The new Xbox: between connected consoles and disconnected managers

Last week rumors returned strongly that the next Xbox, codenamed Durango, will require a permanent connection to run your games. From Kotaku they assured, from sources with access to the development kits of the future console, that it will require an internet connection to start the games and once started it will continue to be necessary to stay connected to work. If you remain offline for a certain time, the source speaks of 3 minutes, the game will stop working, warning of a problem in the network.

One may think that the information refers at all times to the development kit and that this does not have to be the case with the final version of the console. But as much as one may want to think, the rumor about permanent connection has become a constant since Edge echoed this possibility last February. A couple of months later, it is still hanging around the web, becoming the biggest concern of many users regarding the new Xbox.

"Tweets are carried by the devil"

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Microsoft has yet to officially comment following its policy of not commenting on speculation, but Adam Orth appeared on the scene Thursday and, out of the blue, gave the rumor a little more credibility. Good old Adam, Creative Director at Microsoft Studios, thought that since he had Twitter it wouldn&39;t be a bad idea to spend 140 characters asking the world what&39;s wrong with it that a console needs permanent connection.Several tweets later we already had a mess set up."

We start from the premise that Adam Orth's messages do not mean confirmation of the rumours Although yes, no They do nothing to disprove them. What's more, the good man's subsequent insistence on responding to everyone by defending his position against all odds contributes even less. After a while the mess seemed such that Adam Orth closed his profile and after a few hours Microsoft issued a statement distancing himself from the opinions of his employee:

Perhaps Microsoft's apology is true and Orth's opinion does not reflect that of the rest of the company's executives, but it is hard to think that someone would jump into the pool like that if there is nothing true behind the rumors. What sense would it make to go out if not with those?

The effort to defend his position by ensuring that all current devices require an Internet connection and that any mortal has access to the Internet in these times does not seem only the opinion of a specific manager, but the reflection of some disconnected managersI don't know what they might be up to in Redmond, but no matter how much I think about it, the drawbacks of my game console requiring a permanent connection far outweigh the benefits. And for the record, I'm talking about playing games and not about additional services like that possible Xbox TV mode.

A console is a console is a console…

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In his tweets>the need for connection is artificially created by the manufacturer, so it cannot be compared."

Yes, there is a situation in which the comparison becomes true and it is in cloud gaming services in the style of the ill-fated OnLive or Gaikai, acquired by Sony. The need for a permanent Internet connection in these cases is evident, but the concession is made in exchange for all the advantages it provides, starting with the fact of forgetting about buy this or that device or spend a large sum of money on equipment with certain features.

And the fact is that another of the recent rumors about the new Xbox points to a starting price of 500 dollars (380 euros). So if you are going to demand a permanent connection to your service to enjoy my games, at least don't force me to spend hundreds of euros on powerful hardware that will not serve its main purpose by itself. Take your hardware to the cloud and go

Where are the benefits for the user?

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Maybe the hermit component is too strong for me, but I can&39;t see the advantages for the user of the need for a permanent internet connection to play. To me such a requirement would clearly be a concession to distributors for the sake of greater control over game sales. Such a system would allow linking each copy with our gamertags>"

It may even be that behind such a move is an attempt by Microsoft to fight piracy in the industry.But then he falls back into the same mistake that others have fallen into with DRMs and other mechanisms that end up bothering the vast majority of honest users more than fulfilling their goal of reducing the use of unauthorized copies.

Or maybe Redmond really believes that our gaming experience can be substantially improved with a permanent connection. If so, you should know that when I choose to play solo I don't want to be interrupted by notifications or interactions with third parties. If my e-reader required a permanent connection to read and interrupted me with notifications about news or things that my friends have shared, you would soon see it thrown out the window. Well, the same with the console that I want to play. Let me choose when to interact with third parties.

And let it be clear that these lines are nothing more than a personal opinion about rumors of which there is not a single official statement, beyond the outbursts of an employee, or ex-employee Yeah, from Microsoft.It's hard to believe that this rumor ends up being true, because any argument that occurs to me is detrimental to the user. But in case there is still someone in Redmond thinking that it is a good idea to require a permanent connection to play with our Xbox, perhaps they should take a look around the net to see what users think of such an idea.

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