Some new sources have reinforced previous rumors that Microsoft’s upcoming Xbox 720 will require a constant connection to the internet in order for you to play your games. The news comes from Microsoft Blogger Paul Thurrott in a discussion with Andrew Zarian on What The Tech. His sources say that there is a note for the Xbox 720 saying, “must be internet-connected to use”.
Thurrott notes that this may not exactly be a terrible thing because he sees the Xbox 360 as an always-on device anyways. He says that most of the games he plays are multiplayer, and most of the time people use the Xbox 360 as a media player to stream movies off of services like Netflix. However, we can’t forget that a good amount of Xbox gamers have single-player games in their libraries as well, and shouldn’t be restricted from playing them if they aren’t connected to the internet.
He also says the Xbox 720, codenamed Durango, will be a pretty expensive system. It will most likely retail around $500, and that’s without the reportedly required Xbox Live subscription fee. There have been reports that if a player is disconnected from the internet for more than 3 minutes, their entire game session is terminated, and their progress (if unsaved or auto-saved) will all disappear.
There have also been suggestions that the next Xbox will not have backwards compatibility. It may also require you to install games onto your hard drive, and not allow you to play games via the optical disc. Microsoft is also reportedly planning on releasing a new version of the Xbox 360 for $99. The new Xbox 360 is codenamed “Stingray”, and Thurrott states that you can look at it as Microsoft’s solution to “Backwards compatibility”.
Things are already looking pretty bad for the Xbox 720, however, we should wait until Microsoft’s announcement for the gaming system before we make our final decisions on it. Microsoft originally planned on making the announcement on April 24th, but has pushed the date back to May 21st. You can check out Thurrott’s segment about the Xbox 720 on What The Tech here. Also be sure to check out our timeline below for more related Xbox news.
[via Forbes]
Sources reinforce rumors that Microsoft’s next Xbox requires constant internet connection is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
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