Well....that just happened.
If you've been living under a rock in past few days, let me go ahead and explain the situation that's been spewing out literally everywhere online.
In a discussion between two individuals, Microsoft Studio’s Creative Director, Adam Orth, decided to voice his opinion on 'always-on' devices. Without explicitly attaching his claim to an unannounced next-gen Xbox, the damage was done and the internet mob, with hands held high of torches and pitch-forks, came knocking and assumed the worst.
Now, hear me out. I'm not going to tell anyone what opinion he or she should have formed from such a fallout of epic proportions, but I do have several things of which I'd like to share with you.
In a sea of conflicting rumors, the one rumor that has managed to gain the most and enduring attention is as follows: In a nut-shell, the rumor describes the process by which the next-gen xbox functions. An internet connection, supposedly, is required at all times for the player to have access to his or her game. If the internet goes out, then bam, your xbox is useless (for both multi-player and offline play).
You can see why this is controversial...
Now, let's attempt to assess and reassess the situation. There's always a little reason to be found in situations of madness.
Let's say that you do believe this certain rumor but you want to be completely sure of yourself. Well, nobody can do that until the official reveal, but you can form a good opinion, educated and well-formulated rather than just screaming out "microsoft has lost, ps4thewin."
Not too long ago, Microsoft had announced the sale/shipment of over 75 million Xbox 360 units and over 40 million Xbox Live members, silver and gold. Now, you have to pay a little closer attention to those Xbox Live members in comparison to the total Xbox 360 units sold. If you do the math, that's essentially a 1.875 : 1 ratio (consoles sold to Xbox live members).
Now, that's a pretty significant gap, isn't it? Almost half of Microsoft's Xbox 360's customers aren't Xbox Live members. Breaking that down, you can guess that a good number of the customers don't care to play online or don't have an internet connection- and that's almost HALF of Xbox 360 owners.
Microsoft knows these stats. They tout these numbers all the time and they know this fact. If you truly believe that Microsoft is dead-set on making their next Xbox have the 'always-online' requirement to even just play games, you need to ask yourself something:
Do I think Microsoft, who knows that important ratio I mentioned above, is stupid enough to do something like this and potentially lose approximately half of their customers?
If anything, this 'always-online' feature can have several interpretations, yet we are focusing on just one. The feature could be somewhat similar to Sony PS4's low-power sleep mode or it could be referring to maintaining connection to Xbox Live at all times to avoid logging in everytime you turn it on, even when your Xbox is switched off (as someone earlier pointed out).
The nature of these rumors should also tell you something. None of the rumors exactly matches up to any other given rumor. Either the majority of the rumors are just plain false or the developers who have been given the durango kits are confused on which features constitute as developer-exclusive and which ones may be reserved for consumer units.
Anyways, that's what I wanted to share with everyone. Please, feel free to disagree and comment below.
Thanks for reading and your time.
Sincerely,
aviator189
EK Cooling allegedly has slipped itself into a hot soup of seemingly endless financial woes, where it has not paid its staff, suppliers, and contractors for many months as the company is facing liquidity problems and a surplus of inventory left unsold, stuck in the warehouse for a more extended period. Gamers Nexus investigated these claims made by former and current personnel, where he found trails of unpaid bills lasting as long as three to four months and unpaid raises that accumulated for almost a year.
EK Water Blocks has two entities—a Slovenian-based headquarters and a US-based subsidiary, EK Cooling Solutions. Steve narrated the series of events in detail, stating that the company was reportedly irresponsible and negligent regarding payment. Consequently, partners and employees are forced to share the burden of alleged mismanagement. It all begins with its extensive range of products, leading to a surplus of goods. EK has over 230 water blocks, 40 liquid cooling kits, 85 reservoirs, 40 pumps, 73 radiators, and 212 miscellaneous accessories.
Yes this is not about video games directly but indirectly this will impact the pc gaming/workstation space hard.
This company is massive one of two in the water cool space so if it goes poof then thousands out there have no spare parts or half built computers.
SO yeah i know not about a video game but think of it as amd leaving the pc space but this is ekwb that could be leaving water cooling in the pc space
Jayz2cents a supporter of there products also has issues
https://www.youtube.com/wat...
Originally launched in 2011, El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron is coming to Nintendo Switch, so It's time to look back at the original.
With the defense MO failing, many players think that a change in how these missions work is called for.
Between the possible leaked documents, dev comments, feverish defense from Orth, etc....I think this rumor is a little more likely than your run of the mill random rumor.
Always-online, blocked used games, weak console than ps4..
Man, i dont understand.
Why make this Microsoft? Why?
You're not looking at the whole picture.
Yeah, there is a big discrepancy between people who connect their Xbox, and the number of 360s sold. But that's not all Microsoft would be looking at.
Always-online would not be implemented, or even considered without good reason. For any feature that makes it into the next Xbox, MS will consider the pros and cons. You only addressed the downside here, but that's not the full picture. You're overlooking what MS may see as a benefit of an always online requirement.
The most obvious potential use of an always-on connection would be to prevent piracy and eliminate used games. MS knows the relevant numbers. We don't.
Profit is obviously the motivation behind Xbox Live subscriptions. If they were concerned about subscriber numbers or install base, they wouldn't throw a big, money-making block in front of the gates.
If Microsoft can make that kind of profit-driven decision, which clearly comes at the expense of the user base, it's far from unrealistic to expect they would, at the very least, consider the same approach when it comes to the actual console itself.
Fact is, only Microsoft's number crunchers have an idea of how beneficial or harmful an always-on requirement would be to the business.
Only time will tell if Microsoft is going to shoot themselfs in the foot or make a good console.
I wait to hear from Microsoft to know whats true, because sometimes people can twist words around.
I think this blog entry gives a balanced view of that case. It is a positive example of arguing instead of downplay other opinions without facts behind it. I am not saying that he is right because we are all speculating until MS announced the console but he tries to see a bigger picture.