Next Xbox won’t force users to stay online to play games

Good news for Xbox fans: Microsoft has decided to not commit commercial suicide by forcing gamers to have an Internet connection just to play games. Ars Technica has got hold of an internal Microsoft email to Xbox engineers outlining “a number of scenarios that our users expect to work without an Internet connection” and instructing the engineers to make those functions “‘just work’ regardless of their current connection status.” The email goes on to say that the new Xbox should be designed for “playing a Blu-ray disc, watching live TV, and yes playing a single player game” without an Internet connection. Rumors that Microsoft would require an online connection for single-player games gained fuel recently when former Microsoft Studios creative director Adam Orth told critics of an always-online console to “deal with it” because “every device now is ‘always on.’”