http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/11/06/xbox-one-cloud-updates-may-force-mid-game-reboot

"Once in a while, rather frequently actually, the host OS will require an update, meaning the physical machine is going to get rebooted whether your code is running or not," he explained. "That’s a problematic thing for a game, and oftentimes it's in the middle of a multiplayer session. We’ve worked very hard to overcome that, but that’s not to say it’s going to be a reality in every case."

-- John Bruno, XBox Live lead program manager

Yikes.

I made the same mistake today. It is the client server not every console.

This makes sense. When something updates, it needs to reboot. I imagine there will be an automatic update feature if this happens too often though.

That would suck. I would get pretty annoyed if I was in a multiplayer match and that happened because it'll mean that I'm actually doing really good. (Multiplayer hates me) I can't wait for the inevitable threads complaining about it. I enjoy other peoples misery.

Downloading and preping code to be patched/installed/whatever automatically is fine but should be configurable. Activating it automatically while the user is not using the device can be a handy feature. Activating it while the user is doing something is kind of a problem.

I suspect what is going on is some manager misspeak again because I can't imagine anyone working on games for the XBox One who wouldn't file a bug report against this behavior. Even if it is really a problem, why would a public facing manager talk about this??

Sounds pushy. It should just wait to update until the gameplay session is over.

I bet this gets patched out though. Seems like a feature that is lingering from the always online bullshit.

This is going to sound hyperbolized, but that is shitty garbage. That should not even be an issue that you would ever need to warn people about. Computers have been downloading updates for ever and, as @chiablo pointed out, you can choose to delay them. Even though it's a small issue, a gaming and media machine should not ever, ever, ever dump a user out of their current activity against their will for any reason.

Someone throw the Xbone a bone.

Seems like the same garbage MS has been feeding us in Windows for quite some time. Forced reboots.

That being said, as stupid as I think it is, it's only a problem a few times a year. So it's probably not the end of the world, even if it is annoying.

Actually, Windows is unique in that behavior. Every other modern OS goes "I have an update. Do you wan to install it now?" where Windows is configured by default to install everything and often at inconvenient times since it doesn't appear to have environmental save states which is more like "I am updating, save your stuff now."

Not shocking. Microsoft is weird about updates. I had to edit the registry in Win 8 to get it to stop rebooting in the middle of playing a game or anything else I was currently using the machine for. Their engineers seem more concerned with software than user experience. Hope they get it ironed out for Xbone launch.

Actually I think they refer to the cloud server. So not the X1 needs to restart, but your dedicated cloud server. If this happens during a online game, the server connection will probably be lost and you're back in the lobby.

Here comes some wild guessing: What they should try do implement is a kind of cloud host migration, like its done in current gen when the host player disconnects. Therefore I think its doable, at least if the game is aware that this could happen. Probably cloud server migration will be added later when the whole system api is more stable. At least I think thats what he meant when he said "we worked to overcome that".

The point of cloud architecture is that it is a resilient system. It is designed so that parts can be taken off-line or patched or whatever without disrupting service or effect availability. So I am not sure what this guy is talking about let alone why he is telling anyone about it.

Microsoft....really?

"Once in a while, rather frequently actually, the host OS will require an update, meaning the physical machine is going to get rebooted whether your code is running or not," Bruno explained. "That’s a problematic thing for a game, and oftentimes it's in the middle of a multiplayer session. We’ve worked very hard to overcome that, but that’s not to say it’s going to be a reality in every case."