Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
 

In a GT clip just posted in the E3 thread, one of the round table members said that now just over half of the PS3 & 360 owners have their consoles connected online. He was speaking in the context of maybe there's a positive of daily online requirements -- that developers can be freed up with online features if they know every console will have online connections. In either case, that number stunned me. I figured it would have been at least 75% online by now.

Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
 

I'm not at all surprised that there are people who either don't want to play online (because most everybody between 12 and 25 is unbearable) or don't have affordable access to high speed internet in rural areas.

Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
 

Wikipedia says there are 77 million total Xbox 360 consoles sold worldwide, and there are 46 million Live subscribers. So that's just under 60% of them. I don't know how accurate Wikipedia is though...

Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
 

I'd be a little bit surprised if there were still 60% of 360s that are functional at all much less active online.

Not meant as a console slam. My phat PS3 died too. :(

Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
 

The only reason I can see to not hook up your console to the internet is the inability to do so. Nearly every single game released now gets patched. I'd want access to those patches even if I never bought a single piece of DLC, played online or bought an XBLA game.

Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
 

Gameinformer has a interview up with VP Phil Spencer that's worth reading...

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/a...-launches.aspx


We received additional information about online check-ins, as Spencer shared that tethering a mobile device can handle a license refresh. "It's kilobytes, not megabytes," he confirmed. "You can also set your console to always have the latest bits in a standby state." Later, Spencer was concrete, "If you have no ability to connect to the Internet, the Xbox One is not the console for you."

Unfortunately, Spencer also was direct that a home (or nuclear submarine) without any internet connection is not the right place for an Xbox One. We asked about Don Mattrick's statements to Geoff Keighley about that very issue."I know Don. He's been in his industry for decades," Spencer said. "He started as a game developer with his own studio. For it somehow to get twisted that Don doesn't care about gaming, as someone who knows the man, I know that is not him. He does care about the gamers."

Much has also been made of the 1.5MB connection requirements, but Spencer is confident that anyone who can play online now with an xbox 360 will have no problems with the Xbox One. As for the games, Spencer told us, "There are a lot more titles in development across first- and third-party than what is on the show floor. There are first-party games coming at launch that are not on the floor." Spencer was unable to disclose game prices.


.....

Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
 

O/T : I know what first and third party games are, but what are second party games? Are they published by independent companies with exclusivity to one console?

Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
 

I think that is primarly what people mean when they say that.

Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
 

My fault. I interpreted "Live" as "Live Gold" in my head when I read that.

Hell, I think I still have a Live account and at least 2 PSN accounts, so any numbers on either have to be a little bit suspect.

Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
 

Yeah, that's what I would define it as too. Insomniac used to be in that boat, making only Sony titles for over a decade.

Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
 

I think that in practice, the online anti-piracy check won't affect the vast majority of people who buy the system. That said, MS better hope and pray that their verification servers never get a DOS attack from the likes of anonymous. If every single xbox one is unable to play games because MS servers are down for more than 24 hours, they are going to see massive lawsuits.

Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
 

Still not "ideal" for anyone with zero connection at home, but seriously? Kilobytes? That's peanuts!

Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
 

That was expected. I think I said it before that you could just tether your phone.

Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
 

How likely is it that the average person who does not have Hi speed internet will know how to tether their XBO to their phone.

Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
 

I know 4 or 5 of them :shrug:

To that note, they also all have unlimited data on Verizon 4G LTE and mostly use that for their home internet needs. So maybe not exactly "average". Plus 4G LTE 'round these parts is faster than most broadband providers.

Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
 

I never personally had an issue with online requirements, though I do know people who don't have access to affordable broadband that is sufficient for gaming.

My only issues with the X1 are ownership of physical media, forced Kinect and the price...and frankly, their current attitude toward consumers.

Hell, I fully expect MS to either back off of the daily validation or for somebody to hack it in the first month. There will probably be proxy websites within the first 90 days.

Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
 

I expect hacking myself. The validation had one of three options -

1) Require a disc (PS4)
2) time restricted validation (Xbox One)
3) online check everytime you start the game - single player or multiplayer. (numerous Tablet games)

and while I don't mind barking commands to my phone ("Navigate to J. Alexanders" is substantially easier than typing that shit in.) that's about the only exception I have, not a fan of voice commands.

Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
 

They should have gone with a 3G chip like the Kindle. No broadband needed for a stupid console check. No complaints from anyone about requiring internet.

They could have also just done random disc checks. After booting up the game 5 times it asks for the disc, then at a publisher's discretion(after a game is no longer selling or on store shelves at all) they could remove the disc check altogether.

Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
 

I agree, use the same 3G service that Kindle uses.

Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
 

Idle thoughts . . .

Upon reflection, I think Microsoft viewed E3 as a necessary evil that they had to just get through on their way to becoming a living room media hub. Surprisingly, it's almost as if they don't even view Sony as a competitor. Lesser hardware specs? Don't care. Higher price? Don't care. Stricter DRM? Don't care. No non-broadband customers? You're still here?

They simply aren't going after hardcore gamers, though they must continue to pretend to do so for now (they aren't doing a very good job of it). They're locking up exclusives for the sole purpose of helping get Ones integrated into the home AV rig. They surely knew that their DRM policies would not play well at E3, but they are committed to lowering their head and plowing through the noise (as they perceive it) to get to their prime target audience - families with disposable income.

They have a machine designed for broad appeal and they did not figure out how to narrowcast it effectively to the hardcore gamer crowd. I think that one reason they failed to pull that off is because they have already broken up with the hardcore gamer in their mind. Microsoft has a new girlfriend waiting in the wings and they can't wait to get to her.

http://s23.postimg.org/vulkxlkh7/spi...sxbox700x5.jpg

Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
 

I like the Kindle-style 3G idea, but that still doesn't address people living on submarines, or soldiers in the middle of nowhere... ;)

A "random disc check" is a terrible idea, though. That sort of thing has to be all the time, or none of the time. I don't want to get settled in, ready for an 8-hour Fallout session, only to have the console say, "Sorry dude! It looks like you haven't put the disc in for the last five times you played. How about you pop that sucker in so we know you're not a dirty thieving cockroach?"

Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
 

I agree with that and that has been my thought from the get go. In their eyes hardcore gamers are niche, and they don't care about that. They want to basically re-invent the internet settop box, something the family can use for games, TV, movies, interactive media, web browsing, skyping, etc;

Think of it less like a videogame console, and more like Microsoft's $500 "Smart" Blu-ray player or HTPC. The games appear to be a bonus, not the goal. I think Microsoft's problem is in PR and how they're selling it, but I think they'll get where they want to be with the device in a few years.

I made a comment a while back that the console was going away and in it's place we're going to end up with Cable boxes like you get from Comcast that also game. I still stand by that, in fact I think the PS4 may be the final "real" next-generation dedicated game console. Especially now that cloud-based gaming shit like this is built into TV.

With that said, HDMI-in aside, there is nothing on the Xbox One so far that the PS4 can't do, so I'm interested to see how this plays out.

Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
 

My 360 is connected. Only for the patches. I've never seen a reason to disconnect it in between. But there's no camera attached. And I won't be forced. I won't accept the DRM check-ins.

Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
 

Wait you're not rich like the rest of us...... Ignore. :D

Re: Xbox One: This Thread Requires An Always On Internet Connection
 

If I can't take the xbone on my yacht I ain't buyin'.