Forza 5 requires one-time online connection

Day one patches are nothing unusual in games nowadays, but this is new: a game that won't run without the patch. Forza Motorsport 5 for Xbox One will require a one-time connection to Xbox Live before you can play the game. Without a connection, the game won't run at all.

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Day one patches are nothing unusual in games nowadays, but this is new: a game that won't run without the patch. Forza Motorsport 5 for Xbox One will require a one-time connection to Xbox Live before you can play the game. Without a connection, the game won't run at all.

“When you first boot up the game, we're going to ask you to log in,” Turn 10 Studios' Dan Greenawalt explained. “And when you log in you're going to get the Drivatars and you're also going to get a whole bunch of content: tracks and cars," adding that it's "required content to play the game."

While it's unlikely to pose much of a problem for the audience reading this post, Forza's online requirement echoes the draconian DRM policy that caused so much trouble for Microsoft in the first place.

According to Greenawalt, the day-one download will help Turn 10 cram as much content into the game as possible--even if it isn't on the disc. "Our production schedule is such that we are putting them in as late as possible and that means making them free as downloadable content on Day One," he told IGN.

Of course, you're free to play the game offline after the one-time download. However, Greenawalt argues that "all of the cloud and online features make the game far, far better. In fact I'd even say revolutionary. The things we're doing with opponents and Drivatar are not something that anyone can envision unless you've played it. But we're trying to get as much of that into the unconnected, offline mode as well."

Andrew Yoon was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    July 17, 2013 5:30 AM

    Andrew Yoon posted a new article, Forza 5 requires one-time online connection.

    Day one patches are nothing unusual in games nowadays, but this is new: a game that won't run without the patch. Forza Motorsport 5 for Xbox One will require a one-time connection to Xbox Live before you can play the game. Without a connection, the game won't run at all.

    • reply
      July 17, 2013 5:30 AM

      So online activation then?

      • reply
        July 17, 2013 5:44 AM

        Sounds like fascism to me...THANKS OBAMA!

    • reply
      July 17, 2013 5:45 AM

      I thought all the Xbone games were like that?

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        July 17, 2013 6:28 AM

        No, the stated change was that the system itself would have to go online *one time*, and after that could play offline forever.

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          July 17, 2013 7:45 AM

          I guess it's significant because it's required just for the drm, but even last generation many games had day 1 patches you needed so functionally it's not different.

    • reply
      July 17, 2013 5:50 AM

      If they just said it was a necessary patch, people would not be too bothered, but naw, MS cannot let that happen to their revolutionary console with it's revolutionary online content.

    • reply
      July 17, 2013 5:53 AM

      Why can't they just implement this during its development? It doesn't make any sense as the console isn't even released yet. What the fuck happened to MS?

      • reply
        July 17, 2013 6:27 AM

        I imagine they know they basically won't be done with the game by the time they have to press the discs. So to even finish this game they'll need the program patch on release day. Either that or they're planning online activation.

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        July 17, 2013 7:24 AM

        I could imagine this being a reaction to the console no longer being guaranteed to be online at least once per 24 hours. They may have built systems that expected the console to go online once per day for the driver avatar stuff. And with only a few months left it would be way too late to rip that out completely and this was the best compromise they could do in that short amount of time.

        When you know from the beginning that players will be online when playing you can make a lot of assumptions in how things are implemented, and then Microsoft changed their mind and now everything is fucked up. And you don't want to make too dramatic changes with only a few months to go. By now they would probably be in a feature freeze mode and mainly do bug fixing and polish.

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          July 17, 2013 7:25 AM

          They could also just make the game online-only if it was that important. This way works out better, though.

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          July 17, 2013 7:30 AM

          Not "a reaction," rather a consequence of where the development had started.

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        July 17, 2013 8:38 AM

        the game code is going to be locked down for certification and production/shipping like a month or two before it actually hits shelves. That's a non trivial amount of time to get some extra bug fixes in that can be delivered in a day 1 patch. That's why so many games have them these days.

    • reply
      July 17, 2013 8:45 AM

      [deleted]

    • reply
      July 17, 2013 10:12 AM

      Amazing. What a load of utter bollocks. If that's the case why not just do away with physical copies altogether.?


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