"'Always On, Always Connected' Could be a Serious Mistake for Microsoft's Next Xbox"

[kane_magus]

Could be? Could be?

Well, yeah, it "could be." People will almost assuredly still buy it, though, even despite that. :/

I have no real plans to buy any of the next gen consoles at this point, but for the sake of Microsoft I hope this is just a baseless rumor, because if I ever do change my mind and decide to dive into the next gen, I won't be getting their next Xbox if this is true, or any other console (or game) that supports this sort of always-online crap. There's just no (good) reason for it.

Now, the Wii does already have this functionality, but the kicker is that it's optional. You can turn it off if you want. I, personally, see no reason to let my Wii access the Internet 24/7 at its whim. If the next gen consoles let you turn it off, and don't actively require that it be online at all before anything works, it won't be nearly as bad.

Comments

[hikarugenji.livejournal.com]

PS3 has gotten this added by firmware updates, but like Wii, you can turn it off. If you have it connected it will automatically update games and do stuff like that, but you don't have to be connected for anything to work.