End Game

With E3 approaching a lot more rapidly than anyone would care to admit, plenty of word is coming out about the next generation in gaming console. Perhaps one of the strangest words in the mix, meanwhile, is the increasingly large list of demands coming out in order to play in the Xbox's next sandbox.

We had heard, previously, that Microsoft was going to require an always-on Internet connection to play its games, which was going to put the kibosh on the used game market. This alone got some dander up across much of the blogosphere, but some of the newest rumors to hit make the new Xbox look less like a gaming platform and more like a hostage situation.

The newest demands from Microsoft's upcoming system, according to the latest reports, are that users will now be required to have a Kinect connection on at all times to play games, and that games will now be required to be registered in order to play. This information reportedly comes from a source who was trying to sell a Durango development kit--the code name for the new Xbox--before being shut down by Microsoft.

Now, naturally, everything we hear right now is pretty much just speculation and whispers until it comes straight from the horse's mouth.