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Microsoft Studios' creative director has some choice words about always-online

Demon Ice

Banned
izDWOrU1WBtUG.gif


I think the Kaz gifs need to be redone to remove the PlayStation meeting notice so they make for better general use...

Oh man I need to watch The Departed again...such a good movie. Amazing gifs. Love the Mission Impossible one too.
 

commish

Jason Kidd murdered my dog in cold blood!
Can't wait for that 720 introduction. MS better have some tricks up its sleeve if it goes the only online route.
 
Someone help me understand this.

The rumors say that they're using activation codes as well as checking to see if you're still connected to the internet. What I'm not understanding is why they would need always online if they have activation codes. Seems redundant as all hell. If the XBL account already shows that the game has been activated, what is there to check?

Activation codes only would make way more sense than whats currently being proposed. It would be just like steam at that point.

Off the top of my head:

DRM to try and prevent / reduce piracy
Increased opportunity to sell digital content, DLC, services, etc.
Guaranteed viewing for their ads

Basically a whole bunch of anti-consumer BS.
 

CorrisD

badchoiceboobies
But it still has to check in initially..... every time you start a game...

I mean we technically do not know what "Always online" means yet.... If it is the game pauses and crashes your save and trolls you when your connection drops then yeah, obviously F that, but if it checks in like PS+ to allow you to play the game and isn't killing the experience then maybe it will be good for developers and bad for gamestop.

What effect does that really have on me? We really don't know yet. If it means NO USED GAMES then MS is likely in trouble....

You've posted a number of comments in regards to PS+ and you seemingly have no idea how it works. Downloaded games from PS+ are tied to your subscription, your subscription tells the games when they run out, once you have "puchased" a "free" game that initial time and it is linked to your account you can download it, when that happens it checks to see when it can no longer be played, that is it then, it will work offline until your subscription runs out.


Incoming "NeoGAF is a vocal minority."

We are really, in the grand scheme of things we aren't the people that make up the bulk of a consoles sales that the likes of the PS1/2, DS, etc. end up doing.

What we are is the "core" gamer, we are the ones that will pick up these consoles within their initial release period regardless of price most of the time, while the more casual audience was buying Wii's we were the ones buying PS3s and Xbox 360s, we are the ones at the end of the day that these companies need to convince to pick up their devices to keep them going when they launch and the masses haven't decided to pick them up yet.

Look what happened with Nintendo, they managed to really sell the Wii to a more casual audience and to put it bluntly, kind of forgot about us that had been buying their previous consoles even when they weren't doing well. Now what has happened, the WiiU isn't a run away train like the Wii was, and their old core audience isn't as interested as it once was in picking up their console.
 

LiquidMetal14

hide your water-based mammals
Well.................had a conversation with a regular friend who has talked about this stuff here and there. This online thing sounds like it is more legit than not based on the short talk I just had.
 

Hindle

Banned
Can't wait for that 720 introduction. MS better have some tricks up its sleeve if it goes the only online route.

That's what I've been saying. In order to pull this off they must have the support. They would need loads of exclusive games, DLC, and features for it to work.
 
You guys should calm down, this is clearly the only way to prevent hackers and cheaters in online games, that it stops pirates and terrorism is just a plus.
 
With the trend of ISP charging by volume you use in a given month, coupled with always online possibility, wouldn't people then begin to see an increase in their monthly bill?

This still happens? I thought they simply throttled the service should the user exceed their cap? I haven't heard of any ISP charging for exceeding their data cap in quite some time.
 
Can't wait for that 720 introduction. MS better have some tricks up its sleeve if it goes the only online route.

Oh I'm already excited. Weaker hardware, mandatory online, mandatory Kinect, bloated OS, focus on services...all with a smile on their faces.

It's gonna be a crazy day here at GAF.

I am not going to be getting a xbox because of this smug cocksucker. I hope he loses his job over this.

Don't be like that, the guy is just a cog in the wheel. This is all on MS, he doesn't deserve to get fired.

Well.................had a conversation with a regular friend who has talked about this stuff here and there. This online thing sounds like it is more legit than not based on the short talk I just had.

If you see a lot of smoke, and it smells like something's burning...there's probably a fire.
 

Maximilian E.

AKA MS-Evangelist
The funny thing is... everything would be forgiven/forgotten if MS would announce a more powerful system than Sony (2-3 TFLOP system)..

So come on now MS, fix this by announcing a 2-3 TFLOP system...

or a bag of cash for every person buying Durango :)

funny thread and dimwit MS guy is in a whole heep of trouble now..
 

RoKKeR

Member
The funny thing is... everything would be forgiven/forgotten if MS would announce a more powerful system than Sony (2-3 TFLOP system)..

So come on now MS, fix this by announcing a 2-3 TFLOP system...

or a bag of cash.. :D

funny thread and dimwit MS guy is in a whole heep of trouble now..
True, but it won't happen.
 
Let's say I have a great internet connection because I live in one of them "big cities" (I don't actually).

With the trend of ISP charging by volume you use in a given month, coupled with always online possibility, wouldn't people then begin to see an increase in their monthly bill?

Suddenly that new Durango the parents have bought their kid is affecting their monthly bills. Well that's not going to go down so well.

However I don't understand if the always-online would require a lot of data useage unless you were playing multiplayer. If anyone has a better idea of that throttling in practice, I'd like to know.

I think it would be more of a verification thing. Would take as much bandwidth as the initial sign in to live does.
 

wildfire

Banned
I don't get how this adds up for MS. At first I thought the majority of their sales were made in Europe and US but it's less than half of that.

Out of 77 million xboxs sold since Jan 1 this year, 44 million are sold outside of the US and EU. Many of these countries aren't highly connected at all. Even the richest people in many of these countries have to deal with spotty connections because the infrastructure worldwide is just that bad.


MS may be a global company but if their strategy is to replace DVRs and set top boxes all over the world I just can't see how they are going to compete with other devices in these countries.
 

DaBoss

Member
The funny thing is... everything would be forgiven/forgotten if MS would announce a more powerful system than Sony (2-3 TFLOP system)..

So come on now MS, fix this by announcing a 2-3 TFLOP system...

or a bag of cash for every person buying Durango :)

funny thread and dimwit MS guy is in a whole heep of trouble now..

I know I wouldn't, but I do see some people would, which is quite sad. :/
 

Klocker

Member
I think there is a difference between games requiring it vs. the console requiring it.

perhaps intellectually, but next year if all the big publishing players and devs decide its best for them it won't matter, we will all be dealing with their DRM

I seriously doubt MS would do this without knowing what the publishers are planning
 

syko de4d

Member
With always on you can be sure games can´t be played before it gets activated on Launch Day. So on every major release like CoD, Fifa, Halo, BF etc. there will be million players hitting the server at the exact same moment. And as a PC player you know how bad this ends, just the whole Xblive will get Error37.
 

Corto

Member
the system won't but the games can if they choose too and if this is what Publishers want then that's what they can do and it won't matter what system you have

You're right but Sony is a publisher too. And if their hardware doesn't have that requirement, I also expect their software to not have it. There will be third parties that will try to include that requirement (Ubi/Watch Dogs), others won't, and others will take a wait-and-see approach to then decide on what is most advantageous for their business.
 

bndadm

Member
This still happens? I thought they simply throttled the service should the user exceed their cap? I haven't heard of any ISP charging for exceeding their data cap in quite some time.

I'm mainly going off what I was noticing where I live now. Perhaps because AT&T is the only other provider where I live now other than a regional one, AT&T were using their mobile standards for their ISP services?

I'm glad to hear that's not the case in the majority.
 

Xenon

Member
Im not worried about my ISP. I am worried about their servers and what happens to my shit when they sunset them.
 

Interfectum

Member
Twitter has to be one of the greatest / worst inventions for mankind. It's amazing how many people (potentially) throw away their careers to post stupid bullshit on their Twitter account.
 
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