Microsofts been pretty big on collecting user statistics lately. On any Windows Phone every microsoft owned app asks you if you would like to send data to microsoft "to enhance your experience". Same thing with windows 8 apps and windows RT apps. Bing also does this and the options there for internet explorer. Now i guess theyre moving onto xbox. Always online means more data on users habits. Ofcourse the only people benefiting from this is microsoft. And it really hurts consumers. Its still a rumour but if it turns out to be true, microsoft is making ALL the wrong moves. Sony on the other hand are making all the right ones. If i was a game dev my money would be on the ps4.

That, I think, is the reason why this whole always-online thing fails: there's no REAL reason for it. There's no benefit for the consumer, AT ALL. I own Assassin's Creed 2 for PC. It's purely a 1-player game, but I'm REQUIRED to be connected to the internet at all times. What do I get with an internet connection that I wouldn't get if the game were offline? Nothing at all. A model like this will NOT be accepted by consumers. Companies will have to sooner or later bait consumers into the system with SOME kind of reward or incentive or rational for why always being connected to the internet is a good idea. Otherwise, it will never go anywhere.

Mandatory XBL membership ... wait to they mention silver is no longer free. Mind you Bungie/Activision are doing the same thing with Destiny ... didn't see too much rage about that idea when it got aired. And with the game it basically becomes useless as new DLC or editions get released, at least the console will last longer than 3 months. (unless you like wondering around alone in your virtual world whilst everyone else moves on to the newly release map space)

none I can think of. All negative and takes power away from players to play single player games offline whenever they want.

Well, there's definitely benefits if you are the console maker and publisher, but as a user? Nothing comes to mind.