The Facts

All of the ins-and-outs around the Xbox One’s always-online requirements are slowly coming to the surface as E3 wears on, and the latest update is Microsoft’s announcement that only a select list of countries will have full XBox Live support at launch. Since the release of the list, gamers (and even developers) in unsupported countries have been curious as to what happens if they just pick up a console from across the border. The official response from the Xbox Support twitter feed? “Unsupported countries would not have the full experience, and may not work.”

So who are the lucky winners in Microsoft’s global denial-of-service agenda? The full list of launch countries is below.

• Australia
• Austria
• Belgium
• Brazil
• Canada
• Denmark
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Ireland
• Italy
• Mexico
• Netherlands
• New Zealand
• Norway
• Russia
• Spain
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• United Kingdom
• United States

The Opinion

Is this a fucking joke? Japan isn’t on your little list? JAPAN?! I’m sure Hideo Kojima is real glad MGS V is mutli-platform after this turn of events. Also absent is Poland, home of Witcher 3 developer CD Projekt Red. Their co-founder and joint CEO Marcin Iwinski spoke with Game Informer about his country’s absence: “I was just in a restaurant and saw the list. I was surprised, and I really hope that it isn’t final. I think Polish gamers will speak out loud. From my perspective, it’s a sad situation.” Also absent is the Ukraine, where Metro developers 4A Games is based; I took that one a little personally, I’ll admit. I would like to hope that community backlash might make Microsoft rethink their position, but considering earlier today one of their reps essentially said “Fuck You” concerning active military servicemen not having access to constant internet connections, I doubt it. I’ll also go on the record as saying that this is a way in which they are trying to combat the server loads (and crashes) that are sure to arise from their new system. I hope it’s worth it, assholes.