Adam "Always Online" Orth

Will Watts · Apr 11, 2013

Turns out Adam "Always Online" Orth now no longer works for Microsoft. I doubt we'll find out much more information about him now, but it's a good example of how damaging comments made on the internet can be.

Adam ?Always Online? Orth no longer employed at Microsoft | Ars Technica

With a public Twitter account comes great responsibility—a good rule of thumb is that you shouldn't tweet anything your mother or your boss would object to seeing. According to GameInformer, Microsoft Creative Director Adam Orth's tone-deaf comments regarding his inability to understand why rumors of an always-connected Xbox were causing some customers angst have led to his becoming former Microsoft Creative Director Adam Orth.

It's not known at this point whether Orth resigned from his position voluntarily or was fired (or was given the option to resign in lieu of termination), but the change appears to have occurred within the past day. GameInformer's attempts to reach Orth for comment via Microsoft's main number have been unsuccessful, lending additional credence to news of his departure.

The original comments were made about the next gen Xbox, with Orth commenting customers should #dealwithit if they didn't like the direction MS was going. Not the brightest thing to say, but he didn't deserve the personal backlash against him.

Trouble · Jun 19, 2013

In addition it looks like Microsoft has backed off most of their heavy handed Xbox One requirements not the least of which was the always on iNet Connection.
Read more here.
Looks like they may have stopped just short of shooting themselves in the foot again. And I suspect that Sony's no restrictions policies might have played a small part.
Anyhow, good news for we consumers.

cluberti · Jun 19, 2013

Well, considering it does also kill some interesting features like family sharing and potentially a few other things, I'm not sure this is a "good" outcome. I think complaining about the DRM is shortsighted, and the problem really was the messaging by Microsoft, and not the actual technology implementation. I don't think this is good news for consumers, necessarily - it's good for places that resell and rent games, but I don't think it's "good" for consumers in all ways. DRM can still be added by publishers (just like on the PS4), and this won't change that.

Will Watts · Jun 21, 2013

MS isn't forced to drop the extra features. I agree that this was mainly the fault of bad PR from Microsoft - but, having a 24 hour check in for disc based games is a legitimate concern. My problem isn't so much the fear of my internet connection going down - the UK has reasonable internet in all but the remotest places - but the fear of this being badly implemented. The Simcity launch was terrible - Sony has made numerous mistakes with the PlayStation, so it's hard to trust the implementation of companies that should know better. Launch day server issues have a long history - would all Xbox players have been able to connect on launch day?

The 24 hour check isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it doesn't seem to have been implemented in the best way. DRM also isn't bad in itself - but poor implementations have plagued standard PC gaming. If I have the disc in the drive, and I'm playing a single player game, why on earth do I need to connect to the internet? I think a better solution would have been for the game to authenticate/verify DRM by needing the player to either connect online every 24 hours, OR have the physical disc in the drive. To me, that would have been a solution to get the best of both worlds - giving users a decent choice between all digital or traditional disc gaming.

Side issue - but as far as I'm aware publishers are not able to add DRM for disc based games on the PS4.

Wrench97 · Jun 21, 2013

I think it's bad because a lot of collage dorms do not allow connections to gaming systems that leaves a good size market out or looking to subterfuge restrictions, some the networks are mac address restricted swap out laptops or PC's and you have to jump through hoops to get the IT dept to allow the new mac address in a timely manner forget about weekends at state schools.

Temmu · Aug 13, 2013

(sorry for resurrecting the dead...)

it's a bad idea because connectivity is far from universal. of course, ms and blizzard (diablo iii) et al could care less. as long as the majority (city dwellers) can be forced to connect to enforce their drm-crap then fine.
it's bad because i don't like being tracked in yet another area of my life.

as to adam, sigh. loose lips sink ships - in this case, they sunk his.

pps
5rd edit.
deleted a bunch of sh t.

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Adam "Always Online" Orth

Will Watts

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Trouble

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cluberti

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Will Watts

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Wrench97

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Temmu

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