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Microsoft has yet to even confirm the existence of a new Xbox console, but the one rumour about it that keeps popping up is that it will require users to be connected to the internet at all times. This time, it’s a Microsoft executive bringing it up.
In February, Eidos life president Ian Livingstone told us of the possibility that the next Xbox could be always-online and could block used games. Microsoft Studios creative director Adam Orth has now taken to Twitter to find out what all the fuss is about.
Orth’s Twitter profile is protected, but screengrabs of a recent micro-blog conversation are spreading across the internet like wildfire.
Sorry, I don’t get the drama around having an ‘always on’ console,” Orth tweeted, adding, Every device is now ‘always on’. That’s the world we live in.” Orth ended that tweet with the hashtag #dealwithit”.
Then, responding to a tweet reminding him of the SimCity and Diablo III issues and that internet connections do fail occasionally, Orth replied, Electricity goes out too”.
The last bit of that Twitter conversation is the most worrying for gamers in India, where internet connection drops are an everyday occurrence.
When told that smaller towns in America like Janesville, WA and Blacksburg, VA, weren’t as well connected as the bigger cities Orth may have lived in, the Microsoft executive simply replied, Why on earth would I live there?”
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