| disolitude said: This idea is overly dramatic and simply inaccurate. Few things: 1. This has been the case for multiplayer games for the last 10 years. When SegaNet went down, so did most of the online MP games supported by the Dreamcast. Considering that more than 50% of gaming today is done with MP in mind, servers shutting down can indicate the end of that game as we like to play it. Even Halo 2 on XBL had a similar fate few years ago. 2. We don't know how this "online check once every 24 hours" works and what it applies to. People are still able to play single player games offline on Steam once its installed and authenticated on the internet. There is no reason to think Microsoft won't have a similar approach. 3. Even if the game is 100% dependant on servers and verification even for single player, Microsoft/Sony and anyone else implementing this DRM is looking for a major lawsuit if the game is shut down completely when the servers aren't available. At worst, if they are shutting down support for a game when it comes to server authentication, they are able to remove the limitation and allow the game to be played without authentication. 4. This type of a DRM and business model is designed for an ecosystem and long term gaming in mind. Thnk 4 generations down the road. There is no reason to think these games won't be playable on whatever x86 hardware is being used...X86 is the final frontier in computing so I doubt Microsoft and Sony will be changing platforms from here. Essentially the only way a game library will become completely unplayable is if an ecosystem completely fails or a company goes out of business and can't support its ecosystem anymore. |
1. It's always a known risk for multiplayer games and consumers accept that risk when they buy a game for its multiplayer. However, that is not the case with single-player games.
2. As far as the 24-hour check-in statement goes, it pretty much says you must connect to the internet every 24 hours to be able to play your games. What else could it mean?
3. The EULA most likely makes lawsuits extremely difficult.
4. Console gaming is facing enormous challenges right now, mostly because of smart phones and tablets. It's not at all clear that all, if any, console companies will be around say, 20 years from now, or even after this new gen. And backwards compatibility isn't that simple, either. There's a lot else to a system besides just an x86 processor, although it makes it much easier to make future consoles backwards compatible.
