• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

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

F

flyinpiranha

Member
Klocker said:
yea I think a lot of people throwing fits over this news are going to be very surprised when big titles on BOTH PS4 and Durango require an online connection....
Click to expand...

TITLES are completely different than a SYSTEM. I know I can't just play Guild Wars 2 if my internet was down, but to be locked out completely of everything I own for a system because my internet is down?

I know Diablo 3 had persistent online. It's why I didn't buy it.
I know SimCity had persistent online. It's why I didn't buy it.
 
C

Can Crusher

Banned
wildfire said:
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.
Click to expand...

0132_hmhs.gif
 
P

Pillville

Member
Tylahedras said:
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.
Click to expand...


Sarcasm? If not:

So you're saying that letting me play offline creates more cheaters in online games?
and even if that were true, I don't care, because I don't want to play online.
 
Z

ZombieFred

Unconfirmed Member
Man's surely going to loose his job after this but the man has done a great service of getting the picture that no one wants an always online console. I hope Microsoft is not too arrogant to follow this.
 
C

coldfoot

Banned
wildfire said:
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.
Click to expand...
You sure about those numbers? :) Those are more like lifetime sales.
 
CassidyIzABeast

CassidyIzABeast

Member
syko de4d said:
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.
Click to expand...

So like they already do on launch day?:p
 
B

blackflag

Member
My ISP has been out at least for the last3 hours (since I woke up).

I have Cox cable..in Phoenix. Definitely not rural. Cox is usually pretty good but occasional shit like this is why no buy.
 
S

spekkeh

Banned
tournanext said:
MS seems to be wholly embracing the "games as a service" model. Here's how I think it will go down:

MS will offer Xbox Loop for about $49.99 w/ a mandatory 3 year subscription (likely more expensive than Xbox Live Gold). Basically bringing the cell phone subsidy model to consoles. It will be presented as a cable box replacement with a couple deals with major content producers. Not all of them of course, but enough to turn heads. I also doubt they'll offer an unsubsidized model (ever check what an unsubsidized Samsung Galaxy S3 or iPhone 5 costs? yikes).

Once your subscription runs out your console is as good as dead, so they're hoping to keep people strung along for years. MS's hope is that the subscription model will make more than the loss of offline customers. They'll probably end up capitulating somewhat and offering some sort of Steam-like offline mode, but there will be no escaping online checks to activate games and such.

It's a bold move and offensive to hardcore gamers, but they stand to profit immensely if they can pull it off.
Click to expand...
Intredasting.
 
H

Htown

STOP SHITTING ON MY MOTHER'S HEADSTONE
Xenon said:
Im not worried about my ISP. I am worried about their servers.
Click to expand...

I'm worried about both.

Apologists always come at this from the angle of "WELL WHO DOESN'T HAVE INTERNET NOW?", when the real problem is that requiring a connection to a central server in order to play a game means that people get locked out of content they paid money for if the server goes down, or if the server is attacked, or if there's a security breach, or if it's undergoing maintenance, or if too many people want to play.

We've already reached the era of server queues for single player games, and we've seen what happens for games like Diablo and Sim City at launch.

Why is it so hard to figure out why people don't want an always online requirement?
 
P

pelican

Member
Miles Quaritch said:
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.
Click to expand...

From reading comments here I realise that the US is much different from the UK. Here there are a wide range of ISPs ranging from large such as BT, Virgin media or Sky to small so it is pretty easy to get a good deal. I've got 24meg, uncapped and with zero throttling for 25 quid a month.

Worth every penny.
 
B

BruiserBear

Banned
bndadm said:
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.
Click to expand...

The always on connection would use a very minimal amount of data. Just like your Xbox does now when it's online.
 
H

Hoo-doo

Banned
It was on the front page of the most popular online news outlet in the Netherlands. (Nu.nl)

Still refuse to believe this though, Microsoft is not completely incompetent, even though it does seem that way sometimes.
 
LiquidMetal14

LiquidMetal14

hide your water-based mammals
Can Crusher said:
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.



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.



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

More interesting are the dashboard or shall I say overlay. Some good and bad but the online part is the majorly bad part :p
 
K

Klocker

Member
Corto said:
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 the decide on what is most advantageous for their business.
Click to expand...

True, just pointing out to someone saying it won't happen on PS4, that this may be more a publisher secret than an MS one. They may be wanting to do this in their games more than we think and MS is taking the bullet and going all in and telling devs they can count on always on since that would be what they want.

Form a PR standpoint Sony is safer but technically besides 1st party, more than half of PS4 big games could be online only games as well.
 
C

Can Crusher

Banned
shinobi602 said:
Is Polygon the only one not to say anything yet?

Gies, at least try to look neutral.
Click to expand...

Holy crap you're right, Polygon has no story on this lol

Man I was so wrong about that place.

LiquidMetal14 said:
More interesting are the dashboard or shall I say overlay. Some good and bad but the online part is the majorly bad part :p
Click to expand...

If the overlay is the most exciting thing going on with the system, then I don't even know.
 
G

Goodacre0081

Member
syko de4d said:
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.
Click to expand...

i guess this way MS won't ban you for playing an early copy.
 
I

inky

Member
Htown said:
Congratulations. You have shown that 18 out of 1558 "boycotting" users bought Modern Warfare 2 after the fact.

I'm not sure what that's supposed to prove, but okay.
Click to expand...

In a public group that anyone could join no less.

That has to be the worst "proving a point" pic I've seen.
 
C

cartoon_soldier

Member
Klocker said:
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
Click to expand...

It is better for MS to let Publishers take the fall, blame, scorn still.
 
H

Htown

STOP SHITTING ON MY MOTHER'S HEADSTONE
davepoobond said:
That was the point ...
Click to expand...

It's commonly used to show that "people complaining on the internet are just bitching for no reason and will buy it anyway", but it doesn't mean anything of the sort.

inky said:
In a public group that anyone could join no less.

That has to be the worst "proving a point" pic I've seen.
Click to expand...

The best part is that Steam tends to sort group members so that the members that were in a game at that moment are presented first. The implication is that the whole group is a bunch of posers, but that page would always sort the few playing Modern Warfare 2 to the top.
 
A

Artimities

Banned
Tomat said:
Done with what? They're not going to die anytime soon.
Click to expand...

Sorry... but this is a deep cut. You dont piss off millions of people (and it will end up being millions) and expect everything to be ok. They will be around for a while, but they just gave this next generation to Sony....
 
M

Miles Quaritch

Member
bndadm said:
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.
Click to expand...

I haven't heard about charging for exceeding data caps for at least a couple of years. I'm more than a little surprised to hear that it still happens. I can only assume AT&T haven't bothered propely investing in their infrastructure so choose to use an archaic and money grubbing approach to data caps.

Sorry to hear you're stuck in such a terrible position. For all my complaining about BT, when they say unlimited, it truly is unlimited with no throttling or additional charges.
 
S

shinra-bansho

Member
Klocker said:
yea I think a lot of people throwing fits over this news are going to be very surprised when big titles on BOTH PS4 and Durango require an online connection....
Click to expand...
I like how you try to mitigate and rationalize this with something akin to repeating "I know you are, but what am I."
 
T

Tripp Daily

Member
Animator said:
I am not going to be getting a xbox because of this smug cocksucker. I hope he loses his job over this.
Click to expand...

By the time the new xbox releases you wont even remember this guys name and will have talked yourself into buying it.

Htown said:
Congratulations. You have shown that 18 out of 1558 "boycotting" users bought Modern Warfare 2 after the fact.

I'm not sure what that's supposed to prove, but okay.
Click to expand...

You need to retake math.
 
F

FStop7

Banned
ekim said:
That guy might lose his job and some of you are even supporting that? I mean... (disregarding that he just joked around with a friend) how does his choice of words differ from the average gaffer's? He just picked another side than you and so you are entitled to demand his head just because he is working in the gaming industry? That's disgusting...
Click to expand...

I have no opinion on it either way. Big companies preach caution with what you say on Twitter for both purposes of perception as well as maintaining NDAs. He may have violated both. It's up to Microsoft to decide if they're going to punish him or not.
 
K

Klocker

Member
shinra-bansho said:
I like how you try to mitigate and rationalize this with something akin to repeating "I know you are, but what am I."
Click to expand...

not anywhere close, read my subsequent posts explaining my point thx




"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
Click to expand...


True, just pointing out to someone saying it won't happen on PS4, that this may be more a publisher secret than an MS one. They may be wanting to do this in their games more than we think and MS is taking the bullet and going all in and telling devs they can count on always on since that would be what they want.

Form a PR standpoint Sony is safer but technically besides 1st party, more than half of PS4 big games could be online only games as well.
Click to expand...


oh and sorry if logic and reason are too soon, I realize we are still trying to keep the party going in this thread.
 
N

Ninja

Neo Member
Microsoft are having the same arrogant confidence about the neXtBOX that sony had going in to the PlayStation 3, that didn't work well for them and it won't work will for microsoft.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom