Following the news yesterday that Microsoft’s next console will indeed be playable offline (countering an earlier, widely reported false rumor,) Sony president Shuuhei Yoshida reminded Game Informer that their next console will also be playable offline.
“The main reason being that many countries don’t have robust Internet connections,” Yoshida told Game Informer. “It makes sense for people to have internet connections to play online games, but for offline games there are many countries that we saw [that] do not really have robust Internet.”
This isn’t exactly news, since Sony made it clear back at their Playstation Meeting in February that the PS4 would allow users to play single-player games offline, but with all the paranoia surrounding DRM these days, I suppose Sony felt the need to remind potential PS4 customers that the PS4 doesn’t have any kind of “always on” requirements. Yoshida has also said that the PS4 will let users to play used games — something which Microsoft’s next console is rumored to not allow — though The Penny Arcade Report is reporting that the ability to play used games may still come with some caveats and restrictions.
While consoles (and all consumer devices, really) will probably be “always-on” at some point in the future, I still think it’s too early for an always-online console, given how frequent XBL and PSN outages still are, so it’s good to hear that both Microsoft and Sony have nixed the idea.
Source: Gamespot UK, via Game Informer Magazine
