Was Patching-Out The Xbox One's 'Always-On' Functionality Worth The Effort?

Hardcore Gamer: Microsoft spent a lot of resources to change some of their system's fundamental features, and it still feels like hardly anything has changed aside from the fact that some neat previously announced features are no longer present.

[SpinalRemains138]

MS went to sleep and woke up with brown sheets.

It happens.

I just hope the entire industry learned from MS colossal error.

Without the patch, the One stood no chance. DOA.

Now the One can sell some machines and get back to being what it was supposed to be......fun

[IanVanCheese]

Out of all the drama with DRM and what not, this really was the biggy. Always online was undefendable.

Many people here would (wrongly) call me an Xbot but even I would never defend such a stupid move on MS's part. Thank god they dropped this.

[Gazondaily]

Always on was a step too far I agree. The digital model was interesting tough; at least it was different. Who wants two consoles that are pretty much the same?

[admiralvic]

@ Septic

I would prefer one that makes sense and has basic features, since Nintendo uses a weird one, but it is by a wide margin the worst.

[Death]

The ability to rip all of our games to the HDD to be played anytime and from anywhere without the disc was a great feature. The way they were able to accomplish this was the 24 hour check. You didn't need to always be online, the verification file was incredibly small and could be transferred over your cell if needed.

It wasn't for everyone obviously, but they should have given users the ability to opt in or out of it. I had no issue having my library verified since none of my consoles are ever offline anyway.

@Deadpoolio,
You are a bit confused. If your friends were "loaned" a copy, they had a 1 hour limit depending on the game and their connection to the internet. If you were signed in at a friends house, you could play as long as you like. Don't forget, Kinect signs you in when it sees you. All you had to say was "Kinect, show my stuff" and you had access remotely. You still needed to download to play, but it worked fine.

[Deadpoolio]

LOL Wow there are still delusional people out there....You do know the anytime from anywhere was for 1hour before you had to go home right? Did you forget that you could only play at a friends house for an hour before you were locked out unless you took your console, which BTW isn't made to be carted around

[nukeitall]

I loved the idea of going all digital, with instant access anywhere I go with internet access and shared game library with 10 other people.

I am rarely ever a place without internet connection so I would have loved this!

I can't remember the last time in years that my internet went down more than a few hours.

Due to all the whiners, we instead get an inferior system of ancient media discs.

However, I do agree with Death, it should have been an opt in. The only practical way of implementing this is, if you went digital it would work as advertised, if you went physical then it would work like it did on Xbox 360.

[Triella]

@nukeitall
Ok, let's say the always online feature (or the online check every now and then) is still valid : you buy your discs and install all those games on "the cloud" to have them digitally accessible, right. Once you do that your discs becomes somwhat useless. Now think about MS pulling the plug on the Xbox division, or live support being discontinued what you would be left with is a useless console with useless discs, but if that's ok with you, be my guest.

[MightyNoX]

What are you talking about? Xbox One doesn't have DRM built into it. The Day 1 patch has NOTHING to do with removing the DRM. Penello told me so. /Sarcasm

[Godmars290]

Between the day-one patch and if MS makes it habit to send out games with incomplete content like Forza 5, what they keep saying about cloud support, then no. There was no point in removing the always online requirement.

They just should have put a big warning that an internet connection was required.

[Death]

Yes, cloud computing is an "incomplete game". Unless you are talking about DLC? Or is there not enough tracks and cars? I really lose track of all the complaints from people that have no intention of buying the consoles or games. Sony has a day-one patch too. I am sure theirs is to make gaming better and has nothing to do with not being ready.

[Godmars290]

Yes. I mean the 1st day available DLC which is suppose to account for a third of the game.

And as someone with no intention of buying the game or console, I'm uselessly bringing it up here for the people can't read this. The few people without internet who expect to have a console after spending $500 but wont. Who will likely also damage the XB1 if not consoles in the consumer mindset.

[GmIsOnPt360]

People are so ignorant , ps4 has day one patch! Cod needs patch to fix franerate issues in ps4... Just stop it's embarrassing

[DigitalRaptor]

I'm sorry are we living on the same planet?

PS4, a gaming console, doesn't NEED any patches to play games. Imagine that. Focusing on games above all else.

[Deividas]

What are you talking about?? The XONE is a paperweight without the update, PS4 can still do what its intended to do, play games.

And the cod framerate was not a PS4 issue, it was on EVERY platform! Therfore it was a developer issue. Have it on PC and without the patch it was unplayable.

[stuna1]

I actually agree with you! One can't help but to wonder if through Microsoft patching out the DRM; Have they also patched out the identity of the Xbox1 itself? I think if Microsoft had been upfront from the beginning, and not so aggressive in their vision, things could have possibly turned out different. I think thinking of more ways of making money has clouded their judgement.

[nukeitall]

Imagine if the public was outraged about the early adoption of ethernet jack on the original Xbox?

Who knows, we might have gotten stuck with PSN they way it was in the early days and a focus on PS Home?

Point being, the cloud could have been great, be we won't know because we can't know every Xbox One is connected anymore. If you wanted that experience the PS4 does it fine, why bring Xbox One to the same functionality?

It was pointless and only serves to drag down the people with proper internet connection to the level of people that do not. The minority and weak dictates the majority.

That is a degradation!

[Death]

I'm guessing you either weren't there or don't remember. Playstation owners did nothing but put down Xbox owners for having a broadband only console. The PS2 needed an adapter to go online and you had the choice of awesome dialup or broadband. Needless to say online gaming on the PS2 was pretty ugly for awhile.

Back then they also bitched about the Xbox having a HDD and said memory cards were better. The hardcore PS fans are an odd bunch.

[Castle333]

Hey man if you believe in the cloud so blindly then why don't you buy yourself the onlive console? That useless machine is 100% cloud powered! test your AMAZING internet connection with that. The cloud is bullocks end of story.

[Malice-Flare]

too bad, would like to find out what would really happen if they pushed forward...

if the stories about Forza being 1080p due to offloading other things to the cloud are true, all these resolution stories maybe due to devs patching in offline processing in a rushed fashion...

just a hypothesis...

[Death]

If the machine can free up resources to remote servers, it will make more of the console available for things like graphics. The technology is in it's infancy and there is a lot left to explore. For whatever reason some fans say it's impossible to do because of lag, but they can completely comprehend playing on a remote machine without input lag. Different voodoo or magic I suppose.

[beebap]

You will find other things are streaming games big difference not trying to do computation on servers so please you know the difference

[stuna1]

But that also leaves the question of why other games are not benefitting as well! I can't say if it's true or not, but you have to admit that Microsoft has done a piss poor job of showing the benefits.

[youndamie]

"Was Patching-Out The Xbox One's 'Always-On' Functionality Worth The Effort?"

I thought all they had to do was flip a switch

[MadMen]

Yes and it made something Clear.

When gamers Unite, We Win.

[GarrusVakarian]

http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photo...

[TXIDarkAvenger]

Considering the people who pushed this aren't buying the One anyways, it was a wasted effort.

[Death]

What did we win? We lost the ability to rip our games to the HDD and not need them for verification. We also lost the ability to access all of our games remotely. The scary DRM is what made this possible. Gaming took a huge step backwards, but our fictional rights are still intact.

[Castle333]

If microsoft really wanted to keep the family sharing crap they would have, at least with digitally purchased games. Although its a useless feature anyway. Just buy a pc if you want to go ALL digital or buy an onlive machine if you are so certain the cloud is the way of he future.

[tarbis]

I'm sure the servicemen in a sub would like to hear about this.

[mhunterjr]

I think it was definitely worth it. Without it, they wouldn't have stood a chance. I still think they should release another SKU... No, not one without kinect... one without a disk drive. That way they could have sung the praises of their digital vision without imposing drm in folks who still want physical media.

[Ashby_JC]

you know what. that seems like it could be a great idea.

[jimmywolf]

"feels like hardly anything has changed aside from the fact that some neat previously announced features are no longer present."

if they were so great, Microsoft would stuck too their guns an showcased why you want too support it. instead they caved quicker then i thought they would.

i was giving them 3-6 months after release, before i thought they would change anything, if they did. it was proof it was nothing more then a form of trying too control us an the market for profit.

[Double_O_Revan]

Agreed. I'm surprised they caved so quick. I didn't see that coming. They spent so much time and effort building that business model, and they threw it all out the window after less then 2 weeks after the reveal.

[FITgamer]

Microsoft would definitely be selling off the Xbox One division if the didn't. I'd say it's fair to assume the pretty large percentage of people who are buying Xbox One would not be buying one if they didn't.

[beebap]

Seriously microsoft are innovators of the digital age this policy was the only way to have sharing plan yea no other way it could work, none what so ever it not that they want to control your consumer rights and most importantly control the very profitable second hand market. God there is many path to digitak age we are not there yet. I hope microsoft r not part of it policy like this are messed up. How brainwashed can people get

[Ashby_JC]

I wonder would or could they have the update available on a disc?

that would kill the need for a internet connection that some don't have.