Of all the people who would defend the rumoured always-online requirement of the upcoming Xbox 720, you probably wouldn’t expect former Epic Games stalwart Cliff Bleszinksi. However, in a new blog post, he states that early adopters will belong to a generation of always-online individuals and scenarios of little to not net access are quickly becoming obsolete.
“My gut is telling me that an always online future is probably coming. It’s coming fast, and possibly to the majority of the devices you enjoy. SimCity, with all of its troubles on launch, seems to be selling briskly.
“Diablo 3, the poster child of a messy launch, is estimated to be at 12 million units. I would bet money that without the always online elements of Diablo 3 that it would have sold half of that.”
“Sooner or later our government, or Google, or any number of providers are going to get their shit together and we’ll have universally fast internet for the majority of the first world. I’d be willing to say that any early adopter for any new piece of technology is probably going to have some sort of solid internet connection.
If you’re on a forum raging about Adam’s comments there’s a whole new generation of kids who are growing up always online who won’t really give a shit.”
“My wife and I were discussing these issues this afternoon and she mentioned the example of ‘Hey what if I’m a gamer who wants to go to a cabin in the woods for a week and I don’t have online access there?’
“That’s the edge case…the week-long vacation to the cabin is only 30 hours of not playing a game or a device that’s built for much more. Technology doesn’t advance by worrying about the edge case.”
Do you agree with Cliffy B on this particular argument or not? Let us know in the comments.
