The next Xbox will require a constant online connection to start games, and it will stop running games or apps if that connection is interrupted for as brief as three minutes. That’s according to a Kotaku report citing two unnamed sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans for the console.
This is not the first time there have been rumors about limitations on the next Xbox, code-named Durango. Last year, word spread that Microsoft would tie software sales to each console, effectively preventing used games from running on the system. Supposedly leaked documents in December also indicated that the system would require a Kinect sensor to be connected and operating in order for games to run.
The Kotaku story also notes that every source it has talked to about the possibility of an always-online Xbox sees the idea as a potential disaster. If Microsoft needs a reminder of how such plans can backfire, it need only look at the recent launch of SimCity, Electronic Arts’ always-online city-building game, which was essentially unplayable during its launch week as EA servers proved incapable of handling the demands placed on them.
Source: Kotaku
