Are consoles too heavily reliant on always online connections now?

[concretesnail]

i agree that is frustrating, but the machinnes are attempting to do so much that there are bound to be issues. Clearl the mnore complex a system becomes the more holes there will be for people to try to break the system. I know that the majority of my use of xbox one is online play, with bf4. and other multiplayer games with frineds. I also know that the majority of it use is the otherhalf using it to meter out tv time while matching the selection of progammes for the kids. so basicy 90per cont of the machines use is online. however despite this i do believe that people shouldnt be punished for not having a connection to the net. single player games should be availible at all times, regardless of connection status.
I recently started playing farcry4 and i havent played it online at all, i have only played the campaign in off line mode but i have noticed that it logs my live account in first rather than give me the option. i havent had a chce to play much over hte christmas period, due to family commitments, so havent had first hand experience of single player games being unavailible due to the lack of a net connection but I fully understand the frustration and disapointment of not being able to fully use somethings but to be block from all content due to connection issues is extremely poor service and product production.

[eastyy]

Think it really depends on the circumstances for each person. If you live with superfast reliable broadband connection it should not really be a much of a issue but if you have a data cap or it is bad i can imagine it will cause problems.

My issue could potentially be in many years time will copy and paste from my blog

Past few years i have seen games being removed from digital distribution for example outrun/marvel vs capcom 2 usually due to licensing. But i do wonder will servers still be around in 20 years so i can download games for the xbox 360?.

Its not just the downloadable titles i worry about major games like skyrim and fallout 3 in there unpatched no dlc state they have a lot of issues while in 20 years i may still be able to play them can i still get the patches and dlc if there is not a game of the year on disc version.

[Dogg Thang]

Unfortunately having a super fast reliable broadband connection doesn't prevent attacks and hacks on the parent systems. The problems here come in many forms.

[teddymeow]

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

Stunning!!

[Brad]

What eastyy said. For me, it doesn't have to be an issue. Steam is now so rock solid that it doesn't matter. The real issue for me is unreliability of psn. Can't comment on other networks. If my actual internet goes down and.I simply HAVE to game then I just hook up the cube or PlayStation x

[speedlolita]

While PSN is down, I'm glad to see that game updates work just fine. Will be updating and playing my latest purchase without issue soon.

[fishbowlhead]

Think it really depends on the circumstances for each person. If you live with superfast reliable broadband connection it should not really be a much of a issue but if you have a data cap or it is bad i can imagine it will cause problems.

My issue could potentially be in many years time will copy and paste from my blog

Past few years i have seen games being removed from digital distribution for example outrun/marvel vs capcom 2 usually due to licensing. But i do wonder will servers still be around in 20 years so i can download games for the xbox 360?.

Its not just the downloadable titles i worry about major games like skyrim and fallout 3 in there unpatched no dlc state they have a lot of issues while in 20 years i may still be able to play them can i still get the patches and dlc if there is not a game of the year on disc version.

My pal only buys physical for his collection for this very reason, what if it's removed, a valid point for collectors of course.

[jim g]

I'm tired of the the online abuse. Yes the hackers are a major pain, but too many games now have huge downloads on day of release and then constant patches. If the internet wasn't there the games would be coming much later, but at least they would be ready! PS1, Dreamcast, Gamecube and PS2 for example never had the problems we have now. Games had to be ready to go.

[egparadigm]

I'm still a single player-only gamer on last gen consoles, thank goodness. My only comparable experience is TV. Having a youview box and working aerial is so, so much better than using iplayer. Even with fibre optic bb, service is occasionally interrupted by the dreaded beach ball of death/loading stream/no connection.

I was overjoyed when I got my TV aerial working after moving house. The first week was spent using iplayer, and my landlady worries about wifi radiation... Since then I've had stress-free TV.

[Shozuki]

Previous posts have summed it up perfectly. Day 1 patches are a real issue, if the servers go down and your hard drive dies, you'll have a ton of coasters.

Even worse is stuff like PSN, which is now a paid for service, easily brought offline and over 48 hours later it's still down. That is completely unacceptable...

[Garny]

Really had enough of this now. Get home from work, and PSN is down again! so yes, lets go back to 1996

[QualityChimp]

This attitude of "It's okay if the game doesn't work out of the box, we can patch it later" is all good and well, but will the remaining three still be making consoles in a decade?

All it takes is a bad financial year, a hack of a different division by North Korea or a string of expensive hardware u-turns and they might be out the game.

Titles like Chromehounds or Phantasy Star Online may be rendered useless now the servers are turned off, but it seems like every game will be like that in a decade.

The list of defunct console manufacturers is a lot longer than current ones, but at least if you bought one of their products, you could probably still play the games.

Intellivision
ATARI
Magnavox
Fairchild
Vectrex
ColecoVision
Bandai
Nichibutsu
Epoch
Casio
Worlds of Wonder
Commodore
Amstrad
Daewoo
BBC
VTech
NEC
SNK
Philips
Memorex
Konix
Tandy
Funtech
Panasonic
Fujitsu
Capcom
Apple
VM Labs
Mattel
Playskool
Fisher-Price
Lenovo
And, of course, Sega.

That's some big names that have failed to run the race, so who knows what will happen to the last three standing?!

[speedlolita]

Meanwhile, seventeen years after launch, people are still playing Ultima Online.

But yes, it is certain that console games are doomed by the fate of the services they run on. Games that are primarily online I understand but single player titles that require an internet connection need to dead.

[Nu-Eclipse]

The list of defunct console manufacturers is a lot longer than current ones, but at least if you bought one of their products, you could probably still play the games.

Intellivision
ATARI
Magnavox
Fairchild
Vectrex
ColecoVision
Bandai
Nichibutsu
Epoch
Casio
Worlds of Wonder
Commodore
Amstrad
Daewoo
BBC
VTech
NEC
SNK
Philips
Memorex
Konix
Tandy
Funtech
Panasonic
Fujitsu
Capcom
Apple
VM Labs
Mattel
Playskool
Fisher-Price
Lenovo
And, of course, Sega.

That's some big names that have failed to run the race, so who knows what will happen to the last three standing?!

Wait, wait, wait...Fisher-Price made a games console? When?

[QualityChimp]

I Can Play Piano (2006)
I Can Play Guitar (2007)
Smart Cycle (2007)