The Microsoft spokesperson then added "Xbox Live Gold members can enjoy our interactive topping selection system, while enjoying targeted adverts.

Silver members have not been forgotten and we are proud to announce they get a solid and unbroken 10 minutes of targeted quality adverts prior to being able to order a basic tomato and processed cheese surprise and choice of diet value cola or bottle tap water beverage."

this is a tricky problem now. 3 years ago, a trade in of a used game allowed gamers to buy a new game, and sent a warning shot over the bow of game devs; make single player game 6 hours long and its going to be traded in within a week.

The trouble is, these huge game shop chains are now offering peanuts for trade ins, and coasting on the publishers advertising to sell second hand product at near to new prices.

Gamers are not getting anything out of this and neither are devs.

@Dreamcast86 well, my guess, Sony learned the hard way not to be arrogant with its customers, now it is Microsoft's turn to do the same.

If only companies could learn from * each others * mistakes, what a happy world we would live in.

Good article. To those who refuse to believe Microsoft could be this stupid, consider it's recent history with Windows 8. The entire company was on board with this, merging tablet and desktop OS to get a leap frog over Apple, who have stuck with the idea (so far) of keeping Mac OSX and iOS very much apart from each other.

When PC makers took a look at Windows 8, they flagged up a big problem, much as gamers are flagging up problems right now.

To make a hybrid PC means the PC builder has to take on all the costs of the tablet side of things, none of that cost is being picked up by Microsoft. The makers had very real concerns that the sudden increase in computer costs would not sit well with the public in a serious economic downturn.

Microsoft refused to listen, did not change course, and rolled out the fiasco known as Windows 8. The PC makers avoided making vast amounts of the hybrid computers, fearing they would take a hit if they didn't sell, and the result is there for all to see. It is without question the worst major OS roll out in Microsoft's history.

@sssephiroth for somebody calling a large proportion of the gaming community dumb, you are not exactly the sharpest tool in the box, are you. Are you seriously telling me that the game assets for a mobile game are actually worth one thousand seven hundred UK pounds? Are you that stupid? It is called a scam. No video game on earth is worth that money.

sad to say, he is right. The PS2 and the Xbox 1 had a great portfolio of A to B games. The console market now is just triple A plus DLC and season pass rip offs.

Great games like Crimson Skies and Rallisport challenge are gone forever. Racing console games now are just huge company creations or console exclusive, and treats like Crimson Skies just a memory.

@tweezzzy @TenraiSenshi interesting thought about the decline on the tech site The Register...

"But we reckon another factor could be at play: PCs just aren't getting that much better, and by PCs, we mean the chips inside them.* As Intel and AMD have sought to stick to the self-fulfilling prophecy that is Moore's Law, they've had to go to multi-core due to the huge problems of scaling single core clockspeed.

This means that a new PC doesn't really have the "wow" factor that you used to get up until about 2005 when clock speeds just kept on going up, and up, and up.

Instead you get more cores so you can run more applications more efficiently, but some of the performance increases have been blunted by a lack of applications that have been coded to really get the most of multicore systems."

microsoft are just having a year to remember, aren't they?

um there is no such thing as a new forza. It hasnt changed in a decade. Same cars, same tracks, same ignoring pleads and requests for changes, like weather, pit crews etc.

An excellent and well written article, with research to back up points made. Another point I want to add, I work in graphic design and marketing, and I can't get the concept of how the marketing for this concept would roll out in the UK. Simply put, MS are skating on very very thin ice here.

If POS ( point of sale ) marketing advertises this as the next Xbox, and does not state in a large enough font size that always online is required, people are going to be demanding refunds and my understanding of consumer trading laws says they will be entitled to them.

If you buy a console and a game and through no fault or choice of your own ( internet goes down or you dont have it) it refuses to let you play, it is not fit for purpose.We are in uncharted waters here, I know of no product released for sale that has done this before.