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Xbox One: No Always-Online Requirement, But Needs To Phone Home
An anonymous reader writes "The Xbox One was revealed earlier, and Kotaku was able to get some answers about the always-online rumors that plagued the console before its announcement. Microsoft VP Phil Harrison said Xbox One doesn't need a constant connection in order to play games, and you won't be dropped from single-player games if your connection cuts out. However, it does require check-ins with Microsoft servers. This echoes the Xbox One FAQ, which cryptically says, "No, it does not have to be always connected, but Xbox One does require a connection to the Internet." The number Harrison gave was once every 24 hours, but Microsoft's PR department was quick to say that was just one potential scenario, not a certainty. Microsoft also provided half-answers about how used games and game sharing would work. Players will be able to take a game to a friend's house and play it (using their profile, at least). Players will also have some mechanism to trade and sell used games, but it's not yet clear exactly how it would work. If one player uses a disc to install a game on their Xbox One, then gives the disc to a friend, the friend will be able to install it, but needs to pay full price to play it. That scenario, however, assumes both players want to own the game — the second one would essentially be a unique copy. Microsoft said they have a plan for trading used games, which would involve deactivating the game on the original owner's console, but they aren't willing to elaborate yet."
Several publications have hands-on reports with the new hardware: Engadget, Ars Technica, Gizmodo.
Xbox One includes and requires Kinect. This means that each Xbox One has an internet connected camera. In every living room, dorm room and bed room where someone places an Xbox One http://windowsitpro.com/blog/csi-effect-not-everyone-wants-kinect-camera-their-living-room
The games do not require an always-on internet connection, provided that the user first supplies a blood sample and a retinal scan and wears a special microchip implanted in his/her skin. The special microchip must always be within contact of a wifi connection, and not doing so voids the warranty on your XBox. You are free to sell used games to your friends, but after doing so, you are required to provide their name and address to Microsoft so that they can hunt them down and kill them and destroy the existing copy of the game.
Steam has been reported to work offline for weeks at a time. If the Xbox One really can't stay in offline mode for more than 24 hours, it just makes the Steam Box that much more likely to succeed.
So if you have to install games to your Xbox ZERO or "deactivate" them to sell them, why bother with a console at all, just get a PC...
If Microsoft want to make a home media device for use in people's main living rooms, that's fine. It's actually quite a good idea. But such a device cannot be principally viewed as a games console.
I don't know about the rest of you, but aside from the occasional multiplayer split screen session, I play console games on a dedicated screen, either in a bedroom or computer room. I cannot play a game in a main living room, on a screen which in in demand by others for watching TV, films, or even browsing the internet. It's nice that this device can do so much, but flipping "channels" to whatever everyone else wants to watch is not conducive to the 4-6 hour gaming sessions I would like to have.
Maybe they're going for the complete casual gaming market here, people who will flick over to Angry Birds or whatever. But even the most passé of run-of-the-mill gamers is going to spend an hour or so playing shooters online, and are not going to be inclined to flip over to daytime TV, or browse the web in the middle of their frag session. I just cannot see this working en masse.
Some may call it anti-social, but to me playing video games is closer to reading a book than watching TV; it's principally an individual experience, and the living room is not the place to have it unless you are specifically playing co-op. I don't think Microsoft are serious about the Xbox One as a gaming console. It appears to be principally oriented around completely orthogonal capabilities.
May the Maths Be with you!
Maybe before we rush to adopt a camera in every living room we should stop to consider the consequences of blithely giving this technology such a central position in our lives.
Anyone remember that EA bullshit about SimCity needed to "offload" some of it's processing (which was proven false by a hacker later)? Well, one of the things they mentioned specifically at the announcement yesterday was that the Xbox One would feature this capability (they bragged as if it was a good thing). And with them highlighting EA as a partner, you can bet you'll see plenty of One games that require always-online connections, to connect to EA servers for "processing."
The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
I tell you what I don't want: an Xbox One.
The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
Sony's stock jumps 9% during Xbox One announcement.
From
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-21/sony-jumps-on-report-company-weighs-entertainment-spinoff.html
Sony Corp. (6758) rose as much as 9.2 percent in the U.S after Japan’s Nikkei newspaper reported the company is “leaning toward” spinning off its entertainment division.
What, you mean you don't want your console to put an annoying kludgy overlay on top of your cable box?!?!?!? Don't you want your living room filled with the magic of MS ads?!?!?!?
You people are so ungrateful. Here MS is kind enough to allow you to pay $50 a year for the privilege of paying Netflix $8 a month to watch movies, and THIS is how you repay them?! Ingrates!
The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
Unfortunately, million and millions of brainwashed masses will buy one; maybe even two. Nobody cares about privacy and the like anymore. I collected about a dozen or so links to real facts about Skype and the backdoors for Law Enforcement etc, and posted on many topics, nobody cares man. In fact they will attack you textually. They could announce right now that in order to use the Xbox One, you need an Always-on camera and a full time connection to a monitoring dept.; it would sell like hotcakes.
I've come to the conclusion that there is no hope for Humans and they completely ruin it for people who DO care about their privacy and other matters. So just let them have their fun and in the end it will bite them in the ass.
If you buy the game on day one for 60 Euros, do you really think you'll get 70% off it three months later when you can pick it up 10?
It's not about making money by killing gamestop, it's about vendor lock-in.
That's the whole Microsoft business model. That's how they keep corporate clients, that's how they've built Windows 8 and the the whole Office suite. Etc etc etc.
The reason they're not releasing any details, is because they're testing the water, looking to see how people react.
Agreed, I read the article about required internet connection and people post things at the bottom saying that's if you can read the article then you can surely connect your XBOX every 24 hours, and let the nerd tears flow! These people have obviously never lost a internet connection before, I have had my cable connection down for over a week once, and the cable company could not figure it out for that long, I also go on vacation to a beach house that has no Internet and also other remote places, and I bring my console to keep me sane. These people either do not think of these issue because they are to young and spoiled, or are just trolling. I also worry about the constantly connected camera, and even thou you can throw something over the lens, the mic would always be on, even if Microsoft did not abuse this, it does not mean some hacker wont. I will not let a camera sit in my living room constantly on, connected to the internet, period!
This mentality is not just about the Xbox, I was just arguing the other day that I was upset that allot of the new Android tablets had no SD card slot, and also everyone responded that you can use the cloud to stream all your audio and video! so why would you need more local storage, WTF? I even have a unlimited 4G wifi puck that I carry around and I can not stream video in all places I might want to watch it, and imagine if everyone wanted to stream HD video via the cell phone network all the time. I was also just arguing with Amazon.com the other day because I accidently 1-clicked a digital video and bought it, even thou I have 1-click turned off in my settings, the guy at Amazon told me that 1-click was always on for digital purchases, because its digital, and is bought right away (like that makes any sense) and then when I explained that I was just trying to get to a screen that explained if I could download a copy of the video, he asked my why I would ever need a local copy, when you can just stream it!
This cloud mentality is scary, if you ever lose your internet (cable) connection you will have nothing to do at all I guess, no games, no movies, nothing.
And what about the secondhand market ten years later, after the Xbox Too is released? Will they decide at some point to drop whatever authorization server is needed to play the game disc you have? Will it even become impossible at some point to register new-old-stock shrink-wrapped games? Will there come a time when you can't even take it down out of the attic, dust it off, and play the games you bought 20 years earlier? What, you think still having an Xbox account will help? Just try to see what you can do online with the original Xbox now, and imagine what it would be like if DRM activation was a requirement.
So the hell with the regular secondhand market, what about the retro secondhand market? After all, old consoles and their enormous library of games (even if you don't consider emulation) have to be a major competitor to newer game systems. Oh sure, they won't have this year's NFL roster for the people who do nothing but play the annual sports games, but those games are worth zilch two years later anyhow. It's the games people grew up on and want to play again and again that can hurt the market for new games, so let's nip that in the bud while we (MS, Sony, etc.) still can.
So just throw away that N64 already. If we think you deserve to get some Goldeneye nostalgia, we'll see about letting you rent it for a few years on our newest hardware.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
In an interview with Kotaku, Phil Harrison, a MS VP, stated the following:
"The bits that are on that disc, you can give it to your friend and they can install it on an Xbox One," he said. "They would then have to purchase the right to play that game through Xbox Live."
"They would be paying the same price we paid, or less?" we asked.
"Letâ(TM)s assume itâ(TM)s a new game, so the answer is yes, it will be the same price," Harrison said."
Yes, that's right, you can't sell your used games because they'll end up costing the person you sell it to full price anyway. Want to lend a game to a friend? Sorry, full price. Want to bring it over to their house to play? Sorry, full price.
Disgusting.