Standby modes suck up energy

[VideoGameCritic]

I like to shut my consoles off when I'm not using them.  I get some flack from people touting the benefits like automatic updates and whatever.

This article talks about how leaving your console on actually costs you money.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/03/how-standby-modes-on-game-consoles-suck-up-energy/

[ptdebate1]

[QUOTE=videogamecritic]I like to shut my consoles off when I'm not using them.  I get some flack from people touting the benefits like automatic updates and whatever.

This article talks about how leaving your console on actually costs you money.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/03/how-standby-modes-on-game-consoles-suck-up-energy/[/QUOTE]

$10-13 a year is a pittance compared to the convenience offered by automatic updates.

Not enabling automatic updates is just asking for a bad experience, because it requires you to update when you turn on the console to play games. I'd rather my Xbox waste a few cents of my money than waste my time. That's just my opinion on this subject.

[Sut1]

[QUOTE=ptdebate]I'd rather my Xbox waste a few cents of my money than waste my time. That's just my opinion on this subject.[/QUOTE]

I will echo this, my game time is limited to 60 min - 90 min sessions the last thing I want to be doing is wasting time waiting for updates.

And after all time is money !

[VideoGameCritic]

If you stay offline you have the best of both worlds - no updates to sit through and no energy costs!

You can keep your "updates" which are usually nebulous things that some gamers manage to talk themselves into thinking are worthwhile.

[Vexer1]

But you have to update eventually in order to fix issues both with the system itself and with games, so that does not sound like the best of both worlds in any way, quite the opposite, it sounds like the worst of both worlds. I think you should patch Killzone 3 and give it another review.

Updates are not things that gamers have "talked themselves into thinking are worthwhile" they are more then worthwhile, they are flat-out necessary in some cases, I fail to see how updates are "nebulous" in any way. I think you definitely need to get with the times and accept things like updates, because they're not going to go away.

10-13 dollars a year is chump change, most people couldn't care less about that sort of thing, and i'm one of them.

[ptdebate1]

[QUOTE=videogamecritic]If you stay offline you have the best of both worlds - no updates to sit through and no energy costs!

You can keep your "updates" which are usually nebulous things that some gamers manage to talk themselves into thinking are worthwhile.[/QUOTE]

If you stay offline, though, chances are good that you'll be unable to play newly-released software, which typically requires the latest system software version to run.

A good example of one of these critical updates is one that Microsoft released last fall that allowed developers to deactivate Kinect during their game, freeing up about 10% CPU power for other things. What's gonna happen if you don't have that update and you try to play a game that takes advantage of this new feature? You won't be able to play it without updating! Then, when you go online to update, you'll have a whole backlog of other updates in addition to the one that you need that have been building up over time while your console has been offline. 

Why are automatic updates worthwhile? Because not having them will land you in the above situation time after time. 

[Vexer1]

Indeed, I remember being prompted to download system updates for several 360 games when they were new(I.E. Devil May Cry 4), the fact is nowadays firmware is something that needs constant updating and fine-tuning to fix issues, that's just how technology is nowadays.