X-box / Playstation Consoles - they just follow each other?

Despite all the concern over Microsofts attempts to implant absolute borg like control over 'their' property (basically you pay for it, but they still own it), I haven't seen much in the way of how Sony will make their playstation network a subscription system - ie, after differentiating themselves from Microsoft by being subscriptionless, they simply follow suit on the next console. So, playstation 5 will have online 24/7 requirement?

Basically the corporations can simply wait - they will bring in all the bad stuff - they'll just do it incrementally. Not quite as fast as they would have liked. But ten years from now say they'll have brought in some muted forms of online validation already - then because people are conditioned to those, they'll then raise the idea of a 24/7 online requirement again - and protests will be less than they are now because the company used salami tactics (one slice at a time).

Is 'cloud' the new executive speak to justify any old thing?

They tried it with sim city, saying 'it uses cloud functions - can't just do single player!'. And yet someone showed it could do single player off line.

What's up with microsoft and X-box "oh, were doing the AI in 'the cloud'! So need to be online all the time". Seriously no, you aren't doing AI in the cloud. AI processing is far easier to run than processing polygons.

Say 'cloud' and pretty much everyone will just take whatever you say next as having to be the case.