Are consoles too heavily reliant on always online connections now?

[eastyy]

i do wonder if there are many people who have gb allowance for broadband

[prinnysquad]

The pendulum has swung too far towards online. Ambition in the industry has outstripped the physical infrastructure. The country simply does not have the broadband capacity to ensure that people who pay the same price for a gaming product get the same quality of experience. I'm plagued with a chod connection speed due to coverage. Even when it connects, the router seems to drop a few times a day. One of the reasons I'm not getting a next gen console is the way you're forced to be online to play. I'm goosed because I can't be online all the time. It's a moronic expectation.

[QualityChimp]

Well, they lied to us, didn't they?

What's the point of Microsoft reversing the "always online" if it still doesn't work when their service isn't working?

Don Mattrick, June 2013:
"An internet connection will not be required to play offline Xbox One games*- After a one-time system set-up with a new Xbox One, you can play any disc based game without ever connecting online again.

There is no 24 hour connection requirement and you can take your Xbox One anywhere you want and play your games, just like on Xbox 360."

That doesn't sound like the experience Xbox One gamers have had this Christmas.

Broken games, day one patches, DLC for every game, remakes of games less than a year old, sparse output of new games and this whole online-only fiasco because Microsoft and Sony can't suitably protect their networks just makes me think I'm never going to "jump in", and that makes me sad.

[fishbowlhead]

There's absolutely no way you should be allowed to play Destiny offline. The only example I can think of which I can agree to that is local multiplayer with balanced gear.

Also, do you know if your user information is store locally or server side? I should imagine server side, otherwise people would have hacked the crap out of it already.

It must be server side as I loaded the game on a new PS3 the other week and my character appeared straight away after instillation and updates.

Edit. However I can't agree with any game being unplayable offline. How hard is it to store your progress on the machine then sync it online, can't be that difficult for a company with 500 employees?

Also, sounds like a lot of people who got ps4s over the holiday woke up to in operable bricks, no updates, no psn nothing. So that's awesome eh?

Not to mention that these style of attacks are only going to get worse, the less that is done to them the more groups like it will pop up and attack things like psn and xbox live.

In short, offline needs to stay as an option in games full stop. More consequences for emboldened little children's for their actions online.

[capcom_suicide]

The world is connected, all businesses are digitising their products and services. So the question is, are console network infrastructures and people home connections robust enough. The answer is no. Therefore consoles are indeed too dependant on persistent network connections, as MS and Sony do not seem to be able to deliver the availability required. The solution won't be removing online I don't think. It will be improving it and having better offline capabilities when needed.

[112]

Yeah this online connection issue really annoyed me... I was not able to use my Xbox one at all on that magical Christmas day, with the family Al ready to play some multiplayer action... Firstly I need to update the system, but I wasn't able to do that as the servers were down, as such I was not able to log into my profile without updating the system... So the machine was a waste of space.

Like others have said, revisiting older consoles proved the best solution as the game cube became the system of choice over Christmas...

As a none online gamer, I was very much annoyed that it affected me...

112 :/

[Wools]

We had this conversation back in the early 2000's when the original Xbox was released and various games like Project Gotham Racing 2 had DLC that could only be accessed online.

I think online features are brilliant and bring an otherwise lifeless single player game to life. Demons Souls is the perfect example. It was single player but had very intelligent multiplayer features integrated into the single player campaign in a seamless way. If you did not have an online connection or it was off line (Like the servers were eventually switched off) you would not know their was an online mode as the game was built to withstand both modes.

Games like The Crew or Far Cry 4 being rendered literally unplayable because the servers are switched off worries me. The games are single player but have a multiplayer component to them. Why can't the Developer or Publisher code for instances like this occurring, why the **** would I care about the servers being down in Far Cry 4 when I just want to play single player!

It does worry me that Publishers don't seem to give a **** as they are just worrying about the bottom line, about online authorisation so if / when the servers go down, it's not their problem it's the hardware supplier. As their will be a time when the service shuts down, these sprawling projects that cost upwards of ?50 million and look beautiful, will be rendered useless in only a few years. Or just a few hours!

The one cancer I want removed from this industry is the rush to market. Games should be playable on day 1 without requiring a day 1 patch or an online connection. For that alone, Nintendo deserve applause from us, the public, for building games that aren't broken on day 1.

[fishbowlhead]

Exactly. Not to mention the engineers having to go in on Christmas trying to fix it and get it all up and running. All because a group thought it was funny. It's not like we're dealing with an impressive regime making chemical weapons here, their entertainment companies.

[Panta Rhei]

Their ways of controlling all the content they sell is backfiring. Without doubt they had a vision, where everyone has to sign in on their network and abide by their rules so they can maximize profit. But crime simply moves to that direction too and you get things like this.

They need to rethink their strategy, and this goes for more than just game developers. You cannot rely on a computer for everything. It won't always work, and it will be targeted.

Digital isn't doing anyone favors. Replacing physical work with digital effectively eliminates manpower, and there is nothing wrong with actually going outside of your door for once to fill in some forms. Attacks like these aren't good, but they could eventually initiate some sort of a wake up call.

[Dogg Thang]

You guys probably remember but, at one point, there was a major computer systems attack and hardly anyone was safe and it did untold damage. The one group who came out of it unscathed did so because their leader didn't trust an always-online model. Sony and MS could learn a lot from Adama.

[QualityChimp]

is that a Battlestar Galactica reference? Ha ha ha!

[Dogg Thang]

It is indeed. I didn't see it at the time but it's clearly a cautionary metaphor for modern gaming.

[Team Andromeda]

Didn't we have a topic like this the other year , when LIVE went down . Everything these days is reliant on the internet connection and I don't see the big fuss or problem . Sure the nextworks go down now and again, but it's hardly a major issue at all and I never want to go back to the days of consoels not connected to the internet.

[Wools]

I never want to go back to the days of consoels not connected to the internet.

I do love online gaming and connectivity but Developers and Publishers use always online as a basis to lock up content, restrict access and there's no denying that they use day 1 patching as an excuse to launch the game broken on disc and then patch later.

Of course, that's not the fault of the internet, that's laid firmly at the feet of the makers themselves.

[Team Andromeda]

1 patching as an excuse to launch the game broken on disc and then patch later.

Depends on one's definition of broken , becasue most of the games that I played were more than playable (even with out a patch) Can't defend Drive Club that was taking the piss