Microsoft Officially Unveils Xbox One For Holiday 2013

[Bojay1997]

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.

Also, what pressure is Sony under from EA? EA appears to be exclusive with Microsoft this round. Quite apparently they only announced they're ditching online passes (about a week ago) because the new Microsoft system does everything online passes did, but more comprehensively (and with less cost to EA, because it'll all be on Microsoft servers now).

We do have what Sony revealed at their press event. They could have easily said, no Internet connection required and used games work the same way they do today. Given how much Internet and video game media speculation there was following the discovery of that Sony patent last year and in the weeks and months leading up to their event, they had to be aware that it was a concern. The fact that they didn't immediately storm the video game media the minute Microsoft's press event ended today trumpeting that the PS4 doesn't require an Internet connection and that used games are completely transferrable and reusable without additional fees indicates that maybe that's not the whole story. Just like rumors can sometimes have a kernel of truth inside, so too can omissions or a lack of a firm and complete statement of information from company spokespeople.

Sony needs EA and just because EA is providing Microsoft with added features doesn't mean they are going single console this time. Without Fifa and Madden, Sony would have no viable football or soccer games and would lose two of its consistently biggest selling third party games worldwide. Sony also stated at least once in the past few weeks that it will allow content providers to choose how they do content protection. You can be sure that Sony will allow EA and any other third party which so chooses to limit content to a single user or family and require Internet activation in much the same way that online passes used to work.