Luckily for those that live outside the "green zone" there is an alternative, its called the Xbox 360.

Actually after thinking about this and how Windows 8 went, this is totally typical. MSDN and TechNet subscribers where giving a lot of feed back saying "These things aren't working quite right" or "This feature is confusing" or even "If this is their release candidate then this is going to be a disaster!" but Microsoft went through and release it with only minor tweaks to help files. Afterwards they were shocked by the public response matched their RC feedback.

This means that the upper levels don't care or really do believe that their ideas are "the new shiznit!" regardless of how strenuously their "friendly alies" point out the problems.

I wonder if we'll be looking back at the Xbone as the greatest blunder in gaming history?

Nah, they'll be fine. Microsoft owns half the world as it is.

Jesus, they are living in a dream world.

This is total insanity. The omission of the eastern part of Central Europe and high population countries like Turkey is especially strange. Not to speak of Asia. Well. The european front in the console wars goes to Sony. Then again it did this generation as well.

So they've completely given up on Japan?

Are they even interested in markets outside of the US? Also why do you need 1,5 mbps for a simple 'check-in'... //alu-head on: Kinect needs a good connection to send those recordings of you masturbating to the NSA.

@nictel: The 1.5mbps are need to let the cloud system work properly. They are still sending data over form your device to the servers which than send data back all the time. It is like watching some stream. You need a certain speed to maintain a flawless experience.

@bigjeffrey: That is not the point. People need to know about this.

This list seems most likely a 2013 focused release plan; to release in the most accessible countries first, then I suspect more countries will be added come 2014. It's a bit sensationalist if you ask me.

Pretty unenforceable though in practice. And almost certainly not legally enforceable in the EU. If they tried to take action against people for doing it (banning accounts or whatever), they'd get their ass handed to them if it ever went to court.

@darji said:

I know how to stop them: I'll not buy their product. As a consumer who hasn't purchased an Xbox One and an investor who hasn't invested in Microsoft, that's logically and morally as far as my control over them extends.

Apparently not. Microsoft made an easy decision easier. That's good considering their push into complicating everything they touch: Windows 8, Xbox One, second-hand market, lending games...

Bye Microsoft! Let's us both part ways amicably.

Wow this is just crazy. It seems like there just gonna focus on places where the Xbox did well and forget about all of the other places were it didn't. The problem with that is that the places that they are ignoring are emerging markets that they could see growth in were as the western markets they are focused on aren't as likely to see growth especially considering how controversial the reveal has been about the Xbox. Its like there not even trying to compete in those markets anymore and are saying "fuck it, sony you can have it" which is just crazy to me.

Even if I'm in the green zone; I still think this is really bad. I'm actually kind of shocked about it and how much of the world would be left out of not just the whole Xbox Live thing but the whole Xbox One console.

And 187 Kilobytes Per Second is a little weird. That's like half of some people's bandwidth today. What kind of data are they actually sending? That's enough for a super low-quality stream of video and audio, actually.

I'm sure they've done the math.

@darji: That link doesn't show anything new, the list is of Xbox on Xbox live supported countries, which is not the same as saying you are only allowed to use it there.

The paragraph about authorised resale/activation just means it's region locked, which we already knew.

I really wish people would stop digging around for half a reason to blow something out of proportion and mark MS as Satan. They're doing a good enough job of that themselves.

@bigjeffrey: Who fucking cares if it's copy pasted. Not everyone reads neoGAF.

Like Jeff's been saying - it's all just a math problem to them. I don't support it, but that's what it comes down to. I hope it bites them in the ass, but I hope it doesn't hurt them so badly to the point of putting them out of the console race in the future either.

Yep, can't spread the word and help explain to users why the loss of their rights and shady practices is a bad thing, that's not a logical or moral course of action. Can't asks questions about the legality of dictated terms. Speech as solely a financial ability to choose where to spend your money is a viewpoint created by people who spend a lot of their money on convincing people to do what isn't in their best interest.

Copyright is an exclusivity agreement for duplication of a work given by a government under certain restrictions. If publishers or platform holders aren't going to respect fair use or first-sale doctrine then they may not be complying with their end of copyright. There are good questions about how the restriction of primary functionality extends to the Internal Market (that free-market capitalist ideal of unimpaired movement of goods, services, and people throughout Europe and 3 non EU-states). It may be a matter for the courts, protecting the free movement of goods and services rather than something the marketplace / purchasing decisions decide.

I figured my third world country wouldn't be there... oh well, I wasn't going to buy one either way.

@darji: How do you mean? That suggest you need permanent internet connection. Which you don't, you need to check in once every 24 hours. You don't need 1,5mbps for that. Heck it doesn't even have to be that stable.

You need that connection so the whole cloud stuff can work so if a game uses cloud tech like Forza you need these 1.5 mbps. The cloud stuff does not work offline.

Wait, do they really block all IPs outside of this list? So if I buy an XONE made for the U.S. region and bring it to my country of Barbados (in the Caribbean) does that mean I cannot use it at all? 'Cus that sounds shitty as fuck!

No it is not like that. You can still play online on a 360 if you live in China with an asia account. This is a whole different level. They are straight out saying that if you not live in these countries games will not be working This is a lock based on the country you live in. If you do not live in these countries these games will not activate so you can not play them.

EDIT: Nevermind, I wont try to salvage this; it's fucking dreadful.

That is exactly what it means.

We know that the Xboxes were never popular in Asia, but Christ Microsoft, really?

There isn't a console "war" this generation. Sony is just brutalizing the Xbox, plain and simple.

@darji: I understand that :). But I just wonder, if I'm not interested in drivatar. Can I play Forza offline? Also the cloud is seriously overrated. It is actually really hard to do any meaningful realtime calculations via cloud. So is this going to be a case of sim city where they pretend the cloud is necessary?..

@darji: Dude there's still a shit ton of people that use DSL as well in the U.S. that don't have a 1.5 mbps connection. People in areas where ATT or Time Warner haven't laid down any fiber op wiring yet.

@nictel: You cannot play games unless you're connected to the internet. Don't let that once a day shit detract you from the fact that it is an always on console.

Tell that Microsoft not me.

You mean the PS4? lol

Holy shit Microsoft.

Well, there's still a way to play Witcher 3... *cough* PC. Still that's just messed up.

I want to see how this will all shake out a year or so from now so badly. I wonder if Don Mattrick's career arc is going to look something like Ken Kutaragi's.

How is it even possible to fuck up so badly?

US companies are not as "nice" as Japanese ones. In Japan they transfer you in the west they fire you.

This massive bloc, that's a mis-step, also Asia could have been cracked if they kept at it.

. Oh I didn't even think of that! That's terrible.. Wonder what they think of that, gonna tweet them about it.

Really?! Is that something your gut tells you or is that actually based on some facts?

Japan isn't buying an American video game console any time soon. I'm sure MS isn't interested in losing money there like they have for the past decade.

I'm not sure how big the video game market is in China and India, but I don't believe it's significant at all (low disposable income).

You know I wonder if this is because they really are serious about all of the cloud computing stuff.

These might be the countries with low enough ping times to MS servers to make their cloud computing plans possible. It also makes sense with their minimum bandwidth requirement.

It still think it's a little bit crazy. Just saying their may be a reason behind some of the madness.

Oooh Microsoft, when will you learn?

Yo, this shit is insane. I live in Germany, in a fairly developed region of Germany, I might add.. yet, we don´t have 1,5Mbps Internet here. Maybe in the bigger towns/cities, but it really depends on your provider (meaning: they are not at all reliable in my experience)

Well, guess I hope Halo 5 won´t be good?! Cause I sure as hell won´t be playing it.

What you really mean, is "rest of the world, when will you learn". Get with the times. Microsoft is doing a great thing here, they're going to ensure the best possible experience instead of wasting time and money trying to make it work on shitty internet connections.

There are parts of Europe that are not covered (Portugal). All of southamerica except Brazil isn't covered. And ABSOLUTELY NO Central American countries covered. Jesus Christ!!!!

@fluxwavez said:

Map of where the Xbox One will and won't work at launch:

The hits, they just keep coming.

This post again.... LOL

Give it up, bro. You're Xbox 360 blog is fucked.

You really set your self up for the hate dude

You know the world is bigger than MS, right? If MS is targeting a broad audience, they are obviously missing it somehow. Instead of forcing this kind of thing, why not ease it in?

He's a troll. Ignore him. He's got pages of posts masturbating Microsoft and saying they are right about everything.