A Wired interview was released whereby Phil Harrison said (after asked about whether content can be enjoyed in offline mode)

"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"

Anyone else have a problem with this. I'm actually really pissed off. I hate how so many companies are blurring the line of consumer ownership. If I buy a console, I want to know I can play single player games without the console needing to call back to the mother ship.

It's almost an intrusion on privacy. Maybe this is a strong word, but if I buy a console I want to be able to enjoy it in the privacy of my home, without the need for a connection. Clearly, games that are dominantly multiplayer can be excused from this rant, the question is where do you draw the line between a single player and multiplayer focused title?! Where does Call of Duty lie? Whilst it began as a single player focused IP, it has since evolved to a title that renowned for its multiplayer. Many consumers purchase it knowing very well that they will not even touch the single player campaign. Personally, I love single player games. I always (when I used to play COD) played the single player campaign, and rarely played multiplayer. Call this weird, and call me an individual case, but this is my major worry with the new Xbox. I will want to play single player games without even thinking about being connected.

I understand that many of you will say 'You bought it knowing this, you idiot', and your argument is valid. However, it is the fact that this exists in the first place that annoys me. I understand that the system as a whole is designed to be online, and therefore perhaps this argument is nebulous. However, if we stand back from Microsoft, not see them as the sole problem, but rather a part of a much rather move in the entertainment/tech industry.

I don't want to always be connected or rely on connectivity. Sometimes I want to do things alone.

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2013/05/phil-harrison-xbox-one/

(ps. I know this is not well written. I suffer from dyslexia, so please excuse me)

The way I read that statement is that if a publisher wants a single player game to not work in offline mode then the publisher can and it isn't really Microsoft's decision.

I think the problem is if a developer chooses to take advantage of the Azure cloud for in-game computing. How would you access this without your system being connected? Every developer will not take advantage of this feature but I hope most do because it will allow for more powerful games to be made.

I was thinking about this today, the way over the last decade or so we as a society have sort of ceded ownership back to corporations. Most of the time we are usually trading immediate gratification (watch/listen/read instantly) for the rights to do what we want with the thing we paid for. Really with most digital purchase (and you could make this argument for some physical goods) you aren't really buying anything, you are leasing or licensing it. You get to use it in a very specific way either for a predetermined amount of time or until the company providing it goes bankrupt and their servers go down. When you write it out like that it sounds like a pretty shitty arrangement (for us) but the world is moving further in that direction every day.

The big counterpoint, as you say, is that we are knowingly going along with this. Another point to consider is that we are not owed entertainment. Microsoft (or anybody else) doesn't have to make another Xbox (or song/movie/book/whatever). If they do, they are investing their money in it and are going to rightfully want a return on that investment; otherwise why not just keep that money in the bank. Since they took 100% of the risk to make it, they get 100% of the say in how it works. We may not like what they decide on, but since we aren't taking the risk with them, we don't get a say in it.

You are not wrong for wanting to play games and at the same time maintain your privacy. Unfortunately it looks like the Xbox One is not going to allow you to do that. This is the part where I say "vote with your dollars!" except as we both seem to realize the larger culture is moving in the opposite direction. There will never be enough people who don't buy this console to send Microsoft a clear message. In the end you have to either accept it or look for alternatives, but it seems like the PS4 will probably have some version of this too. Even if the console manufacturers didn't want this stuff (they do) the publishers are demanding it.

One last thing: there was a ton of mixed messaging going on yesterday. Different Microsoft employees were directly contradicting each other. I would wait a few weeks/months for this stuff to be clearly laid out before getting too worried about it.

(p.s. your writing is fine. If you hadn't said you were dyslexic I wouldn't have guessed.)

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.

*ahem*

THAT'S NOT WHAT HE ASKED MOTHERFUCKER!

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.

You sure about that?

Kotaku: If I’m playing a single player game, do I have to be online at least once per hour or something like that? Or can I go weeks and weeks?

Harrison: I believe it’s 24 hours.

Kotaku: I’d have to connect online once every day.

Harrison: Correct.

I would gladly take another RROD situation over having my consumer rights violated, and being outright LIED to.

I don't think Microsoft have any idea how their new system is supposed to work.

what are certain SP games? I really do not get this at all. I even heard some cloud bullshit which will reduce bad textures or framerate problems in games? So if you are not online you will have a bad framerate and bad textures? WHAAT?

. You know how in Skyrim sometimes you can look at a specific part of a specific wall and your framerate will randomly dip down into the afterlife? That workload (which is probably a silly mistake, but still) would probably be shifted off to some Microsoft server, and never make it to your Xbox.

http://gizmodo.com/xbox-one-all-the-nerdy-details-you-dont-know-yet-509381624

Unacceptable! If any of you buy this, and it turns out that always online is a thing, you deserve a bad experience. I for one will not buy something that requires me to authenticate my game every 24 hours, and cannot be used on any other console than my own.

Well as it is right now I have a crappy connection, so this console is simply not a option for me. Hopefully PS4 don't require me to be online to play any game for the first time or any of the following times for that matter.