Ouch... douchebaggery does not pay off on Twitter...

[Gibsons]

Because the reports are that if the internet connection is lost for more than 3 minutes the system shuts down?

There have also been rumors that you have to have Kinect on all the time as well.

Wonder how hard it'll be to hack this.

 

[PingSpike]

If nothing else, there's some truth to it, otherwise for the sake of PR they would come out and deny they were even considering it. It does them no good to just sit on it and not say otherwise.

Pretty much. Before I was just thinking "meh, rumors...plenty of people with an axe to grind would start these" but there's been a decent enough shit storm for long enough with no real response that I'm willing to say there has been tacit admission that this is the truth now. It seems like a long time for them to frame a response of denial at this point.

 

[Geosurface]

When I was on my submarine in the Navy a couple of years ago, one of the primary ways people would entertain themselves during their off time (which there wasn't a lot of) was meeting in a couple of common areas and playing XBox 360 together. They had one in the crew's lounge, and one in the Chief's quarters... on certain nights they'd set them up in the galley too. I think a couple of guys even had their own with a small TV they'd use in their bunks.

During crew raffles a 360 would very frequently be one of the prizes, or something 360 related.

In some older pictures on board, sure enough there was the original XBox in the same way (though I'm sure it was less prolific)

Of course, on a submarine you do have internet... roughly similar to a modem circa 1992. And you only have connection, very weak connection... a fraction of the time (when at the surface, and not all of the time there either)

Even if they had a great connection on board somehow magically which also somehow magically was always available... you can bet your ass they wouldn't allow crew to hook up consoles to it.

My understanding is the situation is not much different on aircraft carriers, etc. And then of course you've got the army guys in the middle of BFE with spotty internet, or no internet.

I've also heard that a lot of cross country truckers will have an XBox 360 in the cab, either for when they've stopped for their mandatory breaks (which are not just composed of sleep but of some relaxation time too) or if they have a 2 driver alternating pair, the one who isn't driving uses it. Needless to say, they don't have internet in the truck.

And yes, people were pissed on the submarine when Diablo 3 was announced to be online only. There were PC gamers on there too, one guy in particular had his hopes up to change from Diablo 2 to 3, and then they were dashed.

And there are certainly another 100 situations like this that I have no idea about too...

All in all, this online only requirement shit is stupid.

One last example, and this one is perhaps the most compelling... zombie apocalypse, you're hole up in a bunker or fortified house in the country with a generator... you've got electricity, but no internet... wanted to pass the time playing some XBox 720? Too bad! May as well go let the zombies eat you.

 

[lupi]

Besides the numerous reasons already mentioned, I have several family members in Florida that won't be upgrading from their 360 as they don't have a constant connection or its not one of the quality which an always on component would require to function correctly.

Personally I really hope they do make it online only, so when the backlash hits hopefully this stupid premise can also star losing traction in the pc world.

 

[Red Storm]

Unless they plan on changing their business model, combining always online with charging for online is not going to mix well.

 

[gorcorps]

If Microsoft.....Apple......or BMW would make a little man jump out of their products and kick their costumer in the nuts.....they would still buy their shitty products.

I say MORE POWER TO these companies!!!

costumer huh...

What kind of costume? Is this a shitty halloween special type of costume, or an all out high quality comic-con one?

 

[halik]

What?

 

[AdamK47]

The people at Microsoft advocating the always online requirement must have been living in metropolitan bubbles their whole lives. I grew up and lived in one of the most podunk towns in Michigan for 20+ years. There still isn't any land line based broadband. The cell based "broadband" my mother has is absolutly horrible. Constant disconnects and laughably slow performance.

 

[GlacierFreeze]

Wonder how hard it'll be to hack this.

Probably hackable, but since you're always connected to their network, they can just block your system if they detect it. Then since you have to be connected to play games, it'll be a paper weight. So doable but completely pointless.

Read up on Diablo III and SimCity 5 launch issues. Imagine that for an entire system and whatever games you own. PS4 will completely dominate this generation's console race if Xbox goes with "always connected" and PS4 does not.

 

[AMDZen]

Probably hackable, but since you're always connected to their network, they can just block your system if they detect it. Then since you have to be connected to play games, it'll be a paper weight. So doable but completely pointless.

Read up on Diablo III and SimCity 5 launch issues. Imagine that for an entire system and whatever games you own. PS4 will completely dominate this generation's console race if Xbox goes with "always connected" and PS4 does not.

Please, if you think it's hackable you don't think they'll figure out a way to keep it from phoning home? Even if you can't disconnect the wireless on the xbox, you can block it through a router by not allowing any traffic to the IP the xbox is on. There are so many ways around it, for all of this stuff.

And Diablo III already has unofficial servers just like WoW has now had for years.

 

[grrl]

I don't think MS fired him, just apologized for his comments saying they didn't represent those of the company.

So they say. Why then does that attitude permeate every new Windows or Office release?