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A Twitter outburst by Microsoft Studios creative director Adam Orth has raised further concern amongst the video game community that the next Xbox will be an always-online device.
“Sorry, I don’t get the drama around having an ‘always on’ console,” Orth Tweeted. “Every device now is ‘always on’. That’s the world we live in. #dealwithit.”
This comment riled BioWare designer Manveer Heir, who responded: “Did you learn nothing from Diablo III or SimCity? You know some people’s internet goes out right? Deal with it is a s***ty reason.”
To this Orth replied: “Electricity goes out, too.”
Heir added that whilst LA, San Francisco and Seattle are “very connected places” places likes Janesville, WI or Blacksburg, VA don’t offer the same connected infrastructure. “Gamers live in non urban areas too,” he wrote.
Orth later reeled off a number of Tweets arguing his point.
“Sometimes the electricity goes out,” Orth said. “I will not purchase a vacuum cleaner.”
“The mobile reception in the area I live in is spotty and unreliable. I will not buy a mobile phone.”
Orth later attempted to calm the storm, claiming his Twitter debate was “just the normal daily back and forth” with Heir.
“Apologies for offending non-cities,” he said. “I was trolling him personally.”
Heir also defended his friend: “You should know we [Heir and Orth] are good friends who joke around with one another. Don’t read too much into our back & forth… All those tweets you are seeing about the city being superior. That’s him just trolling me. And I fell for it. Don’t bust his balls on that.”
Orth has now protected his Twitter account meaning only confirmed followers can see what he writes.
All this has, however, led many to believe that Microsoft’s next generation Xbox will be an always connected device. According to LinkedIn, Orth has been working on a secret project at Microsoft Game Studios since February 2012.
Source: @adam_orth via NeoGAF
