Gamers Without Internet Can Stick With Xbox 360, Says Microsoft

[dyne]

It's an "online check" the same way Steam "checks" to make sure you are online every time you log in. There are a lot of places in the US that don't have broadband. And the vast majority of the people who don't have broadband aren't going to be spending $400+ on a console. Period.

It's the same as Steam. It's the same as Origin. It's not that different from Netflix or Spotify.

All the people who are complaining about it online all have broadband. That's the greatest irony of all. People are basically complaining on behalf of people who may or may not care at all.

Where is this imaginary world where people buy a $400+ console to play single player games in isolation for days on end in rural America with no broadband and share games with other people who also enjoy playing single player games in isolation with no broadband? Because wherever that is, Xbox One won't be. You also won't find Steam, Origin, Netflix, or Spotify.

What Microsoft sees on their end is people buy an Xbox 360 and spend most of their time watching Netflix. Sometimes they fire it up, talk to people online, and spend hours playing GoW with their friends. Sometimes they go play Bioshock, and then their friend pops on and says, "Hey, we're playing Halo, come snipe for us." Maybe one day they sell that game they paid $60 for to GameStop for $4.50.

You never answered how shrinking your possible buying pool is a good thing. Maybe people without broadband would buy, maybe they won't. No harm in giving them the choice but you can be sure it affects the bottom line for sure if you don't.

[taggart6]

Close Steam. Turn off your Internet. Open Steam.
What do you see?

Steam in Offline mode while I play Portal 2.

Let me check again.

...

Yeah still works but now I have Gemini Rue loaded up.

[taggart6]

Have things changed with Steam in the last year or two? Because around then I used an older computer in a different room off and on for about 4 months that did not have any internet connection. Is it game specific?

Its not game specific. I run one of my laptops in offline mode 24/7. About a year ago I had to manually set it to offline mode but I haven't had to do that since then.

[Timman_24]

It all boils down to this: MS hasn't added to the user experience with all their restrictions. You've got this weird half digital, half disc machine without the benefits of either side. Everything the Xbox can do digitally, so can the PS4, but without the restrictions. Done.

When it comes down to buying a console this season Sony is the sure bet. What MS has outlined may be great, it may turn out to be like Steam, which is a good thing. I, however, am not putting my money down on MS until they can prove that they know what they are doing and that it benefits me enough to drop $499. I'm not saying I'll never buy a Xbox One, its just that MS has more to prove to me than Sony does. We'll have to see how things shake out over the next few years.

[ImaNihilist]

You never answered how shrinking your possible buying pool is a good thing. Maybe people without broadband would buy, maybe they won't. No harm in giving them the choice but you can be sure it affects the bottom line for sure if you don't.

They haven't. People without broadband aren't dropping $500 on a console.

[ImaNihilist]

Its not game specific. I run one of my laptops in offline mode 24/7. About a year ago I had to manually set it to offline mode but I haven't had to do that since then.

Xbox One may do the same thing. No one knows, because no one's seen it. No one's said that if it can't connect that it will power down.

[Timman_24]

They haven't. People without broadband aren't dropping $500 on a console.

MS has pretty much run a giant spreadsheet for this machine. They've chosen to only go with a slice of the userbase that is the most lucrative in their eyes while leaving the rest with the 360. Sony commented saying they still found merit in a world wide system, which is why they built it from the ground up with disc in mind. I've heard the Xbox One is only launching in 20 countries. The Witcher 3 guys are a bit upset because they showed the Witcher 3 off at E3 during the XONE press conference and then MS announced the Xbox One will not be coming to Poland, their home country lol. Also, the machine won't always be $500

[Astros Fan]

That's hilarious about the Witcher team...well more like sad but still.

[innocentbastard]

They haven't. People without broadband aren't dropping $500 on a console.

My old roommate would. Hell overseas it was all 360s that the people in the service had.

I explained this on another forum, but he bought his house in a development that went bankrupt due to the housing crash. His house is one of two houses on his side of the development which was being built while he was on tour. He came back and lived with me until it was done. His house was ready and the first thing he did was setup an appointment to install cable and internet. They came out and said sorry we didn't wire this neighborhood only the other side. If you want cable it will be $5000-$10000, forget the exact number, to wire this side. As a result his only options are dial-up which I don't even know if he can get since I don't think he even looked into a phone line, cellular and we know that runs $30 for 2GB a month, or Satellite which has crazy caps with slow speeds and insane prices.

As a 360 guy his only option is to wait and see what he can do, and unfortunately that means waiting until after launch to see how the checkin works. I told him to just get a PS4, but he prefers Microsoft.

[dyne]

They haven't. People without broadband aren't dropping $500 on a console.

Why? They dropped more than that on the 3DO and I don't remember broadband being prevalent back then. It seems to me you're assuming anybody without broadband is that way by choice. They're all a bunch of backwards Appalachian hillfolk that don't want to game.

MS has pretty much run a giant spreadsheet for this machine. They've chosen to only go with a slice of the userbase that is the most lucrative in their eyes while leaving the rest with the 360. Sony commented saying they still found merit in a world wide system, which is why they built it from the ground up with disc in mind. I've heard the Xbox One is only launching in 20 countries. The Witcher 3 guys are a bit upset because they showed the Witcher 3 off at E3 during the XONE press conference and then MS announced the Xbox One will not be coming to Poland, their home country lol. Also, the machine won't always be $500

They're not even attempting Japan in the forseeable future.

[richardginn]

You never answered how shrinking your possible buying pool is a good thing. Maybe people without broadband would buy, maybe they won't. No harm in giving them the choice but you can be sure it affects the bottom line for sure if you don't.

It will not help one bit. You do not want to anger your user-base at all.

[ImaNihilist]

Why? They dropped more than that on the 3DO and I don't remember broadband being prevalent back then. It seems to me you're assuming anybody without broadband is that way by choice. They're all a bunch of backwards Appalachian hillfolk that don't want to game.

No, I'm assuming that people without broadband will buy a Xbox 360 if they are interested in games produced for Xbox and don't have Internet access.

This whole fanboy/allegiance thing is so overplayed. The vast majority buy whatever console has the game they want at the best price. For Xbox, a big part of that has always been better multiplayer experiences in those games. That has been their core competency since damn near launch. Microsoft has always made better software than Sony. They've had a better stack, better servers, and a better experience. As far as anyone can tell, that's probably still true.

The buzz on the internet about this huge segment of people who want to play an Xbox One offline doesn't actually exist.

Go back and look at PS3 vs Xbox 360 buzz. It's the same rhetoric. Why would anyone pay for Xbox Live? No Blu-Ray. Inferior hardware. Blah, blah, blah.

Consumer electronics are a great example of a market where consumers don't actually know what they want. They complain constantly about how terrible something is until they get it in their hands. This is more true with millenials than any other group. You've got people who will hate on Xbox One for months on end until it comes out, then try it, and then completely ignore everything they know or think they know and make a decision about user experience. It happened with the original Xbox, with the Wii, with the iPhone, with the iPad, etc..

Why Microsoft is even talking to people I don't know. They should shut up and wait for people to get it in their hands.

[Timman_24]

Why Microsoft is even talking to people I don't know. They should shut up and wait for people to get it in their hands.

That goes back to what I said earlier. MS has changed a lot of stuff up. The people that would buy day one are going to wait a bit to see how the console is received. I think a lot of the angst is overblown, and most of it is a typical internet dog pile but there are some unknowns for people like me that makes me apprehensive of their direction. Again, once they can prove to me that their scheme is the way forward then I'm all in. They are making a big bet by cutting out so many markets (talking world wide plus broadband and such), so hopefully it works out. I certainly don't want a Sony-only world. In the end, I'll always have my PC.

I do think some of the comments have been interesting to discuss. Jonathan Blow brought up some good points from a design perspective. As an engineer, it goes against his natural intuition to add points of failure to a game, which is what DRM is. At the core level, if it is a single player game then it shouldn't even communicate with network hardware. He said it also takes away development time from the actual game. Making sure DRM works correctly and does not interfere with the experience is a large programming task, its not something they can throw in in a day. Of course this is a larger discussion than just the Xbox One.

Finally he discussed the error of making changes due to metrics. There's been a lot of talk from MS execs about users enjoying video through the Xbox, more hours spent watching netflix than gaming and such. The problem is that its a good device to watch movies through, but the person bought it for games and ended up using it as an entertainment hub as well. What gets the box in a house are the games.

[taggart6]

Xbox One may do the same thing. No one knows, because no one's seen it. No one's said that if it can't connect that it will power down.

The Xbone requires a 24 hour check in to continue playing. http://www.techradar.com/us/news/gam...-a-fee-1157088

I think your hypothetical is over reaching.

[innocentbastard]

Up to 24 hours or one hour if on a separate console...I am guessing this is per Publisher?

With Xbox One you can game offline for up to 24 hours on your primary console, or one hour if you are logged on to a separate console accessing your library. Offline gaming is not possible after these prescribed times until you re-establish a connection, but you can still watch live TV and enjoy Blu-ray and DVD movies.

http://news.xbox.com/2013/06/connected