Subscription-based Xbox 720 priced at $300, with $500 standard model?

Microsoft are going to fall flat on their faces I guarantee. Can't wait, I'm going back to Sony!

Just to reinforce what others said: always online is possibly the worst gaming idea of this decade. The only way it could get worse is: they still require B.S. X-Box live - or PS4 also requires paid subscription to use online. If that happens, certainly PC gaming will take off as people will opt to upgrade their PCs instead of dumping money into a console. What's going to happen to their sales? LOL. Not everybody is hooked up online. A lot of "gamers" are people who come home after a hard day's work and just want to play a game that is, oh I don't know, offline and non-competitive.

The only way paid X-box live would become a viable option in my opinion is if you paid a monthly fee to have ALL USERS ON A CONSOLE able to access X-box live (basically buy X-Box live per console, rather than per account). Also more games need to allow split-screen, online multiplayer. Believe it or not, a lot of people would like to take some friends online with them to play games. For example, me and my two brothers like to play CoD. Playing offline split screen is boring as can be, but you can only take 2 people online with you so you're stuck either way.

Perhaps I shall just turn into a PC gamer...Already have a nice rig, and $500 would give me a pretty nice GPU...hm....

http://imgur.com/Invb2Cz

I believe every single comment on this page is negative, given that I don't understand why people think this console will be successful. It's going to fail.

Who's this blogger? Is he a reliable source?

PC games looking better and better....

y the **** would they require the internet connection...do they want to alienate people?? And subscription to what?? Xbox Live??

Yeah Im just going to buy another GPU instead that way my games will look better then the 720 AND have none of this bull.

That is it. I am out on this coming generation. As a matter of fact I am out of games all together. When companies do things like these, my life is ruined. That's right I let any change in anything out in corporate land completely ruin my life and then I go to the comments section of these stories and I make the rest of the world suffer. Ever since Resident Evil 4 got a 4.5 from Kevin Van Nord at G$ my life is ruined. I almost didn't make it out of my mother's womb cause of the New Coke; I almost had to leave the country cause of Windows Vista. That's right, my self-esteem is completely external. Now if you will kindly reply and tell me to shut up cause I is dumb, then the circle of life will be complete. **** you M$, **** you!

Here is the other problem people are not really considering: Always on connection + integrated Kinect system = internet accessible view into any room with an Xbox for someone that can hack their way in.

A always online model, thats gonna suck for gamers that have bad internet connections. Also I wonder did Microsoft ever think about gamers who want to play games without always being online. Forcing gamers to have a internet connection to play games is a bad idea, hopefully this isn't true because thats gonna make alot of gamers angry. Sony is coming back with a vengeance it will be crazy to see every Xbox fan abandon their favorite platform and see Microsoft go down in history as making the greatest blunder in gaming history by forcing that always online garbage on the Xbox gaming community.

The reason why M$ has integrated this feature is because they're mostly focused on the xbox selling a alot in America and a certain part of Europe where the connection is good, but they couldn't give 2 shits for poorer countries. Another reason is probably because they want to decrease the amount of people who use a flashed/hacked xbox, but by doing this, they're only hurting the ACTUAL CUSTOMERS, while the hackers will find a way around this DRM BS and when they do, probably a lot of people are gonna get their 720 hacked, so they can play their games in privacy

I'm Sorry but Microsoft nor Sony has my Attention unless you consider attention a swift kick to the balls... These are all rumors until final specs for both are revealed these are rumors and won't comment on something that doesn't exist yet... I'm sorry I just find it hard to believe that these giant Companies would think always-on internet is even an option it's a Jedi-mind **** for me!

Congrats, Microsoft, you've successfully alienated your biggest demographic.

$300 for an 'Always On' model?

$500 for Standard Model?

Still looking forward to the unveil nonetheless

I hope this isn't signalling the start of another video game crash...

Although, judging by the directions companies like Microsoft and EA are going, maybe it'd be a good thing.

$500s, requires always on to work. This has fail written all over it.

Well I move A LOT usually twice per year and each time if im staying the place for the next six months and it usuall takes a week or two for the set up internet. So internet always on would be a definite problem so as which if Xbox doesn't show of anything absolute amazing I'll be ordering a ps4. Other than that there is a the little problem of I'm spending 500$ on a Xbox to be told if you don't have internet well you don't deserve to use this machine no matter what the reason.

I don't believe any of this to be true, I mean, just look at us, look at the comments, if MS did all of that I think they'd finally manage the impossible and make all gamers unite towards a single goal: hating their company. It sounds more like this oh-so-important-blogger Thurrott guy is running a prolonged April Fools joke which wasn't funny one week ago and is not gonna get funny through repetition. If it sadly turns out to be true, I'm turning to Sony next gen.

Good bye MS hello Sony.

To MS, IF this is all true, you have till May 21st to fix it. Otherwise I will just keep my xbox360 slim and call it a day.

TheDoomTurtle will kill us all with his sarcasm...

hotmail.com is changing to outlook.com ;)

The problem is not being able to play singleplayer games either unless you log in to their servers. And that is a big problem. If i want to buy Elder Scrolls 6 a few years down the road for $60-70, I will not be able to play it unless i'm connected to the nternet. So it's almost like saying that you're renting the game; borrowing time on their server so you can play your game.

I travel alot and take my 360 with me. i can just play the games anywhere, anytime i want without the fear of it not working just because i don't want to hook it up to the internet.

Years down the road when the '720' is at the end of its cycle and a new generation of consoles are out, the servers will be shut down for the 720 to make room the new one. By then most people have built a nice size library of games but it will be useless to them because it is no longer supported with the always online feature. Many, many people, including me, still play older games on older consoles, even to this day.

Without naming every game, I still play a number of games on PS1/2, Dreamcast, Genesis, Saturn, and Xbox. If any of those older games/consoles had an "always online" stipulation on it i wouldn't be able to play those games today. Not being able to play your games offline any time - whenever, wherever you want - is wrong.