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[Interceptor]

Both next gen consoles? There are 3 of them. One doesn´t require this "feature" but offers it with every game if bought digitally.

 

[Cheesemeister]

Next-generation consoles won't be out for another 5 years or so.

 

[Alphahawk]

The only thing that bums me out about this is that we have to wait another gen or so to not have to swap discs to play our fully installed retail games.

I'm actually glad we can't do that, because that would effectively put secondhand sales out of business and then we would have to pay $60 for every release.

 

[unapersson]

The only thing that bums me out about this is that we have to wait another gen or so to not have to swap discs to play our fully installed retail games.

I don't see that changing, it's more likely that things will go all digital and you can achieve that now if you don't want to swap disks.

 

[Killthee]

I did some web digging and apparently most, if not all, PS4 games install initially in under a minute. I do have to wonder about the future though, like does Sony state anywhere that it has to be under a minute? Could we see a situation like Sonic 06 where the game was just not compressed enough to prevent ungodly waits?

I guess the other concern I have is just managing it all. Like I already have a hard enough time managing XBL games I just thing managing retail sized games will be a nightmare.

Overall I'm happy at what I've learned though. Although I still wish they would give you the options of just playing it off the disc.

(Also for those of you who don't know, apparently Xbox One games takes several minutes to load, even crossplatform titles Like AC4 takes 10 minutes)

FWIW, the installation management settings on the PS4 are pretty streamlined. You can delete anything on the tile bar by pressing Options -> Delete or you can go to Storage Management to view all your installations at a glance and uninstall multiple items simultaneously.

Redownloading your digital titles is also easier than it was last gen cause the last slot on the tile bar gives you a grid view of all the items you own along with a download link if the item is currently not installed.

 

[patapuf]

Mandatory installs > longer loadtimes.

I'll take that trade every time.

Also, less noise.

 

[rjcc]

Am I the only one bummed out over this? I was always a console gamer growing up and I'm use to instant action, you put your game media in and it plays. Now it looks like those days are long gone, and never coming back. I don't know, there's just something incredibly sad about it and it's kinda keeping me from jumping in.

Anyone else feel the same way?

eh, the lengthy installs aren't great, but in real life, as soon as the 360 started supporting installs, I was immediately installing any game that I played a lot / where it was beneficial.

when there are actually more games coming out for either system that I want to play, I'll revisit this, for now there are so few it's not happening that often.

 

[Bboy AJ]

It's just yet another reason why consoles are just devolving into bad PCs. These companies forget the simplicity of consoles is why I want a console.

Before anyone jumps down my throat, I'm not saying mandatory installations are difficult. But it's another step toward PC behavior.

 

[SJS]

I knew I wasn't the last human being on earth who was annoyed with this. I feel strongly:

- that this will lead to an increasingly "digital" future, where game ownership is increasingly lost;
- that this forces me to buy extra memory storage from a console supplier when this was previously provided to me (without a cost difference from a digital product) for the most part;
- and that this will, over time, naturally lead to invasive DRM practices which were already hinted at last E3.


I personally value feeling like a gamer over having less of a load time in between games.

 

[Chabbles]

Am I the only one bummed out over this? I was always a console gamer growing up and I'm use to instant action, you put your game media in and it plays. Now it looks like those days are long gone, and never coming back. I don't know, there's just something incredibly sad about it and it's kinda keeping me from jumping in.

Anyone else feel the same way?

Well look on the bright side, your console is less likely to have a disc drive failure from over use. This is something that has happened to EVERY console i've owned since the PS1, and multiple disc drive failures each gen.. if a HDD fails, its alot easier to get your console in working condition again without buying a new one or sending one with a failed disc drive off for repair.

Besides that, its a silly thing to get bummed out, or sad over. And in all honesty, install times were worse on PS3, over PS4, way worse. PS4 installs games like lighting fast.

 

[The Spoony Hou]

I think mandatory installs are the stupidiest shit ever.

Optional installs though, they are a thing of beauty. I always install my games.

 

[Pimpwerx]

It's a one time install. What's the big deal? It's there to make leading faster. You can still disc jockey. It's not like you're deleting the install afterwards. During the good old days, many of us wish consoles had hdds in them. Early gen disc drives were horribly slow. It wasn't instant anything...who are you kidding? LOL. Even modern disc drives are too slow as games get bigger. PEACE.

 

[NinjaCatfish]

I knew I wasn't the last human being on earth who was annoyed with this. I feel strongly:

- that this will lead to an increasingly "digital" future, where game ownership is increasingly lost;
- that this forces me to buy extra memory storage from a console supplier when this was previously provided to me (without a cost difference from a digital product) for the most part;
- and that this will, over time, naturally lead to invasive DRM practices which were already hinted at last E3.


I personally value feeling like a gamer over having less of a load time in between games.

I don't disagree with much of your post, but I have to question, why do you feel like 'less of a gamer' if you buy stuff digitally? Are players who use Steam extensively less 'gamers' than anyone else?
I'm really not sure what you mean here.

 

[MavFan619]

It's just yet another reason why consoles are just devolving into bad PCs. These companies forget the simplicity of consoles is why I want a console.

Before anyone jumps down my throat, I'm not saying mandatory installations are difficult. But it's another step toward PC behavior.

Once again I can't speak for anything but PS4 but it's not intrusive or a slow process at all. I honestly feel PS4 is closer to the old insert and play ways than PS3 was. For instance Marvel 3 on PS3 had an install that seemingly took forever at the time on PS4 I would have been playing pretty much instantly in comparison for a comparable sized game.

 

[CLEEK]

I think mandatory installs are the stupidiest shit ever.

Optional installs though, they are a thing of beauty. I always install my games.

Yeah, with mandatory installs, you'd have to install all of your ga... wait, wat?

 

[strata8]

I personally value feeling like a gamer over having less of a load time in between games.

So you'd be okay with 4x longer load times? That's what you'd get if you tried to stream everything from a Blu-ray vs a hard disk.

 

[bombshell]

Both consoles? What is there to be bummed about PS4's lightning fast installs from disc?

 

[TAJ]

PS4 installs in the background while you play? Dunno about xb1 but there's no issue with one console. Unless I am radically mistaken. I've never waited to install on ps4.

l didn't run into a game that made me wait more than 30 or 40 seconds until Trials Fusion today. (It was a few minutes for that one.) I have 13 retail games.

 

[Marche90]

I still haven't gotten my PS4. With.that said...

Yeah, is not a prospect I'm looking forward to. I prefer having everything on disc, and not using the HDD at all. I know, I'm odd here.

Then again, my obsession with not using the HDD as a freaking HDD reaches almost OCD levels (I had to delete Uncharted 3 as soon as I finished the game only once because I hated to see the game using 40+ gbs of my ps3's hard drive, for example. And yes, I still had more than 50 gb of space available =/)

 

[Sheroking]

Seems pretty quick and harmless on PS4, mind you.

 

[Rex Griswold]

I much prefer the mandatory installs over having to turn up my TV to compensate for the disc drive. Seriously, those things were pretty loud.

 

[_Clash_]

#wiiupride.

As discussed, no installs. However loading times can be a bit bloated due to this.

 

[TAJ]

I still haven't gotten my PS4. With.that said...

Yeah, is not a prospect I'm looking forward to. I prefer having everything on disc, and not using the HDD at all. I know, I'm odd here.

Then again, my obsession with not using the HDD as a freaking HDD reaches almost OCD levels (I had to delete Uncharted 3 as soon as I finished the game only once because I hated to see the game using 40+ gbs of my ps3's hard drive, for example. And yes, I still had more than 50 gb of space available =/)

Fun fact: The bolded was literally impossible on the original Xbox even though no retail games could be installed.

 

[WordsintheWater]

These are the install times of a few games comparing PS4 and Xbox One. PS4 install times are hardly an issue.

http://kotaku.com/installing-xbox-one-games-takes-way-too-long-1471191836

Assassin's Creed IV:
Xbox One (offline, no update): 5 minutes 50 seconds
Xbox One (with update, fastest connection): 7 minutes 2 seconds
Xbox One (with update, 10Mbps connection): 10 minutes 32 seconds
PS4: 42 seconds

The rest of these were tested on our office Wi-Fi which is around 9-11Mbps. It may have been faster on a wired connection, but you can compare your own connection speed here. These are our results:

Need For Speed Rivals:
XBO: 09:25 (including update)
PS4: 00:32P

Just Dance 2014:
XBO: 08:48 (including update)
PS4: 00:45P

NBA Live 14:
XBO: 16:26 (including update)
PS4: 00:35P

FIFA 14:
XBO: 16:06 (including update)
PS4: 00:34P

Madden 25:
XBO: 9:38 (including update)
PS4: 00:38P

 

[t26]

I installed almost every Xbox 360 games on the harddrive, but when I got a new game I am able to play it right away without installing if I want. Running games from the harddrive is great, but I also want the option of running it from a disc.

 

[Zerin]

I'm actually glad we can't do that, because that would effectively put secondhand sales out of business and then we would have to pay $60 for every release.

Digital marketplaces/licenses, a licensing management system for second-hand retailers... we just need the infrastructure to support the rest of the market. Sounds like MS will try and do some of that this gen, we'll have to wait until at least next gen for the rest though unfortunately.

 

[ExFalsoQuodlibet]

The problem is, to me, the fact that either you get the game digitally or on a optical support, and while optical has contributed to improve the spread of digital goods over time, it is now showing its age, because it's very slow and drives tend to degrade. The best would be, to me, a home console that goes on flash cartridges like the 3DS, providing that that kind of support starts to cost less: it would also give "physical" games a meaning, because those blu rays look cheap and flimsy to me.

In short, I prefer digital over physical if physical means "optical", and I can accept optical only if it's just a vessel for a game that's meant to be installed.

But then, the WiiU has a proprietary optical format for its games, and I don't know how but the loading times seem consistently better than, for example, the PS3, so maybe there's hope for optical too.

EDIT: clarification

 

[TAJ]

The problem is, to me, the fact that either you get the game digitally or on a optical support, and while optical has contributed to improve the spread of digital goods over time, it is now showing its age, because it's very slow and tends to degrade. The best would be, to me, a home console that goes on flash cartridges like the 3DS, providing that that kind of support starts to cost less: it would also give "physical" games a meaning, because those blu rays look cheap and flimsy to me.

In short, I prefer digital over physical if physical means "optical", and I can accept optical only if it's just a vessel for a game that's meant to be installed.

But then, the WiiU has a proprietary optical format for its games, and I don't know how but the loading times seem consistently better than, for example, the PS3, so maybe there's hope for optical too.

Have you ever tried to damage a Blu-ray disc? It's shockingly difficult.
And I guess you don't consider the last few gens "physical" because the platform holders didn't make the same mistake Nintendo did with N64?

 

[PetrCobra]

Well, pointing out that Wii U doesn't have mandatory installs seems true, but it doesn't actually have installs at all, which is kind of sad. It's either digital purchase or, in effect, mandatory disc juggling. I think I'd prefer what OP doesn't seem to like, especially if it was really fast like PS4 promises (I don't have the console and don't really plan to so I don't know for sure what it's like in reality).

 

[The Spoony Hou]

Yeah, with mandatory installs, you'd have to install all of your ga... wait, wat?

I guess someone can't understand the convenience of having an option. I see sometimes decisions can be too much for some.

 

[Eternia]

The PS4 streaming tech seems pretty robust. It really lessened the burden of installing games since it's so fast and everyone gets the benefit of games being designed with that in mind. Also the less that blu-ray drive gets used, the better.

 

[Alphahawk]

Digital marketplaces/licenses, a licensing management system for second-hand retailers... we just need the infrastructure to support the rest of the market. Sounds like MS will try and do some of that this gen, we'll have to wait until at least next gen for the rest though unfortunately.

Except that;s problematic in itself because it means that only people who are on a company's approved list can actually do the reselling. And going from MS's statement regarding the inital plans of the Xbone publishers could make their licenses non transferable effecticly making a second hand purchase impossible.

Also as said above it's just more of the "PC'ification of consoles" which I'm not really a fan of.

 

[ExFalsoQuodlibet]

Have you ever tried to damage a Blu-ray disc? It's shockingly difficult.
And I guess you don't consider the last few gens "physical" because the platform holders didn't make the same mistake Nintendo did with N64?

I didn't mean that BDs tend to degrade, what degrades are the optical readers, due to mechanical fatigue. I edited.

 

[ThoughtsOfSpeaking]

As others have said, the PS4 playgo system makes a gaming session almost instant compared to the PS3.

The Xbox one system currently is shit though. I can see myself losing interest mid install. Hopefully in time they will patch in something similar or there is always digital.

 

[PAULINK]

I don't like it either. I have not really noticed any benefits of faster load speeds (in comparison to the disc only games on the ps3 and 360) but then again, we are now limited by the 6x read speed on both consoles.

The major problem is memory management. The xbox one and it's non upgradeable internal but incoming external hard drive solution, and the ps4 and limited to it's internal with no external as far as I know.

Instead of having redundant game data on the hard drive, i'd rather it be digital games or really anything else.

 

[Bboy AJ]

Once again I can't speak for anything but PS4 but it's not intrusive or a slow process at all. I honestly feel PS4 is closer to the old insert and play ways than PS3 was. For instance Marvel 3 on PS3 had an install that seemingly took forever at the time on PS4 I would have been playing pretty much instantly in comparison for a comparable sized game.

I also own a PS4. I'm not saying mandatory installs are slow or intrusive. I'm saying it's another step consoles are taking toward being PCs. Bad ones, at that. Regardless, because of mandatory installs, you now need free hard drive space to play new games. That's weak. That's not a positive thing.

 

[MrCunningham]

Welcome to the land of PC gaming....


... back when PC gamers still had to buy discs, that is.


But yeah, it's a fair trade off. Faster seek times are always better.

 

[d9b]

Nope! I want the fastest asset streaming and loading times. Playing off a slow disc should stay in past

This!

 

[DieH@rd]

Am I the only one bummed out over this? I was always a console gamer growing up and I'm use to instant action, you put your game media in and it plays. Now it looks like those days are long gone, and never coming back. I don't know, there's just something incredibly sad about it and it's kinda keeping me from jumping in.

Anyone else feel the same way?

PS4 PlayGo installations are usually done around 30-40s mark [sometimes even less]. That's a small inconvenience that enables games to preform much better.

And adoption of PlayGo system enables both disc-based games and digital games to be run faster. It's a win-win.

 

[glaurung]

My average experience with PS4 is that the game is installed and ready to go in the time it takes me to walk from the console to the couch.

Therefore, I do not see the problem. I do recognize that installing stuff like Gran Turismo 5 or Devil May Cry 4 for the first time on PS3 would infuriate people - even myself.

 

[FyreWulff]

Requiring it is kind of silly since everything will be making demands on one device - the hard drive. If the game can cache to the drive but also run from the disc, you can actually get faster performance by streaming from both the hard-drive and the disc.

 

[erawsd]

The problem is, to me, the fact that either you get the game digitally or on a optical support, and while optical has contributed to improve the spread of digital goods over time, it is now showing its age, because it's very slow and drives tend to degrade. The best would be, to me, a home console that goes on flash cartridges like the 3DS, providing that that kind of support starts to cost less: it would also give "physical" games a meaning, because those blu rays look cheap and flimsy to me.

In short, I prefer digital over physical if physical means "optical", and I can accept optical only if it's just a vessel for a game that's meant to be installed.

But then, the WiiU has a proprietary optical format for its games, and I don't know how but the loading times seem consistently better than, for example, the PS3, so maybe there's hope for optical too.

EDIT: clarification

I don't know man, it seems hit/miss. I'm playing DK and some of the loading can be pretty annoying, especially when you finish a level and wait for the overworld then a split second later you are waiting for the next level to load.

 

[Admiral Woofington]

It's not that big of a deal if you delete local data after playing a game.

 

[DieH@rd]

Requiring it is kind of silly since everything will be making demands on one device - the hard drive. If the game can cache to the drive but also run from the disc, you can actually get faster performance by streaming from both the hard-drive and the disc.

Two drawbacks:
- users who puchase game via PSN will have slower-performing games
- devs will have to spend time to crafting specific support for HDD-only/HDD+BD streamling

 

[GameAddict411]

the PS4 takes less than a minute on the first start up and will continue to install in the back ground. I don't see any problem here, in fact the wear and tear on the blu-ray drive is significantly reduced.

 

[FlyStarJay]

does the op have ps4? what is he complaining about? unless he is complaining about hdd space which can easily be deleted. on ps4 put the disc in and in a few seconds you are ready to play

 

[SegaShack]

Install times on Xbox One don't bother me, I believe these have been improving with updates though. What bothers me is how much space games take up. 500 GBs is not enough for either console, it won't be long before people need an external harddrive.

 

[Yagharek]

My average experience with PS4 is that the game is installed and ready to go in the time it takes me to walk from the console to the couch.

Therefore, I do not see the problem. I do recognize that installing stuff like Gran Turismo 5 or Devil May Cry 4 for the first time on PS3 would infuriate people - even myself.

Try installing on xbone. Its a big problem there.

 

[Dougald]

Better one long load screen, than several every time you want to play. Same reason I don't like booting up my Neo Geo CD (okay, probably the worst offender in CD load times). It's much better now.

The difference in install times between the Xbone and PS4 is shocking, though. At least it's only once, but I am looking forward to when Microsoft gets that sorted.

 

[PeakPointMatrix]

Every game I've played on the PS4 has been instant action, what are you talking about. The only time I had to wait was for downloadable games, for obvious reasons. Plus, installs and fast storage media make for literally more "instant" action, data streaming and allocation. Do you even remember the absurd load times of old disc based games in previous gens were? Or the frequency of times games had to load new areas?