Respected industry veteran and Eidos life President Ian Livingstone had quite a few things to say in regards to the next-gen Xbox, as well as the PlayStation 4. In an interview with MCV India, Livingstone touched on the nature of games on the new systems, which are believed to launch by the end of the year.
Livingstone claims that the next-gen Xbox, unlike the PlayStation 4, will block used games from working on the system. "With the next Xbox, you supposedly have to have an Internet connection, and the discs are watermarked, whereby once played on one console it won't play on another."
This is interesting news, considering Sony's opposing stance on the subject. It remains to be seen how this affects gamers' excitement for the systems as we wait for more official information about both consoles.
Livingstone also mentioned the rumor that the new Xbox will require an Internet connection at all times, something others have claimed to be true as well. As both Microsoft and Sony seek to become ever more digital, Microsoft seems to be taking a much more aggressive stance in moving forward on this front.
Livingstone had this to add concerning the move to fully digital games: "The next iteration of consoles--the PS4 and the next Xbox, have got optical disc drives even though they probably don't want to have them...Broadband speed globally isn't at a level that justifies digital-only."
While Livingstone has his doubts now about a digital-only system, it is only a matter of time before technology catches up to the goals Sony and Microsoft have set out for their new consoles. After all, both companies could potentially choose to discontinue hard copies of video games in the future during the next generation's life span, or wait until the generation after. Either way, Microsoft has yet to confirm any of these details, so we have to wait until Microsoft spills the beans on the next Xbox before we can find out if Livingstone is correct or not.