Microsoft on Always Online Consoles: 'Deal With It'

Originally posted by digital01anarchy

You can do the same thing with a PC all you need is a long hdmi cable and a wireless keyboard&mouse only thing is with a PC you don't have to wait years for an upgrade in fact if you don't upgrade it will kill your ability to play the best games. Ps if you have a stock PC and you call it decent most if not all PC gamers will laugh at you unless its a new alienware laptop and then thats only for gaming on the run or away from the house.

alienware laptop? that is your example of a serious gamer pc?

Serious gamers ... either are given rigs by their sponsors because they are professional e-sport players; or they build their own rig themselves ... they DO NOT buy alienware (overpriced Dell, selling you stuff for a extra premium). Why? Because the name premium you save not buying alienware buys you better components.


With that aside ... Microsoft can deal with it when our family doesn't buy their next console. We've purchased a couple 360s, but we just don't mess with our consoles, unless we are just going to fool around with a single player game offline. Otherwise, we are on our PCs playing the MMO/MOBA we like, or Minecraft ... we were not happy with EA's decision for SimCity.

I grew up to the original consoles, in fact, had a coleco vision, not an atari and kept at least one of the consoles for each generation. They've always been something you do for fun, alone or with a family member for me. No need at all, to be online. I can see some merit in it, patches, updates, FREE dlc. But what I see about the console ability to go online, is the fall in quality and quantity of content. Rush it out, we can hotfix the bugs later after they buy and test it for us. Let's take this out of the game and charge them for it instead.

The gaming industry is shooting themselves in the foot ... not as a whole, but a whole lot of them. Always online crap, microtransactions. Loss of respect for the industry and the gamers.

There was always profit involved ... but it used to be ran by people who loved gaming ... not people who see gamers as cash cows.

I'm slowly finding fewer and fewer gaming companies I can respect; and if I can't respect the company, they don't deserve my money in the future. If they don't respect their market, how are we to respect them?

I've been loyal to the Xbox since conception, defending it to no end.

But if the next Xbox requires an internet connection to play games, guess what?

MS gaming empire will FALL and everyone will go PS4 or PC. DEAL WITH IT.

Well Microsoft,

It's been nice these last years. You've helped me through so many nights with no Internet, or delayed plans. I'm sorry it has to come to this, but it's the only solution now. You're getting too pushy. It's like you are trying to stop me from seeing my friends at the eb games (where I stop by to purchase used and new games to play on YOU, no less) by making your 'new self' all DLC instead of those shiny discs of gaming excellence.

I feel like you don't trust me, or may try to spy on me in my off time from gaming, talking about adding multiple cameras with the capacity to read lips and recognize faces to the 'new you'.

And what's this about always on/always connected? I'm sorry, but that simply isn't what I'm looking for anymore, nor has it ever been.

It's over, Xbox. Don't call or write. I've been seeing my computer a lot again, recently. She's had a few surgeries and upgrades, but they were quick, and painless (read: CHEAP), and she's more than you'll ever be.

Goodbye.

The Nintendo Wii is also an "always online console" it didn't mean you had to be online to play games it just meant the machine never actually switched off.
When it was "off" it would connect to the Internet and download any updates.

A lot of people saying they'll go PS4 or PC. What are you going to do if PS4 blocks used games? Sony already said their leaving it up to the developer if they want to. Personally I think PS4 and the next Xbox are going to blow.

I'm not rushing out to buy any new system when it releases. I'm taking the wait and see approach. I have enough of a back log to last me years. I still have tons of games I haven't had time to play.

I'm not buying any system thats going to screw me over as a consumer. Any system that screws me over I will pirate to max any way I can.

f sakes, lost an etire reply

since i dont want to retype what i wrote

Microsoft wont go online only
Sony wont be blocking used games

Ignore trolls and rumors

this has been said over the years, the infrastructure isn't in place to distribute games
so as pretty as it would look on paper in real world applications with the factors of poor and no internet service in a lot of areas they would be choking them selves of sales, hence why DLC is optional only

hence why games have been distributed on solid format (compact discs and Cards)

also sorry i didn't read through all the replies so if this has been mentioned meh

I am mostly a PC gamer but also own both 360 and PS3
and I look forward to trying their new consoles in a few months and as Press

doesnt really matter if its drm, always on, cloud based or makes you crawl through sewers to play it,,, the morons keep lining up and handing them cash... idiot kids, idiot parents......

more and more i see it... i pick up game see that crap put back on shelf, dont care how great it is... im not paying 60+ to rent a product i own, or only allowed to install three times, or have only three hardware changes to computer or ect ect ect......

ill watch the gaming industry crash and burn before i buy into these types of online only BS i used to spend roughly 350-600 + on games a year thats now down to about 50-60 i dont play shoters and could care less and most of the driving games are complete suck ....... and as far as the deal with it its the world we live in, does that guy realise hes talking to potential customers? lol...

ill deal with it, unplug-----craigslist free ps3 free xbox ^^........ dealt with 60 + f ing dollars for a freakin game that you destroy in less than 10 hours.... to win trophies that get you NOTHING lol

and considering most games comming out are complete rehashes of old games that somehow SUCK worse than the one before it DIABLO 3 COUGH COUGH its like all the crap movies and songs being redone because holywood doesnt want to risk anything on a tanking economy so its easier to just remake the same thing over and over again lol and the sad part is people buy this #$%^& up SUCKERS

reply to post by salainen


Heh, heh, heh...... "almost have to be using Linux"!
I'm not taking the bait but I will state that there are other open operating systems besides Linux.
Most of the operating systems I worked on in my professional career aren't known by members of the general public.

ganjoa

Boycott Microsoft Products!
After 35 years in "information technology" I am thankfully Microsoft free.
Freedom is a good thing, regardless of what the TPTB sez.

ganjoa

Unfortunately, for most businesses, that's not a viable solution. Home users are a small percentage of MS sales - business Enterprise licensing and products like Dynamics, SSCM, etc. provide the bulk of their money.

However, if they don't come out with a better solution for businesses than Windows 8, they may have no choice but to move onto another platform.

reply to post by porschedrifter


If that's what it really is, you can already do that with the xbox 360 - it's in the settings. Comes in handy for when a game goes on sale and you buy it directly from Microsoft then download it directly onto your 360. I just did it recently with Fallout: New Vegas and Fable III.

reply to post by Lysergic


I think the argument that paying to play online is a pretty bunk one. It costs 60 bucks to use Xbox live for an entire year, which is the cost of a single new game these days - on any console or PC.

Sony Online was also hacked and down for several months, with customer credit card information being compromised. Xbox Live never was. My guess is Microsoft uses the extra income to help pay for their servers and security. But hey, to each their own.

reply to post by Swills


The 360 actually does have an internet browser, you just have to go into apps and download it - but it's hardly worth using, and as far as I know still wont display any flash.
They also have several other apps for things like Youtube (so you don't have to load up a browser).

Sometimes when I'm bored I'll sit down and scan through my different youtube subscriptions and watch a few videos, just because of the fact that it's more comfortable to lay down and watch them on the TV.

Even though I'm a fan of the xbox 360, it's totally true that if Microsoft or any other company decides it would be a "good" idea to require an internet connection to play any games, or use any software, will fail.

However, I think there are a lot better examples for this than simply sitting down to play a video game, such as Microsoft's Skydrive that they're trying to promote.

If something happens to their servers, all kinds of problems can result from something like this, not just losing your data. The first time I heard about it was from a friend who teaches at a college in IT.
She told me how she had attempted to have the students in her class upload all of their assignments to her Skydrive.

When she couldn't gain access to it before class one day, Microsoft's customer service made her give them all kinds of personal information to verify who she was as a "security precaution".

This brings up a whole other world of discussion....

If robots start roaming the streets and lighting books on fire, I'm gonna totally freak out

reply to post by ganjoa


I always wished I would have paid more attention in my AS/400 class back in college, it was one class I actually would have learned something... oh well

Originally posted by ganjoa
reply to post by salainen

 

Heh, heh, heh...... "almost have to be using Linux"!
I'm not taking the bait but I will state that there are other open operating systems besides Linux.
Most of the operating systems I worked on in my professional career aren't known by members of the general public.

ganjoa

Yes there are other open source OS, but I don't know any good ones except Linux. I know its going off topic, but I would be interested to know what the open source OS's you used in your career were, if not Linux. I certainly could not see myself using any OS other than Microsoft/Apple/Linux. As a matter of fact, due to the programs I need to use, I kind of have to use Windows.

Originally posted by Time2Think
Even though I'm a fan of the xbox 360, it's totally true that if Microsoft or any other company decides it would be a "good" idea to require an internet connection to play any games, or use any software, will fail.

However, I think there are a lot better examples for this than simply sitting down to play a video game, such as Microsoft's Skydrive that they're trying to promote.

If something happens to their servers, all kinds of problems can result from something like this, not just losing your data. The first time I heard about it was from a friend who teaches at a college in IT.
She told me how she had attempted to have the students in her class upload all of their assignments to her Skydrive.

When she couldn't gain access to it before class one day, Microsoft's customer service made her give them all kinds of personal information to verify who she was as a "security precaution".

This brings up a whole other world of discussion....

If robots start roaming the streets and lighting books on fire, I'm gonna totally freak out

edit on 7-4-2013 by Time2Think because: fixed typos

I've been thinking that they're going towards cloud computing for years now. You can already "stream" Microsoft Office, and Microsoft has made sure that the subscriptions look attractive while being very expensive. I think Windows will become a subscription based cloud service in the future as well. Not for many years yet, but I think thats where we are going.

Obviously, people can't always choose where they live, and many people live in rural areas where a steady, fast internet connection isn't available. Where broadband isn't even available. Even in the UK we have areas where people still have to use dial-up.
Adam Orth's "Why on Earth would I live there?" goes to show that a: he doesn't care an iota for people who live in these rural areas, and b: doesn't know how to deal with people.

Personally, I oppose the Always Online feature, not because of the Big Brother, always watching, anti-piracy shizzle, but because Always Online means always available, always connected, always sucking up bandwidth. Sometimes I don't want to be available...

Lets not forget that Always Online doesn't always mean, always available to play. EA just proved this with their launch of Sim City. Everything went kaput after their online only hosted game couldn't handle the burden of so many users. With Xbox having sold millions more consoles, how do they expect to be able to host millions of players online in a single moment, without a loss in service, and without the price of the server costs being reflected in the console or Xbox Live subscriptions?


As much as I love my Xbox, I will quite happily forgo the console for a good long while if the price is ridiculous and if I'm expected to play while constantly connected. But having said that, while playing and signed into Xbox Live, it isn't so different really, is it?

Originally posted by VoidHawk
Stick to PC gaming, consoles are a CON.

Every serious gamer I've ever met uses a PC.

Just to add more to this story..
There were rumours about the consoles from ms being so powerful that using the TWO forward pointing cameras they (ms) can use software that can lip read, recognize faces, and count how many people are in the room, and record your conversations.
And now we learn they want the darn thing ALWAYS ON! No prizes for guessing why

Consoles are in no way a con, no more than a PC is, anyway.
Consoles, though not upgradable in the sense that you can buy new graphics and RAM, are cheaper than PCs, and like I just mentioned, you can keep the core of a PC for a while, but you will continue to upgrade it as time goes buy, spending as much if not more as one would getting a new console. The PC>Console argument is as old as the Xbox>PS3 one. It doesn't matter at the end of the day. It shouldn't matter what you're playing ON, gamers should be bought together by the GAMES.

What constitutes a serious gamer, anymore? Am I a serious gamer, because I own a PS3, a 3DS, and two Xboxes (one upstairs, one downstairs), but can't run Minecraft properly on my laptop because it's 4 years old and I can't get the frame rate to run high enough? Am not I a serious gamer because I spend a core of my free time gaming on consoles, as well as being a mother, looking for work, and working out?

There is already software in the Xbox Live Arcade which makes all your points already true. Games which use the Kinect camera and use AR technology to transform all the people in the room. Games which recognise you facially... This isn't coming, it's already here...

reply to post by Time2Think


I think we will just have to agree to disagree on that.

You charged 60 for a game, paid whatever the console costs, you pay for your internet connection, I don't see why microsoft should get to charge you an extra 60 bucks to enjoy your game.

Maybe I've become spoiled from being a mostly PC gamer, it's not like microsoft going to go broke if they DONT charge ppl 60 bucks.

If they launch this console always online while the ps4 refuses to, it will flop. Completely. There will still be people that buy it, but a lot of people will simply refuse and take the alternative. This is a BAD business decision and one that will cost them millions of dollars.

double post