| greenmedic88 said: The short of it for MS is that "Always Online" still won't be a requirement. At worst, games on the XBO that utilize cloud processing for enhanced physics or visuals simply won't have the enhancements when played offline. Think of it more as an incentive to stay online. It's in MS' best interests to do whatever they can to convince consumers/XBO owners to do so and there is nothing nefarious about this. If it requires a paid XBL Gold subscription... I can see how more of the typical gamer rage might be more warranted, but again, cloud processing is currently being touted (still unproven in consumer homes) as a means to enhance games; not take them from unplayable to functional. It takes selective perspective to see the same games being played without said enhancements as being "gimped" or locked or nerfed or whatever phrase one chooses to use. |
That's not necessarily true. There are several things to think of. First, if you play a cloudless version, due to being offline, you gotta get something else, correct? That means there are two graphical settings, and this can for any of the visual uses of the cloud. First little problem, developers have to program the same thing twice, removing what so many console developers love about consoles; unique specs. Then, even if devs easily and gladly adopt this, what happens to the cloudless version exactly? What if it's completely half-arsed and doesn't take advantage of the hardware you paid 500 dollars for, because you are not connected to the Internet (or are playing the game many years later and its server support might have been pulled) and, as such, being treated as a second-tier customer? Why bother, if, say, MS comes out and says something like "70% of xb1 owners are connected to the internet"? Encouraging the use of cloud and indirectly making developers less concerned with the cloudless version. So either they separate cloud and DRM, but risk having less developer support and/or treating offline customer as second-tier, or they just go with the DRM. And the second option seems more likely, not because of the cloud talk, the increase in XBL subscriptions (this is a given! the more reasons given to the player to be always online, the more likely he is to subscribe, even if he's not much of an online gamer) but the games-as-a-service mention, along with other words used.. It all seems to imply an intent to turn every (and that's the issue here) game into something similar of what you see in certain PC games; you open a launcher, it connects to the servers to check for updates, it lets you log in if the servers are up, it doesn't let you if you they are down.. The difference is that those are online games and "DRM" is a given, by nature. That's what games as a service is, anyway. And, as any service, it is closed at some point; meaning you won't be able to play it anymore. I don't have an issue with playing games that require Internet..otherwise i wouldn't play online games. I do have an issue with having a SP game be affected in some way or another by the lack of a connection (other than meaningless stuff like leaderboards, whatever). Specially if I'm buying the game...at full price..to play it on a 400-500 dollar machine I bought..which isn't even being fully utilized to render the game..
After the first failed attempt, i think MS will use promises of "narrowing the power gap" to facilitate the transition and avoid the criticism they caught earlier. At least from their fanbase.. And it just might work, considering the overall bitter feeling towards multiplatform performance.
