Thank you. All I want from my game machine is for it to play games or do things related to games. Hell I don't even use my PS2/PS3 to watch DVD/blu-rays. Its great that they are building a device to reduce the number of boxes under your TV but it should be a game machine first and foremost. Maybe if they actually built a windows media center rather than including it as an optional download for the more expensive versions of windows it would have been successful. Also give it a cooler name like Zune.
"solution that works for everyone--retailers, publishers, and developers--may be hard to come by." what about the consumer the actuall person who ultametely pays for it.
I'm going to take an unpopular stance and say yes gamers are proably ready for always on experiences. However companies have shown time and time again that they are not ready to deliver that experience. So far no company has shown a compeling reason to always be online and no company has proven that they could in fact keep there servers ALWAYS ONLINE. In my mind this would involve a compnay keeping the servers up even through mantance.
In the united states just about everyone has the internet the quality may very but just about everyone who can afford a console has it. It shouldn't be the only way to play Incase it gose down in an area
the big deal is people don't always have the best internet. Countries like Australia and New Zeland I believe have tiered internet like mobile phones so that 2 markets lost. Some people don't have wireless or internet in the living room with there consul some people don't even like playing games online. This is just to list a few ideas...and before someone says "quit being a raging fanboy" I understand that nothing has been confirmed its just bad bissneus practice to exclude parts of your market.
if you don't want people sharing or reselling games then why make hardware at all just make everything for PC or build a streaming box. The new xbox is beginning to sound like a streaming box which makes me sad. it forces you to be at home or somewhare with an active internet connection, and you no longer own the games. if the service gose down then your shit out of luck. at lest with disk based versions of steam games you can hack the crap out of it to make it work without steam
sgthobbes' comments