http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/04/25/next-xbox-functionality-pricing-reportedly-outed
Welp, guess I was right to jump the console ship when I did. This is just infuriating, because they're alienating the majority of the current xbox fanbase which probably doesn't have fiber optic or comcast internet. I myself have to work on an internet with a 128 kb/s bandwith cap, and can't afford to have ANYTHING taking up bandwith if the rest of the household wants to even use the internet (especially my mother, who works from home a lot).
Yet they also say it's up to the publisher... so I wonder if the only games requiring always-online are going to be Activision games and EA games...
Anyways, I REALLY wish that the gaming press, upon Microsoft OFFICIALLY declaring it is always-online, would just boo the speaker off the stage, but I know that will never happen :(