When asked about the prospect of an always-online console by The Guardian recently, Mallat said the final call would have to come from Sony and Microsoft. But he then went on to offer his own thoughts on the issue, saying, "I would say a lot of people are already always online through other devices—I would suspect that the audience is ready."

We suppose we could envision some sort of ad-subsidized console that requires an Internet connection to show marketing messages in exchange for free or cheap hardware and software. Perhaps having a guarantee that every player is always online could let some games provide handy, aggregate gameplay data to other players, even in single-player mode. Other than these limited examples, though, it's hard to envision any sort of online requirement that is actually an improvement over the kind of online options that are currently available in countless games, at least from the player's perspective.

Of course, from the publisher's point of view, an always-online console brings plenty of benefits, from anti-piracy authentication to player monitoring and data collection to simple marketing opportunities. But "clear benefits" to the player? Maybe we're just not being imaginative enough...