remembers all the times that stuff just works and goes fine, it's just the times when something goes wrong that stick out, but that's just how the mind works. Microsoft are actually fairly good when it comes to maintaining the Live servers, I can only recall about two times in the last year where I've had a problem with them. Even times where I've had issues then i found that they were resolved quickly, like in no more than an hour or two.
You can bet that Microsoft will put significant resources into making sure that the new servers have the minimum amount of down time possible too. If you are charging a consumer for use of a service then you better make damn sure that it's working properly or it's going to be a PR nightmare and your bottom line is going to end up taking a hit [footnote]And no one wants that, it's all about the moneyz after all...got to have all the moneyz![/footnote]

So you see it's not such a stupid idea from Microsoft's point of view, to them it make sense, and if you squint and tilt your head a bit then it can look like a strange sort of sense from a consumer viewpoint too.

Well if you got this far[footnote] Seriously, a lot of people have the attention span of a terminal caffeine addict these days so i think you deserve a bit of recognition for bothering to read something that's more than a few lines, award yourself a small prize[/footnote] then I bet you think I'm a bit of an MS fanboy. Well i'm not actually, I highly doubt I'm going to get any of the next gen consoles, for i've been seduced by the dark side...I heare the PC master race calling me back to my roots. Funnily enough it's not the always on DRM shenanigans that's turning me off consoles, it's the fracking 'social media' integration everywhere that's really getting on my tits.

Uh, according to Microsoft about half of XBox 360s aren't even connected to the internet.

 

[x EvilErmine x]

Monster snipity

Uh, according to Microsoft about half of XBox 360s aren't even connected to the internet.

Well they seem to be a bit inconsistent with their figures then, why is that not a huge surprise?

Care to share your source though?

 

[Rob Robson]

I'm just going to buy whatever most of my friends get so we can play together. Being the one guy in my group who got the "incorrect" console would be really lame.

Don't be surprised if they all end up going PC, it seems to be the clear paradigm shift right now.

 

[Requia]

Monster snipity

Uh, according to Microsoft about half of XBox 360s aren't even connected to the internet.

Well they seem to be a bit inconsistent with their figures then, why is that not a huge surprise?

Care to share your source though?

Hrm, my sources are apparently too distant. That 30 million number is what I have (except its xbox live *users*, not subscribers, "Xbox live free" is anybody hooked up), but there are 77 million XBoxs now, not 50 million. Since the 30 million is well out of date ~60% internet connectivity is probably still accurate.

 

[QUINTIX]

My Guess: A console needs to be associated with a Live/Skype/Skydrive account, which can be activated at a gamestop or target if you lack a quality internet connection and/or a MS Live account

 

[Requia]

http://www.ign.com/articles/2011/01/07/ces-microsoft-press-conference-live-blog 40 m Subscribers in 2012 (66M sold at the time), so that does confirm decent internet connectivity.

(though, the whole thing is moot, Microsoft only makes money off subscribers, other customers they break even at best, from a business perspective driving off the non live subscribers is a good idea).

 

[Fayathon]

I'll just wait for the actual reveal that's happening next month

I'll just have to keep telling myself even Microsoft wouldn't be THAT stupid. If it is, simply put: I won't buy it.

You've obviously never dealt with Microsoft before, yes they can be that stupid. One just has to look at Windows 8.

What's so bad about Win8? Other then the "I'm old and It's different" rhetoric?

They broke a lot of functionality that Win7 has in favor of pandering to people that like the aesthetics of tablets. Win8 is great, on a tablet or tablet styled system, on a laptop or desktop it makes me want to murder everything around me with napalm and thermite.

OT: I've slowly stopped playing my consoles altogether, with the exception of my PS3 for Dark Souls, but the saddening regularity of the shit I hear about the next generation means I'm just going to be that much further vindicated by my choice of going full PC. Especially since needing a computer to start and wanting to game means that a gaming PC is cheaper than a PC and a console.

Kind of a shame, I grew up on consoles, and I will mourn their passing.

 

[aprildog18]

http://www.vgleaks.com/microsoft-xbox-roadmap-2013/

I like how so many people here are....not smart?
The article I just posted doesn't prove anything about the next Xbox, but I guess I can now rant about how the Escapist forums have fell down a bottomless pit.
Why don't you guys wait for official releases or confirmed data before ranting about something you don't even know. Can you not wait another month before saying the new Xbox sucks, not because of rumors, but because it actually does suck?

 

[health-bar]

inb4 this was all a ploy by microsoft to feed us disinformation to make us upset.
then they announce that the xbox WON'T have 'always on' and everyone is so relieved that they buy it in droves.

this is of course implying microsoft actually isn't mentally handicapped, so we shall see.

 

[knight steel]

Hmm let's see I have two options here for me to choose from:

1.Remain calm and know that it is simply a rumor
or
2.Panic and think it's been confirmed

I think I'm going to choose..........option number two!!!
WWWWWEEEEE AAAARRRRREEEEE ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEDDDDDDDDDD

Spoiler: Total break down

[sub]Just relax we don't know for sure-there are other consoles ^_^[/sub]

 

[klaynexas3]

HAHAHAHAHA

Wait... so first, you get to pay 500 bucks to BUY the console. Then 60 dollars (or more, I wouldn't be surprised if the next gen shot to 70-80) to BUY a game. Then you have to PAY for your internet to USE the console. THEN you have to BUY xbox live to USE the internet that is REQUIRED to USE the console.

And here's the best part! Most of the games on it will be on the PC, where you won't have to pay any extra fee to use the internet!

Maybe it's all a conspiracy by Microsoft to get a majority of gamers back on the PC, or out of Microsoft products in general.

 

[Tanner The Monotone]

That would suck. I have a reliable internet connection and I've worked 5 years on my xbox live account, so even if it's true it will be hard for me not to buy it.