According to a report on Ars Technica, Microsoft have emailed all their full-time employees to say that the new Xbox won’t require an always-on internet connection.
Quite why Microsoft would do this is anyone’s guess at this point – with a full reveal due on the 21st of May – but there you go. It’s contrary to earlier discussion on the matter.
“Durango is designed to deliver the future of entertainment while engineered to be tolerant of today’s Internet,” the email apparently states.
“There are a number of scenarios that our users expect to work without an Internet connection, and those should ‘just work’ regardless of their current connection status. Those include, but are not limited to: playing a Blu-ray disc, watching live TV, and yes playing a single player game.”
Previous rumours, initially circulated by Edge magazine, claimed the new Xbox would need to be online for everything.
An always-on console isn’t a great idea, we’ve debated.
MuggleMind
One thing I note here is the “playing a Blu-ray disc” comment. Does this mean Microsoft have to pay Sony for that right?
Kamokazi-UK
I think it’s specifically for use with video playback, not game/data storage
Cort
The Blu-ray Disc Association, of which Sony is a founding member and major stakeholder.
damoxuk
Sick of people thinking Sony own Blu-Ray. They don’t they are just part of the Blu-Ray Association. People wrongly assume they own it because it’s in PS3.
Ok rant over :)
Cort
To be fair, Sony led the development of blue lasers to read data, with two projects – one in collaboration with Philips, another with Pioneer. They deserve more credit for Blu-ray than possibly all the other contributing companies combined. And they put it in their new console, taking a massive gamble to support the nascent format.
And not many know that Sony (along with Philips) brought us DVDs in the first place, and CDs. Plus Sony gave us consumer 3.5″ floppy disks. Shame most people choose to only complain about proprietary formats such as Mini Disc and Memory Stick.
Tuffcub
Sony are part of the Blu-Ray Association who invented the format. The Blu Ray Association get a fee for every BR pressed and every drive made so Sony will get a bit of moolah from Microsoft.
There again, Blu-ray uses the VC-1 codec which is owned by Microsoft so they get some cash.
damoxuk
VC-1 is rarely used now. It’s almost 90%+ Blu-rays use the AVC or Mpeg-4 format as it’s better known.
Either way let me watch Blu-Rays and it’s a Bonus :D
Kamokazi-UK
“…tolerant of today’s Internet…”
What does that actually mean? Are they taking into account people without access, Download Caps., speed restrictions, poor connections?
Alex C
Presume so. Ergo: it’s not always online, at least not how the rumours have specified.
hazelam
“tolerant of today’s internet” is kind of an ambiguous statement.
though the other statement, does seem more definite.
of course, this has to be true for it to be taken as evidence, and there’s no way of knowing if you’re not an ms employee, and i assume those who are would be bound by some sort of NDA.
so right now we still don’t know anything for certain other than ms are announcing something on the 21st.
DividSmythe
Does matter Ps4 is still going to be my next console unless Durrango pulls out a real surprise out on May 21st.
Spence1115
So, rumors can now potentially be downgraded to ‘offline mode’, or ‘online for activation’, or perhaps back to ‘Microsoft aren’t as stupid as EA after all’…
KeRaSh
Good point. They could also still lock Achievements to online play (single player), even if these new rumors turn out to be true.
KeRaSh
In addition to that I’d love to know (considering both the old rumor and this story are true) if MS was afraid of the backlash that would ensue if they went through with their initial online only plans of if it was a false rumor to begin with. I’d like to think it’s the first option because they never denied anything (for obvious reasons) but it’s a too high profile rumor to simply ignore.
Kennykazey
So, it’ll give me reassuring messages when downloading?
“Your internet connection is rather on the slow side, but I can assure you your copy of Halo 5 will be done within 24 hours, and I do not judge you or your internet-provider. Have a cup of tea while we renew your Live Subscription for the next month, just to be on the safe side you know. “
gazzagb
To me it sounds like originally it was going to include always-on DRM, but they’re now back tracking on that and are informing all their employees.
I don’t much like the sound of “tolerant of today’s Internet”, it makes it sound like they could enable it anytime down the line.
bunimomike
About time we had some clarification although the full tidy-up will be at the launch/announcement later this month, I hope.
Rikishi
Could be just an impression, but it seems just like Microsoft is sh***ng in its pants.
I could be wrong, but I think that Sony, with its PS4 announcement, has put a lot of pressure on MS… It seems just like they “understimated the power of PlayStation” ^^
ron_mcphatty
It’s good of Microsoft to diffuse the rumour related anger, if it’s true then it’s a good use of a leak. They’re still a long way from having generated a PS4 level of hype about the presumably big announcement, it’ll be interesting to see whether they go for it.
With regards to Always On, can anyone remember who started that story off? It’s been higher up the wildfire scale than anything I can remember from my time as a TSA stalker.