

Internal Microsoft email: Next Xbox will work even when your Internet doesn’t - cooldeal
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/05/microsoft-next-xbox-will-work-even-when-your-internet-doesnt/

======
georgemcbay
Assuming this is even a real email which is already a substantial assumption,
and assuming the text of it is accurate, I don't think this is as much of a
denial of the general idea as the article suggests.

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.

------
pyre
The promoted comment at the bottom makes a good point. It seems like this
could be a recent change in direction. While it's _possible_ that this was the
intention all along (but Microsoft was intentionally or unintentionally vague
with employees at various levels, and sent out this email to get rid of
rumors), this seems an unlikely scenario.

~~~
tomku
Alternately, they're sick of employees running their mouths off about things
like this and fueling the rumors further, like that guy who got canned for
talking about it on Twitter. Keep in mind that MS has tons of employees, and
the majority of those people are not privy to the details of products that
haven't even been confirmed publicly yet.

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.

~~~
pyre

      | the majority of those people are not privy to
      | the details
    

From the article:

    
    
      | internal Microsoft e-mail sent to all full-time
      | employees working on the next Xbox
    

I'll concede that not all MS employees working on the next Xbox might need to
know _everything_ , but it's not like this was a broadcast to _all_ MS
employees to avoid employees from unrelated business units from running their
mouths.

    
    
      | like that guy who got canned for talking about it on
      | Twitter
    

Adam Orth was an exec in Microsoft's gaming division. He wasn't some random
uninformed Microsoft intern shooting off his mouth on Twitter.

~~~
egad
> Adam Orth was an exec in Microsoft's gaming division.

This is not accurate. He was _a_ (not _the_ ) Creative Director, which is
several levels down the hierarchy from anyone that would be considered an
executive. Think of it as one step above Senior Designer.

~~~
pyre
I stand corrected. I've seen him referred to as a Microsoft exec in
stories/comments, related to his whole Twitter debacle.

------
SurfScore
If true, its nice to see that Microsoft actually cares about what gamers want.
They could easily force players into some crazy DRM, and while it would piss
off a lot of people and the interwebs would explode, they would probably make
more money (at least in the short term).

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.

~~~
chc
> _If true, its nice to see that Microsoft actually cares about what gamers
> want. They could easily force players into some crazy DRM, and while it
> would piss off a lot of people and the interwebs would explode, they would
> probably make more money_

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.

~~~
georgemcbay
I agree.

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.

~~~
Tactic
There are adapters and such to use the XBox controller with the PS3 as well as
look-alikes.

------
rogerbraun
I find it hard to believe that anybody actually thought that Microsoft was
going to build a console with a built-in PR disaster. There never was a
statement from Microsoft about this, only 'consistent rumors'. I have a
feeling that this is just news because news sites need controversy to drive
page views.

~~~
mtgx
You make it sound as if everyone thinking always-on DRM being a PR disaster
and a _net negative_ for the company is a given. Blizzard didn't think so,
neither did EA, and I could really see Microsoft thinking the same way (hello
Windows Genuine Advantage!).

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.

~~~
jiggy2011
I thought that DRM on consoles was generally pretty effective without being
always-online.

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.

~~~
TheCoelacanth
The point isn't to stop piracy. The point is to kill the used game market,
which is rather large for consoles.

------
sergiotapia
This is just a rumor and should be flagged and have it's title changed to add
the [RUMOR] decorator. At this point Microsoft has not officially said
anything regarding this.

~~~
barista
Exactly. That it will require always on connection was a speculation and this
one is too. Why not wait a few weeks to find out for real? I think May 21st is
when they reveal it.

~~~
roc
Because you can get hits with rumors?

(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...)

------
footoverhand
While the internal email does indicate that players will be able to play
offline, it does not indicate if the games themselves will be tied to a
account like Steam games.

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.

~~~
nobodysfool
They also fail to mention streaming from a PC to Xbox - that has always
required an internet connection for some reason. I used to always stream
videos from my PC, and if I ever was disconnected from the internet, I'd get a
popup saying "failed to download codec" or something like that. As if for
every single movie, even if I've already watched it before, has to download a
codec. More likely, they were tracking what you were watching.

------
chucknelson
I wonder what the motivation was to communicate this to employees now (knowing
it would "leak"), versus just waiting until their event on 5/21. The rumor has
been widespread for a while now, and I don't think two more weeks would have
done much damage.

~~~
larrik
Perhaps to try to avoid every headline after the 5/21 event being "XBox will
work offline!" instead of whatever Microsoft wants them to focus on.

~~~
meritt
It's a sad world when a consumer purchased goods continuing to operate when
not connected to the provider's network is somehow newsworthy.

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"

~~~
eli
I think you just described ZipCar :)

------
kabdib
It's utter idiocy if they don't do this.

'nuff said.

------
Siecje
The article leaves out another rumor that the new Xbox will have 3 settings
and developers can chose which to use. 1) Always Online 2) Activate Online 3)
No restrictions

~~~
freehunter
Isn't this already possible with any game on the Xbox 360 or any other modern
gaming console? This even happens on the PC. So whether or not that rumor is
true has no bearing on anything. It's not news; it already exists and has for
years.

~~~
illuminate
Of course it is, which is why the "rumor" is utterly stupid.

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.

------
plutr
YAY!

Free single-player games for everyone!

