The legendary mind behind the Fable franchise and Curiosity Cube, Peter Molyneux, has come out in defense of the Xbox One's previous policy of requiring users to connect to the internet and have always online DRM. In an interview with TechRadar, Molyneux stated that he feels as though that the vocal minority caused Microsoft to reverse their policies, and that most gamers did not have negative sentiments about the policies:
"It's quite an unfair thought that Microsoft are trying to control our gaming, they're trying to force us to be online all the time...[People] didn't really think that through."
Molyneux went on to state that he believes that always-online consoles are the future of the industry, and he used the example of smartphones as a reason that gamers have overreacted in their rage about the Xbox One always online controversy:
"Whether as consumers we like it or not, just like every form of technology interaction, there's an inevitability of online. We know that online is so much a part of our existence now that we're going to be in a world very soon where we have to be online all the time. A mobile device is more and more non functional without a connection to the internet, and why should that be any different for consoles?"
The developer then went on to say that being online is not enough for the industry, and console makers and developers need to give gamers something more to expand the experience further:
"You've got to give consumers the real benefit of why being online is a great thing for them. Why it's great for gaming, why it's great for their pockets and why it's great for the experiences they're having. If you have an online experience where millions of people interact together, something unique happens, and we don't use that enough in gaming."
The head of 22Cans studios also defended the response of Microsoft to angry gamers, saying that he believes their original ideas concerning the Xbox One will be the future of consoles, but big corporations have to really work hard to try to reverse public opinion about their practices:
"I know Microsoft, I know they were only doing things because they thought they were long-reaching and long-thinking. But the world we live in now is that we have to realize, especially if you're a big corporation, if you make one step wrong, the world will leap on you, and unfairly, very unfairly, they will judge you. Like everything else in our world, when something turns slightly bad it goes very bad and you have to make big correctional steps to get yourself back on track."
Look out for more Xbox One news, including when the console will be released.
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