Microsoft creative director on always-on console: #dealwithit

[Shawn Knight]

Update: Microsoft's Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb has issued an official statement on behalf of the company.

"We apologize for the inappropriate comments made by an employee on Twitter yesterday. This person is not a spokesperson for Microsoft, and his personal views do not reflect the customer centric approach we take to our products or how we would communicate directly with our loyal consumers.  We are very sorry if this offended anyone, however we have not made any announcements about our product roadmap, and have no further comment on this matter."

-- Original story below.

We’ve been hearing for some time now that Microsoft’s next generation game console could require an always-on Internet connection and that games must be installed to the hard drive. We’ve been skeptical of such a requirement as recent as late last month but based on a recent tweet by Microsoft Studios creative director Adam Orth, the rumors could very well be true.

Orth took to the microblogging platform to publically proclaim that he doesn’t get the drama around having an always-on console. He points out that every device now is always-on and it’s simply the world we live in. The executive wraps up the post with #dealwithit.

As you can imagine, his post stirred up quite a bit of controversy in the Twittersphere but Orth stuck to his guns. One Twitter member said he knew of five people that didn’t have Internet access. Orth’s said those people should get with the times and get the Internet because it’s awesome.

When asked if he learned anything from Diablo III and SimCity (referring to their constant connection requirements) and that the Internet goes out occasionally, Orth shot back with a couple of analogies about electricity going out and poor mobile reception as reasons not to buy a vacuum cleaner or a mobile phone, respectively.

Microsoft has yet to publically comment on the Xbox 720 which makes Orth’s tirade especially interesting. Last we heard, Redmond was preparing to unveil their next console at a special media event next month or perhaps at E3 in June.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/52157-microsoft-creative-director-on-always-on-console-dealwithit-update.html

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Oh well tough luck Xbox fans if that kind of thing riles you. As for me, I'd rather watch paint dry than concern myself with what Microsoft does with it's mess.

 

[Guest]

Been on the site for a long time and never posted before, but this is too infuriating to take standing down. Had an xbox, currently own a 360, but if this is true; there is absolutely no way on god's green Earth I would ever buy a 720.
Goodbye Microsoft you have lost one of your most loyal customers.

 

[bounca99]

Never been a fan of PS3 but looks like I will be getting one. This will suck as I have encouraged all my friends to get an Xbox. This guy needs to learn a thing or two about customer service. They should be introducing more services to attract more customers and reward existing customers.

One thing they need to get rid of is the Xbox Live subscription.....thats the **** I dont like

 

[lawfer]

I saw most of the conversation he was having on Twitter. Dude is a douchebag. When Manveer Heir asked him what about people who lived in not-so connected places such as Janesville, WI or Backsburg, VA (as opposed to Seattle, LA and other cities he's lived), this guy had the balls to say:

"Why on Earth would I live there?"

If this guy had said that in front of me I would have ***** slap him. He wouldn't deserve a punch.

Now they're saying he was just trolling Manveer directly. I call BS. This guy was also responding to other people with the same demeanor.

 

[cmbjive]

I'm still going to buy the console but his tweets all but confirm that the next Xbox will be always online. I just hope the danged thing has a sleep function.

 

[lawfer]

I'm still going to buy the console but his tweets all but confirm that the next Xbox will be always online. I just hope the danged thing has a sleep function.

Why on earth would you buy a console that requires always-on connection? It's not even about the internet requirement. It's also the fact you won't be able to play used games.

 

[wiyosaya]

M$ seems to be an expert at doing things their customers vastly dislike these days.

 

[Jos]

This guy clearly messed up with his series of, let's say unfortunate, comments on Twitter. But this isn't official confirmation from Microsoft so it's probably best to wait until we hear more before making final judgement on this -- an Xbox event is rumored for April 26.

I'm still skeptical about the always on requirement in order to play games but we'll see.

 

[Ranger12]

Poor 720 sales, you get fired.
#dealwithit.

 

[m4a4]

Heh, he says "always on", not "always online" (the 360 and ps3 are already "always on". Plugged a USB into my "off" 360, and it lit up for a few seconds). So I'll bet that he is just a douche that is trolling people.
Wouldn't be surprised if we saw an article about how this guy got fired and how he has to #dealwithit

 

[Guest]

This is to easy for Sony, Sony deserves a really good fight on this generation, and Microsoft again its getting lazy with the console, the Xbox360 had luck with sony bullshito and some things good from their system (kinect, online service) but not all their stuff and specially not with the games and studios....This cannot be happening.

 

[Ranger1st]

Regardless of how official it is, this person is in a management position to control and direct what goes on, This along with the win 8 management attitudes pretty much exposes M$ arrogance and the lack of any form of consumer empathy. Pretty happy to have gotten my kids 360 for free and games for it off kijiji. Won't be buying a thing the M$ makes.. ever.

 

[Guest]

I was excited about the new xbox console but this whole DRM thing is putting me in wait and see mode, not cool

 

[misor]

So adam orth by analogy is promoting google chromebook's "always on scheme" ?

I don't mind having my licensed copy of a game/program checked online for license abuse once in a while.

if this indifference to consumers continue, there will come a time when we have to get online to play our tv/recorded shows/music.

 

[amstech]

I think its a probe to get feedback.

Personally, I will be waiting a long time before I replace my $400 360S : Reach Limited Edition with a new xbox. Looking at the specs/features of the 720 the 360 will do just about anything the 720 can do. They say "twice the performance of the 360" which fools all the kiddies but thats really not that impressive when your talking about a 256MB GPU and aged triple core.
Maybe I am being too harsh?
Either way I am glad I still got my custom rig to make them both look silly. I love the newer game review video's across various sites where its frequently mentioned throught the review how superior the game plays and feels and what your missing on a console compared to a nice rig.

 

[howzz1854]

Except people don't go screaming and yelling when their vacum cleaner don't work.

Deal with it?

this tells me that they have no respect for what customer wants, and if that's their attitude, I'd say you can deal with piracy as well.

 

[Tekkaraiden]

Sound like a bit of a PR stunt to me.

 

[cmbjive]

Why on earth would you buy a console that requires always-on connection? It's not even about the internet requirement. It's also the fact you won't be able to play used games.

Not being able to play used games don't bother me. I don't think I've bought a used game for either the 360 or PS3 and if there is a game I want to play I usually wait until it hits a bargain price. I already leave my PS3 and Xbox 360 running for days on end so having an always on internet connection doesn't bother me.

Chances are Microsoft will ship with the next Xbox with an always on requirement. That being said, if sales numbers are very low because of this requirement Microsoft will probably eliminate it with a massive update and a removal from future next Xboxes.

Or, as someone pointed out, this could be a feeler and based on negative feedback they won't do anything like this at all. We'll see.

 

[Passnot]

I agree to the statements this guy says to a point, but I also don't agree with how he directs his 'way-of-the-world' attitude. If you want people to buy your product that has a feature that is pretty controversial for the moment, I would not be so insensitive with hash tags #dealwithit. Microsoft should definitely discipline, if not force him to apologize via tweet to everyone he offended. There are better ways to convey something without making your CUSTOMERS angry.

Now to play devil's advocate. I agree that MOST people nowadays should have internet access who want to have a $400+ system(peripherals+games). I am sure that Microsoft has all the stats on their xbox live members and they can see who is "always online" at any given point. And if you take that into consideration and calculate the percentage of who they think will migrate to next gen, I believe they have solid numbers for a successful always online console. It's like if smart phones were sold without data plans, cell phone companies could look into the stats of who bought smart phones and a data plan anyways, and if those numbers are high enough to justify having a data plan requirement for every cell phone, then it would make business sense to have it a requirement. It would alienate some, but honestly people forget how calculating most companies are. If the numbers add up and the alienated are the minority, they will go forward with it.

Now if Microsoft was smart(which they haven't been since Win8/Surface release/pricing), they would come out with two SKUs. One SKU should be include a bluray drive with Xgb hdd and offline feature at say $400. Then have the other SKU with no bluray drive and Xgb hdd with pricing at $300 and "always online". I will bet you anything if you're a gamer like me, you're gonna pick up the blurayless SKU for cheaper cause you actually don't care about "always online", but like most gamers, you love savings. Along with the success of steam, xbox live arcade/on demand, psn games and mmos people should not be so shock to news when it comes to just downloading games instead of having hard copies. Why are we still grasping onto hard copies in 2013? Why SHOULDN'T games go the way of the CD and DVD? At least if Microsoft gave two SKUs to slowly migrate people and give them a benefit to do so, not to mention learn from ea/activision day 1 server deficiencies, it shouldn't be a problem.

Sorry for longa$$ post. Wanted to defend concept, but also disagree with how it was conveyed.

 

[TheBigFatClown]

Hey Orhty, I got something for you to deal with you cockroach. I will recommend to anyone I know to buy a PS4 versus a 720 because of this F*** Y** attitude coming from everybody at Microsoft. It's the same attitude they had when they released Windows 8. I didn't buy your ****** Windows 8 operating system and I will recommend to everyone and everybody I come in contact with on planet Earth not to buy a 720 when they are released. You're not untouchable you ******* cockroach.

 

[Tygerstrike]

Ok I will #dealwithit. I just wont buy the 720. Hows that asshat!! Can he #dealwithit that he is activly pissing off MS customers? Can he #dealwithit if the 720 flops because of features that are not wanted. Or better yet, can he #dealwithit when he gets fired and no one will hire him and his wife leaves him? Im thinking that this idjit is going to have a lot more #dealwithit issues before a week is even out. I wouldnt be surprised if MS cans him simply for the trolling. It makes MS look bad, and MS cant afford bad press.

 

[TheBigFatClown]

Where do these little ******* cockroaches at Microsoft get off by saying stuff like this to their customers??? By having this kind of attitude with their customers? I thought they encouraged customer feedback?? So for much me ever wanting to provide feedback again. Millions of Windows 7 users have been screaming from the rooftops that Windows 8 is a piece of **** and we want it fixed??? What is Microsoft saying back? **** YOU. Deal with it!
That's could be Microsoft's new customer service slogan.
**** YOU . DEAL WITH IT!!! *****

Kinda catchy.

 

[Sniped_Ash]

The Giant Bomb guys have been getting the impression that developers aren't particularly pleased with Microsoft with regards to the next XBOX and that MS' attitude might be similar to Sony's after the success of the PS2. This #dealwithit statement certainly fits that attitude.

E3 is going to be *awesome* this year.

 

[Jad Chaar]

This may be a good selling point for the PS4. Why would you even need it to be always on? Why cant it just fetch updates when it turns on.

 

[cliffordcooley]

It doesn't matter if everyone is always on-line, requiring an on-line connection to use the console is just wrong. My PC doesn't require an on-line connection to function, but yet it is always on-line. Purchasing a console and then some games are not enough, now the idea of requiring an Internet connection. Why don't you pay the bill for an Internet connection, if you are going to require one.