Microsoft's efforts to calm the Internet fury over the Xbox One's game licensing scheme and required online connection continued apace recently with some rather impolitic statements toward offline gamers from Microsoft Xbox chief Don Mattrick.
Speaking to GT TV's Geoff Keighley Tuesday, Mattrick called the decision to require a regular Internet connection for the Xbox One "a future-proof choice." And for the present, in which nearly three in ten American households still don't have a broadband subscription and some don't even have it as an option? "Fortunately we have a product for people who aren't able to get some form of connectivity," Mattrick said. "It's called Xbox 360."
Encouraging some users to stick with your current, soon-to-be-outdated system is not exactly the best messaging when you're trying to launch a brand new console. But Mattrick stuck with it upon a gentle follow-up from Keighley. "Well, if you have zero access to the Internet, the Xbox 360 is an offline device."
He went on to specifically mention the extreme offline gaming use case of playing on a nuclear submarine. "I don't even know what it means to be on a nuclear sub but I've gotta imagine it's not easy to get an Internet connection… Hey, I can empathize. If I was on a nuclear sub, I'd be disappointed."
Personally, if I were on a nuclear sub (or another part of the world without access to broadband) I'd be looking a lot harder at the PlayStation 4 and Wii U right about now.
