i don't believe the always online rumor. you might have to be online to register the game with the code inside the box, as described in the article, but 24/7? no way...

This won't happen. EDGE I am disappointed.

Im guessing if this is true, the 'always online' is required to verify that the code associated with your game is unique so as to prove that the game is not second hand. So im guessing online is required to play any games.
I'd like to take this time to say goodbye to microsoft.
Its been fun having you in the gaming market, but if this is true you have just thrown yourself out of the door.

Farewell MS.

Blu Ray???The Microsofts disc anti christ is entering the xbox.lol

The always online, no used games feature (for the lack of a better word) is what applied to both Durango and Orbis as of last summer.
That's a first hand statement from a VP Production at EA I visited to see the campus and had lunch with.
Of course those were development kits and that was about half a year ago so things can change, but that was about as definitive of a statement as I've heard on the matter coming from an executive actively involved in the production of next gen games.

Thing is, even if this rumor is false (and I believe it is), I really think it´s only a matter of time before that measure is implemented.

Surely there is no way it'll always have to be online, It would be the worst feature ever.

Remember the days when a console was a console and you just plugged it into a tv and it worked, could flip it off at the power point and everything would be fine.

Hated by the 360 Community for 7 years cause its not needed even if its superior.
Beloved invention from >  Microsoft  < the day the NextBox is using them....I would bet it will be like that xD

I really hope we enter someday the Always connection and no used game time.
I hope Sony AND Microsoft together will do that.They have nearly every publisher anyway behind them.All of them complained in the last years about how this is even worse than piracy(and it is cause people think they are doing a good thing with buying games used)

And games were actually released as finished products, without needing day 1 patches to work or making you pay for on-disc DLC. I miss those days.

"Microsoft’s next console will require an Internet connection in order to function"

I thought this was already the case for 360. :P

I find it odd that we haven't been getting very positive rumors for the next box at all. They are either underpowered or reiterations of the anti used or always online. MS has all those new studios working on something and the projector out there. With the way things are looking we might have to wait until MS shows something to get some positivity out there.