Update: In reaction to a considerable public backlash, Microsoft have announced a complete reversal of their online policies for the Xbox One, and the console will no longer require an online connection. You can find all the details here.
In the run up to last night's unveiling of Microsoft's new console, the Xbox One, the internet was rampant with speculation, and most of it not in a good way. One of the most disconcerting, and persistent rumours was that the Xbox One would have to be constantly connected to the internet in order to play games, a prospect that rightfully filled many with fear after seeing how badly other games have handled similar systems. Both Diablo 3 and Sim City's launches were marred by reports of thousands of players not being able to play their newly bought games, simply because the game required a connection to the internet, and the servers were being hammered. With servers buckling under the strain of millions of people accessing them all at once, people who'd bought the games were left unable to play - at least until the servers sorted themselves out. Rumours suggested that the Xbox One could be even more draconian, potentially even going as far as to quit out of your game automatically should your internet connection drop out - so you can see why people were worried.
But while Microsoft could have taken the chance to come on stage at the presentation last night, and allay people's fears, they instead chose to simply avoid the topic in the hope it would go away. With this being such a big issue, however, in the hours after the event, the details have slowly started to come out - and it's not quite as bad as people had expected.
The Xbox One home screen, with games relegated to the third tab along.
While the Xbox One will not have to be permanently connected to the internet in order to work, the console will have to connect at least once a day. The reason for this is not yet clear, but may be related to the system's DRM features, which see each game being locked to a single console, and a single account, while each game also has to be installed in order for it to work. While the system won't require an always-on internet connection itself, the potential is there for certain games to require one in future. In an interview with Wired, Microsoft Exec Marc Whitten explained that one of the main features of the Xbox One is the ability to connect to the "cloud", and potentially offload certain processing tasks to the cloud (effectively a group of computers across the internet) rather than trying to process them on the console itself. Think of it as the difference between having a single checkout open in a supermarket, compared to having an entire row - your end product is the same, but you can get there a lot quicker with more people working on it. The catch is, if games decide to make use of the cloud's extra processing power, they'll effectively require a permanent internet connection - something Whitten says he "hopes" games will do in future.
So, while it's not as bad as it could be, the Xbox One isn't exactly shaping up to be an open, accessible system either. When you consider that at least 30% of Xbox 360s have never been connected to the internet - and Xbox Live's reliability problems are well documented amongst users - the decision to make consoles connect at least once a day could come back to bite Microsoft on the backside.
