So about that rumor that the next X-box is always online....

[Eric]

Microsoft Studios' creative director(Orthy) sure has some hefty opinions on the subject.

Manveer is a game designer at Bioware.

[Eric]

This guy is an idiot. Just, wow.

[Don]

I think people are drinking the online gatorade too much these days. I mean Civiliation is online, and I have yet to finish a game even on the fastest speed setting and loading a saved game doesn't seem to actually work, not to mention you're never going to find those random 5 guys you started with again at the same time anyway. I mean sure some games are almost online by nature (FPS), but even on a game like Diablo, a lot of people actually played a significant time offline.

[Julius Seeker]

Well, if they do something like the Miiverse where there is constant online interaction, even during single player games. Then I could see it working. I don't see any downside to having a console online all the time. My computer has been that way for 14 years now, afterall; and the 4-5 years beforehand that it wasn't due to limitations on the time we could be connected per month, I wish it were.

My consoles have been online all the time for years now too.

[Lox]

The problem is that always on Internet connectivity is not as widespread as he seems to think. There are more people in the US than you'd think you can't get reliable always on Internet because of where they live. So do those people just not play the next Xbox? I guess so.

Also, I have very reliable Internet service, but it still manages to go down from time to time. I've had router issues. I've had issues with the battery backup in my garage. Whatever it might be. In those situations, I'm not even allowed to start the games that I've paid for even to play singleplayer? No thanks.

Also, are we supposed to trust that Microsoft isn't going to have an issue at some point? They've had issues with Live being unavailable around Christmas simply because of increased demand. So now if their servers can't handle my connection, I can't even start my games? Again, no thanks.

I have no issue with a console's main experience being tied to always online if that's what they want to do, but there is no way that every single feature of the system or every single game is going to require always online Internet. To prevent the system from even being usable is ridiculous.

Also, this guy is an ass. haha

[Don]

It's really not about your connection it's the server. Most people's connections are relible but the same cannot be said for the host because they invariably need to go down for maintenance, not to mention a lot of development skimp out on hardware despite the fact that hardware is cheap and they should just buy twice as much as they need just in case. Unless the platform can guaranteed it will have unlimited capacity to host its online games (because if system is always-on then the games are likely to be always-on) this is just a dumb thing to do. No it's not really that big of a deal that you can't play your game on the launch day because people are flooding the server but the question is why would you put up with that on a game that doesn't need to be always online? For a MMORPG sure because the game isn't even designed to be played single player, but SimCity? Even major networks like Battle.net occasionally experience problems and playing on such networks should be a choice unless there's some inherent game design that makes it impossible to play it by yourself.

[Eric]

Priceless

[Shrinweck]

I can't believe what these people post on their Twitters sometimes. Trolling/arguing with the Internet on something directly connected to your real life identity seems like the epitome of things not to do for any reason.

When the EA employee has the moral and intellectual high ground mistakes have probably been made. Although I guess Bioware has done a good job distancing itself from a lot of the more annoying DRM issues and such. Day zero DLC is one thing... not being able to play the game you bought is another. God I can't imagine how pissed I would be if Microsoft Windows made my PC have to always be online to function.

[SineSwiper]

Burn.

[Zeus]

Good. One less system I have to worry about buying next gen

[Don]

Games/systems should make you want to be always online because it offers something better than not online but it should never be required unless the game/system by design doesn't make sense to support single player.

Diablo 2 doesn't require always online but BNet was viewed as more legitmate than Open and that's where all the cool kids hang out so you've a ton of people playing online even if it's mostly by themselves. The game had enough synergies like leeching in Bloody Foothills/Cow Level that you might as well go online even though it's certainly not required.

[Eric]

Apparently he's no longer with Microsoft.

[SineSwiper]

Apparently he's no longer with Microsoft.

Duh? I would be shocked if he wasn't fired over that.

[Shrinweck]

It's the equivalent to the United States press secretary having a Twitter and posting "FUCK ISRAEL"... Of course you wouldn't have a job in the morning. God, the arrogance of this guy. I guess they let him resign with whatever dignity he had left.

In his defense Blacksurg would be pretty far down on my list for places I would want to live based on their Internet connectivity. Comcast basically has a monopoly and does not give a solitary fuck about that town.

[Don]

It's not really an issue of how reliable your connection to the Internet is but that always-on requires the servers to never have any kind of downtime, because your own console/computer/whatever sure is always available outside of catastrophic failures (and at that point you probably won't exactly be worried about inability to play games).

People complain a lot about patch downtimes for MMORPG, and that's a game that absolutely has to be online by design. Penny Arcade had this strip about people trying to login Tetris Online server but unable to do so. It's meant to be a joke but that can literally happen if everything is always-on.

I mean I know what they're thinking. Steam is pretty much close to 'always-on' and I'm pretty sure each time I play a game on Steam it's checking with home for whatever it needs (probably to ensure I'm legit), but of course Steam can be turned to 'off' if needed. I don't think very many people do this but you can, and in particular Steam isn't going to deny you from playing your game locally just because you don't have an Internet connection. Some of your features might be compromised (like one time I had Internet went down and had to start over because the saved games are on Steam Cloud) but compromised is still workable for what is supposed to be a rare event.

[kali o.]

It's a shame he lost his job over something so minor, but it's not surprising given the uproar it caused. What I am more insulted about, however, is that Microsoft clearly has this idea in the works...why else would they not deny it? They can pretend it's for increased functionality and a better experience or whatever other bullshit they want to spout -- but we all know it's just kiddie steps for full DRM/digital delivery. Sorry, not interested in supporting erosion of my consumer rights (namely resale, transferability, privacy and to a certain extent, functionality).

If it turns out true, NextBox and MS can go fuck themselves next gen.

[SineSwiper]

It's a shame he lost his job over something so minor, but it's not surprising given the uproar it caused. What I am more insulted about, however, is that Microsoft clearly has this idea in the works...why else would they not deny it? They can pretend it's for increased functionality and a better experience or whatever other bullshit they want to spout -- but we all know it's just kiddie steps for full DRM/digital delivery. Sorry, not interested in supporting erosion of my consumer rights (namely resale, transferability, privacy and to a certain extent, functionality).

If it turns out true, NextBox and MS can go fuck themselves next gen.

What shocks me is the arrogance of their decision making that screws them over in the end, and the ultimate mega fail that causes the whole community to cry out "No shit, Sherlock". I mean, they don't have a stranglehold on Windows like they used to, and even in markets where they are on losing ground, they think they can just bully their way into 1st place.

Bing - They have this notion that they can just outmarket Google, and it's been an abysmal failure. The latest batch of commercials rely on cheap tricks that most people see through. Everybody shouts "Duh", and Google quietly snickers.

Windows 8 - Quite possibly the worst failure of an version of Windows ever. Sales are even worse than Windows Vista. Businesses are avoiding it like the plague, and customers are demanding downgrades to Windows 7. Everybody thought it was a bad idea, but they did it anyway.

Kin - Jesus, I have not seen a product that was so touted by advertizing to be pulled from the shelves in 6 weeks, but there you go. Epic fail doesn't begin to describe it.

Windows Phone OS - For that matter, the entire Windows Phone OS is a failure. "If you're not first, you're last." Or in this case, if you're FOURTH, you're last. Developers are going to make things for iPhone, and then Android, and then they don't really give a shit any more. Blackberry might be fourth at this point, but why the hell would you want to compete for third place? Very very late in the game, and they have no hope to compete. So much so that Microsoft is increasingly worried about Google and Windows. (See the epic fail for Windows 8.)

Outlook.com - Another epic fail by see through marketing and a failure to compete with Google.

And now, they have a really good chance to screw up the next XBox. After that, what products do they have left? Office? They've already pissed off plenty of people because of that stupid toolbar, but they still have a near monopoly with most businesses here. Windows 9? People will probably flock in droves to Windows 9, but that's billions of dollars already wasted on the Windows 8.

The only thing saving Microsoft from their own XBox disasters is the fact that Nintendo and Sony are just as stupid as they are with some of their business decisions. But, the PC is bound by no company, save maybe Steam, and they know what the fuck they are doing.

[Don]

For the Bing thing, I don't see why it'd even have to be a trick because people generally have no idea what they think is better anyway. It's not unlike you see these ads like 'taste test shows people prefer this over that' but the 'this' is usually never doing quite as good as the 'that'. As far as I can tell in the search engine space there really hasn't been anything really innovative in the search itself other than just further tweaking of some weights and it's probably a natural monopoly so all you really need is some kind of regulation to make sure Google doesn't just sell your search results and whatnot, but in terms of product it might as well be a monopoly and even if there's something better, it's not going to be better in a way that'd matter. It'd be like me trying to open a new company on waste removal versus the government. Unless I've some earth shattering idea it really doesn't matter even if I'm a bit better at doing this because there's no reason to have two entities competing for your garbage, just like having 2 search engines to compete is really pointless when the market leader is more than satisfactory and if something is better, it's in a way that is at all meaningful.

[Shrinweck]

My parents spend most of their time during the day on their computers and prefer Bing.. I still use Google primarily but whenever I have trouble using Google to find something Bing always seems to find it for me immediately. I personally can't think of Bing without thinking of the Scott Aukerman joke plug as if Google was his sponsor "Please, if you're going to Bing something - use Google." Lame. But after hearing it as a fake commercial during his podcast a dozen times it starts making you laugh for no reason.

[kali o.]

Bing can't take off unless advertisers jump on board and last time I ran a free $100 Bing campaign, it lasted 3 months with a ~$50 lost credit (comparatively, I could blow that in 3 days on google, via google network only). Not like Microsoft is helping the situation any...keep tossing out the free advertising credits like Google did for years, and don't cap the process to 3 months.

[SineSwiper]

http://www.slashgear.com/netflix-switch ... -15277927/

Oh yeah, totally forgot the failure that was Silverlight. How many times can you fail before your company is considered defunct? Apparently a lot.

[Flip]

http://www.slashgear.com/netflix-switch ... -15277927/

Oh yeah, totally forgot the failure that was Silverlight. How many times can you fail before your company is considered defunct? Apparently a lot.

When you have a product like Windows for the PC you get a lot of wiggle room. However, with the disaster that is Win8... i wonder if someone will try to wrestle that stranglehold away? iOS has its own market already and Chrome OS is gaining some talk, but i'd love to see Google push it more as a viable alternative to MS.

[Shrinweck]

I can't believe there still isn't an option to turn off Netflix autoplay...

[SineSwiper]

When you have a product like Windows for the PC you get a lot of wiggle room. However, with the disaster that is Win8... i wonder if someone will try to wrestle that stranglehold away? iOS has its own market already and Chrome OS is gaining some talk, but i'd love to see Google push it more as a viable alternative to MS.

http://arstechnica.com/information-tech ... e-desktop/

This is funny. They should have done this in the first place.

[Zeus]

I can't believe there still isn't an option to turn off Netflix autoplay...

I ain't no Netflix user, but isn't that as simple as closing your browser window?

[Shrinweck]

Difficult to do when you're asleep.

[Don]

Google is already good enough so just being slightly better isn't going to do it, and I really don't see what Bing can possibly do that'd make them a lot better than Google. I mean, I'm sure it's possible, but if I knew what it is I'd be rich now, and I'm pretty sure right now nobody has figured this out yet.

[Zeus]

Difficult to do when you're asleep.

So who cares if it starts running the next movie when you're sleeping? Are you talking about bandwidth usage limits or something?

[Eric]

Difficult to do when you're asleep.

So who cares if it starts running the next movie when you're sleeping? Are you talking about bandwidth usage limits or something?

Gotta be, that's the only scenario I could see it being a problem no?