Xbox 720 going back to 'cartridges' ?
Xbox 720 going back to 'cartridges' ?
If rumros are true, the 720 won't have an optical drive . I've always said they won't climb into bed with Sony and put BluRay in, and it's too early to rely solely on digital distribution and DVD9 just doesn't have the storage capacity unless it becomes an installation medium storing just highly comrpessed files to be installed to the HDD. But I hadn't expected to read a rumor that they may go back to a solid state cartidge format. I guess it makes sense, 16gb SD media is really cheap and has almost twice the capacity of a DVD9. Flash memory has improved a lot in thruput so it could make sense.
Microsoft isn't too keen on discussing the Xbox 720 or whatever it plans to call its next generation game console, and apparently the Redmond outfit isn't all that keen on optical drives, either. We've heard reports that the next Xbox iteration might ditch optical storage hardware entirely, and now at least one website claims to have confirmed as much with an un-named source.
The source tells MCV that Microsoft's hardware and software partners are under "the strictest NDA" they have ever signed, nevertheless they were willing to leak the fact that the Xbox 720 will ship sans a disc drive. Instead it will use a type of solid-state card storage, though it's unclear if that means it will have a microSD card slot.
http://digg.com/newsbar/topnews/microsoft_rumored_to_remove_disc_drive_f...
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I kid, I kid.
It would be interesting. Instead of buying a dvd/bluray disc, would you buy an SD card with the game installed on it and then transfer it to your harddrive or could you play it straight from the SD card?
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[IMG]http://i909.photobucket.com/albums/ac292/OMGaLaserPewPew/Picture1.png[/IMG]
^^ This.. FTW!
I doubt Microshaft will do anything unless they can ensure that it'll be proprietary. No WAY they'll use a common format that'll make it easier to hack so SD or anything similar is OUT. Cartridges make sense in a way, mostly for all of the reasons Tank mentioned. But, it makes the most sense because they could cram so much more anti-tampering things in it. It'll be like going through a Dungeon with a DM that has a serious "that's booby-trapped" problem.
If they make it TOO proprietary I may just give it a miss all together. I've started PC gaming again and I like the fact that I have a machine that doesn't feel like I'm leasing it because of all the restrictions.
USB Thumbsticks might be pretty cool. Game companies could design their sticks to look like anything. Also, it'd be frigging silent. My current XBox's dvd drive is so loud I have to install every game.
Flashdrive games could be cool. Next Halo game could come on a flash drive that looks like a battle rifle or something. I really don't like the idea of digital distribution games unless they're gonna start selling consoles with MUCH larger hard drives. I know over the life of my xbox I've had probably 40+ games. That combined with all the DLC and acrade games and everything else it'd be well over 300gb.
I question this news.
What about your current DVD portfolio of games?
What about backward compatibility?
Very good point, i like to play old games every now & then, even if the quality is lower.
If they really have to get rid of the diskdrive, why not go fully downloadable, as you have to be on line to get the most out of nearly every game.
my xbox is the only dvd player in my house.
surely there would be something for the current disks. possibly an external drive? seems silly, but hey, who knows.
yeah, I could see that, no drive but then you have to buy an external drive to play old games. I don't know what kind of protection they could build into a SD card but it would be really cool. I would like to see the HDD be solid state too (or has that already bee announced/talked about?)
Too bad, I really wouldn't mind having it double as a BD player, but stand-alone BD players are getting pretty cheap anyway. I just dont have that many HDMI inputs on my larger plasma TV. For the cable box, BDb player, Xbox, etc. Seems this move would be going against MS goal of being the entertainment hub of the living room if they don't have a BD built in. most modern BD players offer online servi es that could compete with Xbox live. We'll see!
With the ability to put a couple gigs on something the size of a toenail, there really is no reason to use disks anymore. Not as I see it anyway. The next XBOX should have a terrabyte of storage capacity. Imagine how expansive games could be if not limited by disk size.
I love the idea of not having a disk. One less piece of hardware that can go out. If you're reallly worried about backward combatibility, keep your 360. I don't mean to sound like a dick, but I remember being all worked up about b/c when the 360 came out until I started playing 360 games. In the end, b/c never really was an issue.
I too use the 360 as a DVD player. I guess I'd have to break down and get a BR player, but I'm fine with that if that means we get larger capacity and a quieter box.
Lets be honest here about Back Compat, it sucked and the only thing that really got played (and worked half decent emulated) was Halo 2. Both Microsoft and Sony dropped back compat in the 360 and PS3's, I wouldn't be surprised nor would I care if they just moved forward, a new console doesn't force you to dump your old one, keep your 360 if you want to play 360 games.
I think far more people will miss not having it double as a DVD player than it not being able to play previous gen games. I think Microsoft is committed to their streaming / IPTV initiatives , DVDs again are old technology. It's hard to advance forward if you keep holding on to all this old shit.
I agree with all the above.
I think most of us do. But some gaming hipster will cry about the 360 having the best games and the 720 lineup is crap and demand b/c. Because it's not hipster enough to play 360 games on a 360, he'll have to do it on a 720.
On the record... I stop playing old games when I buy new games. If I keep any old games I'll keep my 360. I still have my original Nintendo, and never expected to be able to play my gold cartridge Zelda on my Super Nintendo. New system, new games.
I'll hold onto Skyrim and Oblivion and some others most likely, and they will stay in a box with my 360 until I feel nostalgic and want to play them.
I'm not surprised by this at all. Any of it really. With the rise of streaming services like Netflix and Hulu Plus combined with MS plan to hook up with more TV partners, why be a DVD player too? I know that you can't get the newest releases on Netflix but most of those folks who just have to have a new movie as soon as it hits store shelves already buy BluRay. And you know MS will never put Sony tech into an Xbox.
And why put in a huge hard drive? Think about this- if the games come on an SD card or USB drive, they could be setup to save all your progress, game saves and DLC to the same drive. That would mean if you want to play your saved game on your buddies Xbox, all you need is the SD card and your Xbox Live sign in. At that point the only real need for a hrd drive is store music and movies. Granteed that can get to be alot of space in a hurry if you go nuts but, that could easily be stored to a USB drive as well and those are getting crazy cheap.
This means they could go with say, a 250GB solid state drive and allow you to save other stuff to external storage devices. That would also save on internal space and, maybe more inportant, keep the heat down.
I am one that never goes back. I have said numerous times shit like "I better keep this old game, I really enjoyed it and want to go back and accomplish X in it one day". But....new games come out with much better graphics and storylines, and I am always trying to just keep up with the news ones that I have my eye on. So the backward compatibility is a total non issue for me, as I suspect it is for the majority of gamers.
The backwards compatability would be nice for a limited time. Always a bit of a derth of good games at launch, being able to play my catalog of older games til the good ones come out would be nice. Plus there's a lot more 360 games I'd be willing to play later on.
I think BC is a LOT bigger issue this gen than last. Xbox was pretty primitive, and not a lot of games held up other than Halo 2. Not many even had online play.
Now that most games have online play and are therefore being stretched out a lot longer, it's a bigger deal. Plus with DLC and patches, their life has been even more extended. Just think about halo fans not being able to play Halo 3, Reach, etc on their 720. I don't think that would be popular. Plus with so many more large games and blockbusters on the 360, many people aren't even close to finishing their backlogs even now.
When I bought my 360 in 2007, having never had a 180, I bought a couple games like Halo, Halo 2, Fable, and Buffy (ha) and beat them, then called it a day. But with the 360...... I have many classics that look great and play great, and don't seem dated. They are in 1080p, have DLC, have great graphics. I don't want to own two boxes to keep playing them.
Dude, the first Buffy was a great action game that had a good fighting engine. I had to get that out there, despite the fact that I will never live it down.
I am not to sure what to make of the whole cart thing? I would figure downloads over carts would be the next natural thing. Gee, one of the things people used to talk about back when; CDs vs Carts back in the day was cost of the carts. People would say that with CD distribution it would make games cheaper.
Without BC we'll just have two groups of upgraders, the early 'the future is now' adopters who just want the latest and greatest and once that comes out don't care about the past stuff (people like me). And those who just play a few key titles most notably we'd have the COD and Halo people who aren't going to upgrade until they can play their game on the new system. Since COD is an annual title it wont' be long before that's available on the new system. The next Halo will probably be a year before it's available if Halo 4 comes out this year and the 720 comes out next year, Halo is an every other year title. WIth the clusterfuck of a launch the 360 had, the people who wait until their favorite shooter is available are probably the smart ones :lol:
yep. he's talking about me with the halo and he's spot on.
the thing about disc vs. cartridge was yes somewhat about cost, but more about space. CD/DVD could hold a LOT more than the same size cartridge at the time, which were very large and expensive to make - plus could not even hold that much data, period.
Now with tiny SD technology, solid state carts are much more economical than they would have been back then. You don't have to worry about an entire disc drive assembly and disc storage size restrictions and wear and tear. Sure, full 50GB BDs will still hold more than a comparable SD card would that was still cost effective - but most games don't need to be 50GB or even 25GB. A 16GB card could hold more than enough space for next gen games, I think. And still be probably under $10 in bulk. I'll bet that's close to the same cost carts were back in SNES days.
I think backwards compatibility is a lot less important to me now than it was at the launch of the 360. I'll probably keep them both hooked up for a bit and once Halo 5 drops I'll mothball the 360 until the next "retrolanocalypse" (all rights reserved on that name).
Im much. Ore concerned about a console that works out of the gate than making sure Bonecrush can play t"The Guy Game"
A decent launch lineup, 3-4 AAA titles-even if they don't test the bleeding edge of the tech, and all my current bells and whistles intact, us some hardware that doesn't shi the bed every 90 days for the first three years is really my criteria for early adoption. I didn't wait in line for a launch 360 and I won't for the 720. So Ican afford to wait a few days/weeks for tank to warn me about any red flags
I think backwards compatibility is a lot less important to me now than it was at the launch of the 360. I'll probably keep them both hooked up for a bit and once Halo 5 drops I'll mothball the 360 until the next "retrolanocalypse" (all rights reserved on that name).
Im much. Ore concerned about a console that works out of the gate than making sure Bonecrush can play t"The Guy Game"
A decent launch lineup, 3-4 AAA titles-even if they don't test the bleeding edge of the tech, and all my current bells and whistles intact, us some hardware that doesn't shi the bed every 90 days for the first three years is really my criteria for early adoption. I didn't wait in line for a launch 360 and I won't for the 720. So Ican afford to wait a few days/weeks for tank to warn me about any red flags
Those who don't care about BC but game a lot must have a LOT more time than me. In order to play and finish enough of a game to say it was worth it - for all the good games so far this gen - it is just a thousand hours, easy. Plus are all XBLA games going to work? I mean, they're not discs. So they should, right?
I just went through, and only picked out the games I had not completed to the end of the game yet. This is not even counting a bunch of games I really want certain achievements on.
I’d be happy if the new console has a port labeled “IN” that I can plug my 360 into.
Looks like 2013 for a new console , Bloomberg reports Microsoft is 'delaying' the 720 launch to squeeze another year out of 360.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-15/microsoft-says-it-won-t-be-disc...