I own all of my NES, SNES, Genesis, N64, PS1, PS2 games, and it matters to me quite a bit. What you are okay with essentially kills collecting on every level, makes it impossible to loan games between friends, makes it impossible to resell your game, etc.
I don't see how anybody can be for this.
That's a fair point. I'm not a collector, I just give my old stuff that is not in use away, or sell it. I see your point though.
Because there's nothing you can accomplish when online is required that you can't also accomplish when it's simply optional. There's no reason to take away a perfectly functional state of a class of devices that's been a baseline of that product class for decades for the sake of online. This isn't about being angry at changes in the status quo simply because they're changes. This is anger over the removal of the status quo when that and the progress in question can both coexist quite well together. If the merit of online services are there, people will naturally gravitate towards them without being forced.
Well, that's from your perspective. I imagine a publisher going to a torrent site and seeing the xbox 360 torrents might go "hmmm". I have no idea how many people mod their Xbox or how much is lost over presale, but Imagine that like with many PC games removal of LAN options in favor of online only, it goes for control and maximizing profits they make more money!
You start out talking about always online, and then start defending digital distribution instead.
What does digital distribution have to do with an online requirement?
I was trying to illustrate doing everything online seems to be the norm. Not just purchasing, but also clearing for anti-piracy, and controlling people from paying the most possible.
I live in Australia, 2 hours out of a major metropolitan region. I pay $100 a month for a shitty 1mb Internet connection that drops out every 15 minutes.
Needing to be connected to play games at all is not something I would embrace.
That sucks really bad, and Aussies are angry in almost any online-game debate I've seen (particularly when they don't get their own servers). I don't know what the solution is for that, but I guess Australia, then might be a lost market for Microsoft. That's Sony's gain then.
Ultimately profit is made on games and DLC. I think they will do anything to get the most out of this.