Next Xbox Will Almost Certainly be Always-On

After months of rumours about the next-gen Xbox needing an always-on connection, the speculations came to a crescendo last night as the Microsoft Studios creative director, Adam Orth, took to Twitter defending an always-on console. It might just be a hypothetical thing, of course, but for all intents and purposes, he’s just confirmed always-on in the minds of millions of people. Orth’s Twitter account is now, understandably, set to private.

This follows an article published by Kotaku yesterday in which a source told them players would only be allowed to play a game for three minutes without a connection before that game kicked them out. After “Orthy” posted his rant, another developer braved coming out of the woodwork. ‘Nik’ Mohilchock posted to Evil Avatar: “Given that legally I cannot confirm or deny if this information is true, nor can I comment on rumor or speculation, all I can say is be sure to pay your ISP bills.”

It’ll be interesting to see if, over the next few days, more developers speak up about always-on, or if Microsoft locks down this problem as soon as possible. Either way, if staying as quiet as they are on their next-gen console was hurting them before, it may just be the final nail in the coffin now.