Microsoft has just confirmed what we told you three weeks ago: the Xbox One will indeed need to be connected to the Internet once every 24 hours to play games.
If you don’t connect once every 24 hours, you will not be able to play games offline.
From Microsoft:
With Xbox One you can game offline for up to 24 hours on your primary console, or one hour if you are logged on to a separate console accessing your library. Offline gaming is not possible after these prescribed times until you re-establish a connection, but you can still watch live TV and enjoy Blu-ray and DVD movies.
Comments
69 responses to “Xbox One Needs To Connect To The Internet Every 24 Hours”
All these new articles are based on the same freakin’ source. Why is it bring dragged out by kotaku into a billion stories? Ad impressions? Glad I’m on mobile then I guess…
Ironically the only advert I get is for Telstra broadband
Its a massively long document, and each issue warrants its own discussion. Of course, the (extra?) ad revenue wouldn’t hurt.
Actually the Telstra ad that is displayed today isn’t based on impressions. So no.
Considering how much the comments sections explode over these articles, one for each topic is a good idea.
Russian roulette with a fully loaded gun, nice.
You can’t play the games that are right there on the disk you own. But you can watch TV!
Thanks Microsoft!
What a depressing turn of events. This honestly puts me off buying the XBox One. Internet isn’t always guaranteed for everyone in Australia. I’ve had multiple issues getting internet at a few of the units I’ve lived in.
If I wasn’t absolutely sure I’d have the internet EVERY DAY, then I wouldn’t buy this product.
Ummm….and what if I don’t have an internet connection in my lounge room? Or is the XBone wireless?
Nevermind the fact that if my ISP goes down, or I churn, I’ll be unable to play the games I have purchased (a licence for)…
I am now convinced that the Microsoft brains-trust are trying to kill the company.
I am reminded of a joke told by a stand-up comedian in the 90’s. He was talking about being the proud owner of a Betamax VCR….and one day waking up with the epiphany that he had paid hundreds of dollars for A CLOCK!
Looks like XBone owners are going to have the same experience…they’ll have paid big bucks for a fancy Blu-ray/remote control.
This isn’t too bad for me. Only time I see this being a problem is when I take a console with me on holidays, it’s difficult to connect to Wifi at a hotel with a console usually. As long as I can connect it to my phone to connect to the internet or something like that I’m fine with it.
with all the xbone news coming out today, i can just picture Kaz and a small group of executives crowded around a computer pointing and laughing as they read through the list of restrictions.
i just hope they’re laughing with us, not at us.
Bad luck for anyone who wants something to do during those arduous ‘moving-house’ times where you can be without internet for weeks in some cases..
And let’s not forget people who don’t have active phone lines in their house and rather just use wireless dongles to connect their laptops to the internet.
Honestly, some people may say that this feature isn’t a big deal, but for many Australians (and even more internationally, depending on location) this renders the system utterly useless.
The worst thing is that even if it DOES say this on the box, it would be in INCREDIBLY small print somewhere – so i feel even worse for the uninformed general public.
Yeah that’s gonna suck during house moving. I moved last year and I played without a connection by making my iPhone a wireless hotspot. Not everyone will have this option but its a bit of a solution to a pretty crappy problem. Also it makes you wonder about military bases, considering Microsoft included a soldier on base during their reveal.
It is a possibility – but you’re still thinking in spans of what YOU are capable of doing. I’m talking more generally. I know there will be a lot of people who can get around it – but just think of how many more wouldn’t have the slightest clue on how to do things like that, or even know if it’s actually possible.
And yeah, as you mentioned – the military base one is quite an issue.
I specifically said that not everyone will have this option. Which is pretty shitty to be honest. It can take a few weeks to get Internet on in Australia after a move
Sorry, my bad. I don’t know how the hell i missed that. Selective reading? 😛
Also lets not forget the technical barrier. A lot of average users probably have no idea that feature of iPhones exist.
I’m not sure how well this will go down in the States either. Their broadband penetration is pretty mediocre compared to many countries. I’m not convinced they are ready for always on either.
But you don’t need broadband and it isn’t always on. You only need to connect long enuf to verify the games and then you are good for 24hrs.
We’re effectively quibbling about the rate at which it actually phones home without locking you out, but I would describe that as always on. It certainly needs stable internet access.
More on the moving house thing – moving house is bloody stressful and a lot of work. For a month (or more) you don’t even have internet to relax with. For me, sitting down with a game helps me get my head together, thank God for steam offline mode.
I know no one will see it this way, but man this is ALMOST a non-issue.
I know people who don’t have internet but still have a smart phone. If this 24 hour thing is simply a check in, then tether your phone to start the damn thing up and then un tether again.
Nearly every game is going to require internet in some way anyway, so you’re buggered regardless of whether you own a One or PS4.
Pretty much this…
But what happens when MS servers go down? Ever heard of a DDOS attack?… Happens to many popular online services, and it brings them down for days… How are you going to feel when a fuck up at Microsoft’s end means you can’t use the product?
Mark my words, 4chan will DDOS the live servers at launch just to prove that point.
All 300,000?!
That number was BS. The general belief was 300,000 virtual servers.
300,000 virtual servers could easily be running in a couple of datacentres… You don’t knock out each server, you knock out the connections in and out of the datacentre.
Yeah – exactly.
They mentioned they would be spread out across datacentres around the world though right?
And I will love to sit back and watch the fallout. 🙂
I know, there would be outright war. And war… war never changes…
Because the servers are distributed all over the world with high levels of redunadancy, security and load balancing built in. Microsoft have been extremely good at security their networks including Xbox Live. No 250 million node Windows XP Nigerian botnet will bring that thing down.
And what point would 4chan prove? That they want to make it even worse for people who wanted to play a game?
Best to just leave it to the people to decide whether they want to buy the machine or not. Let the negative impact on sales be the lesson. If MS want to reach their target of 400 million XB1 consoles sold in it’s lifetime, they’ll change their policies if need be.
This is a good point I guess. I mean, even regardless of DDOS, the servers could go down too.
My concern with that is long term. As a collector, it would be nice to know whether they plan to address the fact that the console will be a doorstop if they ever shut down Live like they did for the OG Xbox.
@jamiept Microsoft wasn’t aiming for 400 million consoles sold. They were referring to the industry as a whole. XBOne, PS4, WiiU combined dude.
Look I agree in my current circumstance the longest the net has been out has been 5 hours so it wouldn’t be an issue, but see Chuloopa’s comment above when I last moved house it took almost 4 weeks to get the net but hey it’s cool you can’t play games (even ones already registered to the console) because you know if your console is away from the net for a day it must be off getting modded and chipped! Doesn’t matter though you have an overpriced Blu-Ray/Brick for under your TV.
How does a game like Journey, Tomb Raider, Bioshock Infinite, etc (last 3 games I played) require internet?? Before you say ‘derp patch/DLC’ there is no need for a required 24-hour check-in for those things, there never has been before, let people download things when they want.
It is hardly an almost non-issue. In the US (where this is clearly aimed at due to all the TV stuff only available there atm) something like 40% of people don’t even have access to the internet – let alone broadband.
On top of that there are the numerous issues of dealing with Xbox live servers. I rarely connect my 360 to the net and I’ve still seen ‘Cannot connect to Xbox Live at this time, try again later’ or ‘Xbox Live is currently unavailable’ soooooo many times it’s insane. There will be many many times when it crashes and anyone who tries to check-in will just have to wait with their big black TV box.
Then after afew years Xbox 4(or whatever) will be out, Xbox One servers will be shut down and you will never be able to play Halo 5, etc again. You could still play your Wii U or PS4 games though, along with every other console from the past 30-ish years.
Because the games are installed and play without disc its to stop people installing a whole bunch of games and then never going back online so they don’t deactivate after they sell/trade them. This problem wouldn’t exist except there are people who trade and sell and that means we cant just have once off install codes like PC and be done with it.
That’s very backwards logic. The reason it’s designed to work like that (install to HDD then run without discs) is so microsoft can use their online DRM not the other way around. They will use the excuse that running games from HDD is faster then from BD/DVD but that’s pointless.
A long time ago PC’s used to install games completely to HDD and use CD/DVD’s solely as a check (make sure you had the disc). A system like this would work but obviously Microsoft aren’t going to do it because they want to inforce their DRM and control used/pirated games (screwing over half their old customers along the way).
as long as your happy with the compainies having controll over everything and your games because disposable servcies..fine then
I have ok internet but I would get this on principle
Ha. Good luck to ’em.
I have moved house/flat about 5 times while I owned the 360 and every time I had to wait between 1-4 weeks(avg. of 3) for an internet line/service to be established.
I hope they at least make it wireless pre-paid dongle compatable.
“but you can still watch live TV and enjoy Blu-ray and DVD movies. ”
I am sorry, but that is not good enough, I would not buy the Xbox One to watch live TV or BR / DVD movies, I have a TV, I have a home made ES (Better then you can buy any where) that does all this already.. I only want the Xbox for games not the other crap they are shoving into it..
As mentioned before if you move you wont have internet for awhile (Iv been without net for 2 months while they connected me up) or if there is an outage in your area.. Come on M$ get your fingers out of where the sun don’t shine and undo this crap.. there is no reason for putting this in at all.
Deal breaker for me. I’m sure everyone will still buy one tho. Lets face it, even if it was always online it would sell like hot cakes.
I may buy one just to hack it and play offline, once they are in teh bargain bin that is.
Fuck this.
The last big storm we had here, i had no internet or mobile phone service for 12 days, so fuck you M$
Exactly, between floods and storms, there have been quite a few instances the past few years where I have gone days without power, and I’m in the metropolitan area. People have had it much worse than I in the outer suburbs.
Microsoft’s E3 conference is going to be interesting
I’m so friggen disappointed -__- I’ve gotten both Xboxes at launch day, but I won’t be able to even play the Xbone cause of my USB dongle internet. I was really optimistic that all this backlash would make MS change their minds.
I would probably have to get a PS4 anyway for Persona 5 >__
I agree that does completely suck for a minority of people and situations, but it wont effect the vast majority realistically.
My internet is greate 98% of the year. I’m still not gonna buy this console due this reason as well as many others. Its a console. Man makes me want to get a snes or a Sega mega drive. Are people forgetting what consoles are?
whatever, your loss. i’ll get both most prob. not getting a console because of a reason that most probably wont effect you is bloody ridiculous.
It’s not. It’s like saying we should buy blood diamonds because we’ll never meet the slaves who die for them.
Don’t be an idiot, get an education.
Do you honestly think that you’ll be without internet for 24 hours, both your internet AND your phone’s reception are completely out for more than 24 hours. the likelihood of that is very small.
dont get me wrong, the 24 hour check isnt a “good” feature in any way, its just not really that much of an issue for most
For me it’s more the principle. They’re putting this stuff in there which places additional restrictions/limitations on it without providing any benefit whatsoever in return to me, the consumer.
If they turn around and say “yeah, we’re doing this but the trade off is that games are now going to be half the price they were before” then my opinion will change drastically, simply because I’ll be seeing some benefit to balance out the restrictions. But based on the information we’ve got now, this is being done purely for the benefit of large corporations at the expense of consumers.
There’s a hell of a lot riding on Sony’s conference now. If they turn around and basically do the same thing that MS are doing, then that may well kill off any chance of me getting any next gen console.
I agree whole heartedly…people say its because internet isnt always reliable (which is a vaild point) but to look at the bigger picture its rather concerning
Yeah, I think that’s the really big question here that’s not getting answered because the answer is, “No. There is no benefit to the consumer.”
They might try to spin the bullshit that, “Actually, the benefit to the consumer is that the publisher will see more money, meaning that the industry will be healthier and that you’ll get better games more often.” Which is to laugh derisively. Really? They won’t continue to cut corners where possible, focus shipping dates on two major holiday periods, work towards the ultimate DRM ‘always online’, put ‘social’ features where they aren’t needed or wanted in order to boost retention and word-of-mouth sales, or insert microtransactions wherever they can get away with it? Really? The profits won’t go towards making investors extremely happy, and will instead be reinvested back into the industry?
So. Much. Bullshit.
Nicely put. They will definitely push with marketing and they will try to sell you rubish. Not like it hasn’t happened in the past.
Could it be that due to current use is social media and stuff like kickstarter they got some crazy idea to start something? Perhaps just the use of cloud technology. That’s gonna suck when people get pissed and attack their servers.
to all those saying “its not a big deal” please tell me how this benefits us
….I’ll wait
For me personally, discless gaming is something I’ve wanted for a long time.
I love the idea of installing my games and not needing the discs again. This is only possible with this kind of DRM. Not only that, Microsoft is allowing you to nominate “10 family members” who can play all your games.
Theoretically, you could save a LOT of money on games this way.
if diskless is such a big bonus then why can’t they make it optional? have diskless games available to buy digitally and hard copies work as hard copies
and even then theres no justification for connecting every 24 hours
So basically I don’t want to get a xbone untill MS fix it, or some cunning third party fixes it for them (in which case, MS will try to brick the hardware running CFW to get around their stupidity of stopping games running on their GAMES CONSOLE).
I’m with hydroleks, I wish I still had my Megadrive and games… bring on some mutant legue football
New… powerful… hooked into everything, trusted to run it all. They say it got smart, a new order of intelligence. Then it saw all people as a threat, not just the ones on the other side. Decided our fate in a microsecond: extermination.
Hehe good one.
It can’t be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead.
Not everyone in Australia have Internet access. What happens if my nephew buys a XBone but in their household they don’t have Internet access (except 3G from their iPad) so they have call a ISP and install internet access just to play XBone.
He currently has a XB360 but he never connects it online.
Having spent a week at a friends new house with my 360 and no internet, I can safely say that connecting to the internet every 24 hours is enough of an issue that I’m not buying one. Adding to that, the way I have to connect to the internet in the dorms I’m living in (via browser), means that it’s probably not even going to work on the console.
i had my 360 with me this week to pass the time because there was no internet, so the Xbox one would’ve become pretty useless pretty quickly.
So don’t buy one.
I don’t get why so many people are raging. If all this stuff bothers you guys sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much, then don’t buy. Microsoft doesn’t have a gun to your head. You have other options:
– PS4
– WiiU
– PC
– 3DS
– Vita
– OUYA
Plenty of gaming options.
…And that’s precisely what I’ll do. I’m just saying why it’s an issue for me. I’m hardly raging over it.
@benj Not saying you personally are raging. Just many in general are.
I can’t for the life of me get why. If they don’t want what the Xbox offers, then don’t buy it. Pretty damn cheap and easy solution to what appears to be an apparently life altering problem.