Next Xbox To Have No Disc Drive

[CM Hooe]

I'm all for digital distribution as a developer for obvious reasons, and also as a consumer under the condition that on-board storage space jumps for these devices jumps dramatically.

[mestevo]

Quote: Originally Posted by CHooe

I'm all for digital distribution as a developer for obvious reasons, and also as a consumer under the condition that on-board storage space jumps for these devices jumps dramatically.

And reasonably so, the HDD prices from MS (prior to opening things up to allow thumb drives) and Sony's strategy for storage for the Vita are not so good.

[youvalss]

Yikes! I only buy games at stores and don't even play online. I guess my gaming days are about to be over in a few years...?

I'd better find myself another hobby, a non-virtual one (and legal, of course!).

[Burns11]

Quote: Originally Posted by mestevo

So now your latest adjustment to the hypothetical, this only matters to the 'majority of games', ignoring the fact that the most popular and highest selling games are this 'minority' (the last couple Call of Dutys passing the debut revenue of any movie ever made even...) ?

WTF are you talking about? Just because some games turn off some servers doesn't negate all the other games that don't depend on those. I'm not sure why one example negates all other exemplars of when games can be played decades in the future as long as you retain that physical copy.

Quote: Originally Posted by mestevo

I don't see the point of arguing this, I've already shown examples of this being done now and you've dismissed or ignored them. You're trying to debate the perils of the retirement of a console we know nothing about, I am not sure why.

Once again, just because you find some slim minority example doesn't negate the rest of the situation.

Quote: Originally Posted by mestevo

I don't see why the name calling is necessary, I guess that's all you have left. The number of people with Wiis, 360s and PS3s is exponentially more than those who even have Steam accounts. To limit your customers to only be able to buy games digitally truncates your potential install base substantially which is why it won't work as early as this next generation, at least not exclusively.

Oh just stop, nobody called you a name.

That aside, once again I have no idea what you are arguing here, I'm not even sure you know. Steam was brought up only as prime example of how a digital only service will work, and how that service would end access to any games should it disappear.

Quote: Originally Posted by mestevo

I'm not sure why you continue to argue hypothetical on top of hypothetical about a console we know nothing about.

All I am arguing are the perils of going solely digital distribution, and since we've yet to see that all we can argue is hypothetical. Bottom line I have a room full of games that represent thousands and thousands of dollars worth of investment that would, in all likelihood, no longer exist if things had been digitally distributed. They also retain thousands and thousands of dollars of value, value that would have evaporated had they been digitally distributed. So, no, your original statement that the only difference between physical and digital distribution is psychological is patently false.

[mgoblue]

Quote: Originally Posted by CHooe

I'm all for digital distribution as a developer for obvious reasons, and also as a consumer under the condition that on-board storage space jumps for these devices jumps dramatically.

I'm right with you. Hard drives are so darn expensive nowadays that it's holding me back from wanting to get every game online.

They may start selling games on some sort of memory card similar to portable games (if they can get something cheap enough to be worth it).

Either way, i know it sucks if your HD gets full and I have to delete some games from being installed on my 360 (and that's just for improved performance). I went and got a bigger HD to solve that, but I'd hate to have to uninstall old games and have to re-download them later. That'd be the case unless they give us massive cheap storage.

[DaveDQ]

That article mentions it's "unconventional for MS." I disagree. I think this is possible because of Xbox Live. That service is strong enough now that it is substantial in that direct download is reasonable.

I don't see them doing it without another viable (hard copy) alternative, but removing the disc drive makes sense to me. At this point it just gets in the way. It won't be black and white like many will start claiming. There will be all sorts of things surrounding the option that will try and make it appealing.

It's not unconventional for MS though. They were the ones that introduced broadband only when 6-12% of households had broadband.

[CMH]

Quote: Originally Posted by mgoblue

Hard drives are so darn expensive nowadays...

They are? Do you mean console hard drives? Because I could walk into a Best Buy and get TB sized hard drives for about one hundred bucks. It's ridiculous how inexpensive hard drives are today.

[Sandman42]

Quote: Originally Posted by CMH

They are? Do you mean console hard drives? Because I could walk into a Best Buy and get TB sized hard drives for about one hundred bucks. It's ridiculous how inexpensive hard drives are today.

Well the prices of them did go up after the flooding in Thailand took out a majority of the factories that produce hard drives. The prices have started dropping again though.