I find it entirely credible that they wanted to make sure that nobody would cause another "incident" before the public announcement, and were willing to tell a little more than would be normal to do so.
| the majority of those people are not privy to
| the details
| internal Microsoft e-mail sent to all full-time
| employees working on the next Xbox
| like that guy who got canned for talking about it on
| Twitter
For all intents and purposes the console will mostly be used while online so this whole saga sounds to me like "anonymous sources" got their wires crossed to begin with.
Any way, this sort of email is very common in companies that involve hardware and software roadmaps, NDAs, etc. I don't think it's an insightful comment, and it's annoying when Ars Gawker-like promotes these comments for the sake of controversy.
That being said, I can imagine that it is still a possibility for game developers to use this tactic on the Xbox, just not a requirement. Doesn't seem like MSFT would gain much for wanting to force an always online connection.
Gaming sites have been in a feedback loop of rumor and fanboi/gurlism ever since the new consoles were announced.
Granted, after the EA DRM debacles I can have some sympathy for the fears, but people have been taking rumor VERY seriously and it's made for poor entertainment and shoddy journalism.
If anything, any company wouldn't be as crazy to do that after all the outrage/negative feedback they receive about it before launch. Releasing it after all of that - now that would be insane.
Activision might pitch that design for the game on all platforms, but MS/Sony/et al are certainly not going to pitch their own platform as handicapped vs its competitors.
The console flat out won't run a game without doing a copy-protection check and the whole thing is locked down right to the hardware level.
Jailbreaking a console to run pirate or homebrew content is often a major warranty voiding surgery operation, unlike a PC where one can simply replace the .exe file.
Conversely, companies like EA seem to honestly not care about anything but the bottom line. They might pay lip-service to caring about their customers, but their actions reflect that they just want revenue by any means necessary. Eventually I think this will bite these companies in the ass, revenue is always a lagging indicator of success.
No, they would just hand the next generation to Sony in much the same way that Sony let the last generation slip after being in such a dominant position with the PlayStation 2. Remember, Sega went from being neck-and-neck with Nintendo to leaving the hardware business in just two generations — this is not a field where you can get away with alienating buyers for too long before it catches up to you.
My last two "primary" consoles were the Xbox and the Xbox 360 (I also owned Nintendo's consoles primarily for Nintendo's first party games), and I am heavily leaning away from the next Xbox regardless of the "always online" situation. Sony just seems to be focusing more on things I care about (indie games, etc) while Microsoft continues to increase my prices to play online while simultaneously increasing the number of ads thrown at me on the service I am paying for).
If I do switch, I'll miss the Xbox-style controllers, which I much prefer to the Sony "* Shock" design, but I think I'll adjust eventually.
(Hits with the rumor today, and more tomorrow, when the inevitable follow-up lands. And the day before the event, when you reiterate the state of the rumor mill, and the day after the event when you score the rumor mill...)
I wonder if we'll have a day when cars are like that: "Sorry, your Ford Go! subscription has expired and your car will remain offline until you remit payment"
EA and whatever other publishers have forced certain games through their servers for online-only already. The rumor is fact for existing generations of console systems. Don't buy those games if this displeases you.
If you want to avoid console gaming because this exists, stay away from Steam because the same games are purchasable from Valve's service with the same always-on DRM. The Steambox or whichever isn't going to refuse the publishers their sweet, sweet DRM.
We will have to see if Microsoft will allow the used games market to continue, or if it will be killed like many publishers want.
As quoted in the article, the email says: "Durango [the codename for the next Xbox] is designed to deliver the future of entertainment while engineered to be tolerant of today's Internet. There are a number of scenarios that our users expect to work without an Internet connection, and those should 'just work' regardless of their current connection status. Those include, but are not limited to: playing a Blu-ray disc, watching live TV, and yes playing a single player game."
There's more than enough weasel-room in there (and even some supporting evidence via usage of the phrases "tolerant" and "current connection status") for a system that doesn't require always-on but does require periodically-on, which is something that has been seen on some PC games. So you don't need to be online 100% of the time, if your connection drops for an hour, fine, but if you haven't talked to the mothership in 3 days or whatever now you're locked out.
Anyway, at this point anything said is just speculation and rumor and there's not much to discuss until they make official announcements.
'nuff said.
Free single-player games for everyone!