Phil Harrison clarifies a few things.

Source

So with all the confusion from twitter and Phil Harrison messing things around, Wired tagged him for a Q&A recently to set the record straight on The ONE's ambiguous notoriety.

He didn't really clear up anything. He just responded with boilerplate PR talk and far too many uses of "I don't know."

Wired: I’ve heard that if your Xbox One does not connect with Xbox Live at least once a day, the machine becomes inoperable and you’re not able to play any of the games that you’ve paid for. Is that true?

Harrison: I don’t think that’s what was said. Let me try and clarify what is happening.

So, there is a lot of anxiety about “what if my Internet connection goes down” and you don’t have connectivity for a period of time. There are a host of features which will be usable without an Internet connection — watching movies, playing certain single player games… all of which will operate offline. We expect most of the more advanced experiences, like online multiplayer games, or games which have a lot of connected features… those games won’t operate if you don’t have an Internet connection. We designed the system to take advantage of a connection to the cloud, and all that that means. But no, it’s not required that you are connected all the time, every second of every day.

There is some technology about how often, or how frequently the device has to ‘ping’, but that has not been… we have not talked publicly about that yet, but it will be very user-friendly.

Wired: So are you saying that there is no function of the machine which checks in with Microsoft to see whether the player is still authorized to use the games that they’ve bought — there is no user validation check, or any sort of DRM function?

Harrison: We haven’t announced the details of that today, but like I said, it will be very user-friendly.

How is this clarifying anything?! All it says is "Yes some sort of online check will be there". Wired asks if once a day is required, he says "That's not what was said: It does not require to be online every second of every day." So uhmm mr Harrison, once a day is not the same as every second of every day.

Wired: For players who don’t have consistent access to online connectivity due to their particular location or poor quality of service, how much functionality will they be able to get out of the Xbox One?

Harrison: So, Xbox One is designed to have an internet connection. You will recall what I said earlier about it not requiring one all the time, but just like many devices that we have in our lives today… they are an extension of the Internet.

People in locations without (good) internet this is not for you.

Wired: Does the device function if the Kinect is not attached?

Harrison: Kinect and Xbox One are one and the same. They are two parts of the equation. Obviously the Kinect sensor is used for Skype, for communication, for voice recognition, gesture and motion sensing and the rest.

Wired: So as an example, if your dog comes in and somehow it knocks the Kinect down and breaks it, would you still be able to use the box if there was a particular game which did not use the functions embedded into the Kinect?

Harrison: In that situation, I have no idea.

I really hope non-kinect games still work even without kinect

Microsoft should shut all their people up until they can get their narrative straight.

These evasive shifting conflicting answers is making them look very bad. They look like they are trying to spin bad news.

and for god's sake why won't game journalists do their jobs and press for a straight answer when they get these wishy washy kind of answers.

Either Xbox requires a once a day DRM check or it doesn't. Which is it?

Well, now everything is much clearer. How will X work? I don't know.

@nictel: Certain Single-player games will have the ability to be played offline, but not all of them!?!

I imagine AAA titles will have always online once per day in their games. No wonder why EA is eliminating those online passes, you do not need them if the game won't function if it offline for more than 24 hours.

This is pretty much just one step above a shrug of the shoulders. I was kind of looking forward to just reading lots of straight up facts today but seems like that's a little bit away yet.

Anyway, only 18 days to E3.

This whole reveal seems so incredibly rushed, I don't understand why they didn't just wait till E3 and try to form an organized and coherent message. It's like the same hubris Sony showed when going from PS2-3, Microsoft thought simply revealing a new console would have everyone in awe and dieing to buy it just cause it's Xbox.

Why doesn't somebody who CAN ask him, ask him, "What about users who don't have internet connections?" ?!?

E3 needs to hurry up. I'm starting to get super bummed out about the XbOne and I need to know what they're holding back.

@xyzygy: the simple answer is: you cannot use it.

This is what the whole thing is reminding me of. The Ken Kutaragi "The PS3 should make you want to work a second job to be able to get one." quote comes to mind.

Seems like Sony and Microsoft have switched roles this gen.

Obviously. I just want to hear how Microsoft spins it. Just for laughs.

From that I got that you can play games and watch movies offline. Online features are online features.

Mmhmm the worrying thing is the fact he says "certain" single-player games. A single-player game should be always offline as an option.

@barrock: How come I can't play online deathmatch on my Xbox One when my internet connection is down? This is bullshit!

Seriously it is kinda comical how no one really knows how this thing was built or how it functions.

@pierre42 I think he means single player games with online components. For instance Dragons Dogma is a single player game that constantly pulls other user created characters into your game from online. Playing without an internet connection kinda ruins that entire experience despite it being a single player title and I'm guessing future games will incorporate those sort of systems a lot more.

Yes.

How on Earth are you posting on Giant Bomb without an internet connection? The Xbox One system seems like the offline mode in Steam where you can play games offline, but will need to authenticate your account from time to time. Even the worst internet connection out there should be able to handle a small data package like this.

Some games may require an online connection in the future for cloud processing purposes. I think that this is similar to the hard-drive situation with the 360. Eventually there will be games which require you to have a constant internet connection but not in the beginning when developers have yet to fully utilize the power of the console itself.

They should release a statement to clarify on the major points soon and not wait until E3. The escalation of rumors is bound to happen again.

You'r right. Even though I'm not personally bothered by the used games and online stuff, I will admit that this is a huge marketing failure for Microsoft and it has already hurt their Xbox brand. From the sounds of it decisions have not yet been made and I'm sure that there are a lot of emails flying around between the publishers and Microsoft executives. It would be best for all of us if they would provide some clarification ASAP.

I like the sounds of the PS3 more so far but changes can still happen on both systems so I'm waiting. I am bothered by the talks of the used games and all but at the same time there are PC games I can't share with people so this is kind of like that. I do like bringing a game to my a friend or family's home so they can try it though. Kind of losing something there. But I don't have all the information so I'm just going to enjoy what's out now.

Who said I didn't have one? I obviously have internet, but not everyone does. Where I come from we don't have high speed though, and it's really hard to connect a device that is not a PC with a modem inside.

I can't wait to see which post you choose to tag as the "best answer"