Those are all possibilities, but they are also far-fetched. Doing communication with a central server, as the Xbox One, is going to be cheap for Microsoft (or anybody) and far less problematic than trying to administer alternate activation methods just to delay an inevitable reveal of obnoxious new limitations on software use. Sony has already financially profited from Microsoft's assertions, but such profits would quickly evaporate along with the unintentional goodwill generated by Microsoft for Sony.
In the case of the Xbox, we had plenty of "rumors" - mostly leaks, actually - which ended up being worse than what was thought. There were some technically accurate but incomplete "counter-leaks" which purported to disprove always online...which ended up just being some confirmation that no, not even Microsoft is stupid enough to sign you out of a game if you temporarily lose a connection.
On the PS4 side, we don't have any rumors to even start building a case from, just pure speculation. And, for somebody who protested the always online rumors so much, I don't see why you can justify trying to invent rumors. If it was bad to pay attention to leaked (but legitimate) information, surely it's at least as bad to just create rumors out of thin air.
EA can say whatever they want to Sony, but I think Sony now have good cause to be suspicious that they need to build in a draconian "online pass" - like system, as Microsoft has done.
Reply With Quote