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MCV rumour: Next Xbox will not have a disc drive, 2013 release
- Thread starter gofreak
- Start date
Neko Mimi Mode
Member
Cancelling pre-pre-order.
Not only is this unlikely, it's also not really much of a difference (SD or discs?)
Not only is this unlikely, it's also not really much of a difference (SD or discs?)
specialguy
Banned
The whacky sure to be false Xbox rumors keep coming!
It's almost like you'd think these rumormonger sites want it to fail...
It's almost like you'd think these rumormonger sites want it to fail...
Pie and Beans
Look for me on the local news, I'll be the guy arrested for trying to burn down a Nintendo exec's house.
Make the thing a rudimentary colour VMU or something with a screen that displays the cover art of whatevers on it, and youve got yourself a gimmick boyo!!
I was just thinking the same. But I can only imagine that as being optional.
JustAnotherOtaku
Member
Potential huge news. If they do plan on going DD only, I'll expect a huge hard drive!
SolarPowered
Member
Go for it MS. I won't buy so it's all good.
WickedLaharl
Member
The retarded nextbox rumors just keep a comin'.
Microsoft has two systems in development. Unfortunately that is causing endless confusion. The first one is a set-top streaming media player with no optical drive that plays XBLA games - that's been pretty evident for a while. We don't yet know the configuration of the next Xbox.
IdreamofHIME
Member
I hope to God cartridges are coming back.
As he mentioned though, it would be a way to get around preowned while keeping retail in the loop.
Would require a bit of education to get people used to it though. That kind of 'download-in-store' stuff never really worked elsewhere, did it? Maybe it could with games though, since they may be very big, and much more difficult to digitally download from home.
Anyways...this could just be another whacky rumour like we've seen in previous gens. It'll be interesting to see if any other outlets come out with similar stuff or not.
specialguy
Banned
Too be fair, this would open up the box to be more powerful, with no bulky drive to worry about equals more room and money for other stuff, such as, a more powerful GPU...could be a edge on the PS4, also keeps costs down.
Still no way in hell I see this actually happening. Part of the whole Kinect/family friendly thing is dumbing it down and you definitely need shiny discs for casuals.
As a hardcore though I wouldn't necessarily be all that opposed to this, just doubt it's reality.
It's really obvious all this media wants next box to fail though, "no used games! weak piece of crap! tablet controller!" and now "no discs!"
Still no way in hell I see this actually happening. Part of the whole Kinect/family friendly thing is dumbing it down and you definitely need shiny discs for casuals.
As a hardcore though I wouldn't necessarily be all that opposed to this, just doubt it's reality.
It's really obvious all this media wants next box to fail though, "no used games! weak piece of crap! tablet controller!" and now "no discs!"
Chittagong
Gold Member
No discdrive means no Built-in backwards compatibility.
That would actually be quite a neat workaround for the retail vs. download issue, I could see them doing that.
It would play on the size of the games and download caps to keep the retail side going, retail would go for that and Microsoft transition to the digital set-top box which was always the goal of the X-Box project anyway.
Hiro_Kunimi_80
Member
OMG " Xbox-next ARCADE " sku revealed !!!
no HDD !!!
...
no HDD !!!
...
Here is Ben Parfitt's response about whether this means no physical distribution or not:
@wyp100 All the details I know are in the story mate. No discs, but some form of physical media. Can't be 100% about strategy
So...sounds like game cards (more likely) or in-store downloads, if true.
@wyp100 All the details I know are in the story mate. No discs, but some form of physical media. Can't be 100% about strategy
So...sounds like game cards (more likely) or in-store downloads, if true.
Castor Krieg
Banned
So what about BC? Games on Demand failure LOL?
Does seem unlikely that they could come up with an affordable non-disc based retail solution for games, and even if they introduce things like pre-loading and bandwidth caps to the XBL download process people still aren't ready to go DD only.
I'm sure they'd LIKE to get rid of it, but I doubt it will happen.
I'm sure they'd LIKE to get rid of it, but I doubt it will happen.
specialguy
Banned
I'm not so sure I buy this theory. It's plausible but havent seen a whole lot of confirmation.
Actually this rumor does make perfect sense in the context of the set top box piece of the equation though, you're right.
Who knows. Tired of all these unsourced rumors, wishing for more real info on wii u, next box, etc!
Risk Breaker
Member
Aaaand there you have the used games killer!
Diprosalic
Banned
what if they have a external hdd type of thing you could bring to a store and log in with your account to transfer the game onto or for non band width limited people simply download it at home. killing 2nd hand while keeping retail alive and smoothen the transition to a DL only future. easy to do and quite cheap.
they could sell gift cards fir games for parents or christmas. only negative is that you need to bring your hdd if you want to buy at the store.
they could sell gift cards fir games for parents or christmas. only negative is that you need to bring your hdd if you want to buy at the store.
If I were a brick and mortar store I would refuse to offer the download kiosks.
Pie and Beans
Look for me on the local news, I'll be the guy arrested for trying to burn down a Nintendo exec's house.
Remembering the 2 SKU rumours, this could read like a SUPER-TARD re-pack of the 360 that axes even retail disc 360 games out of the equation to focus on XBLA stuff, giving it its own platform alongside all this media top box nonsense. Doesnt make too much sense when pre-owned 360's will be floating around for buttons, but maybe if its packaged snazzily enough might be a point to it. Kinect built into the box itself?
I absolutely dont see this rumour being in regards to the Xbox 720 though. Physical media at 50gb+ is still going to be wildly expensive in 2014.
I absolutely dont see this rumour being in regards to the Xbox 720 though. Physical media at 50gb+ is still going to be wildly expensive in 2014.
Game cards is unlikely, needlessly expensive per game for publishers with the sizes we will be looking at.
A rival system with optical media would be much more attractive, they won't risk that.
j0hnny_385
Member
Sadly, this idiotic news will receive more attention that it deserves (and some hefty ad revenue ad that).
There is absolutely no fucking way that this is true and that the NextBox (or any box, PS4 or whatever) will abandon physical discs in the future.
I'll just leave a couple of things for consideration:
- Gamestop, Wallmart, <retailers>
- Amazon, <online retailers>
- crappy Internet in most of the world's countries (I work as an engineer in the telecommunications industry, and trust me, the bandwidth reports aren't pretty)
- the sheer size of games these days which will only increase for nextgen as assets get more complicated and bigger (compression won't follow, trust me).
etc. etc. etc.
You get the picture.
There is absolutely no fucking way that this is true and that the NextBox (or any box, PS4 or whatever) will abandon physical discs in the future.
I'll just leave a couple of things for consideration:
- Gamestop, Wallmart, <retailers>
- Amazon, <online retailers>
- crappy Internet in most of the world's countries (I work as an engineer in the telecommunications industry, and trust me, the bandwidth reports aren't pretty)
- the sheer size of games these days which will only increase for nextgen as assets get more complicated and bigger (compression won't follow, trust me).
etc. etc. etc.
You get the picture.
bigtroyjon
Member
Casual games are the driving force of smart phone/ tablet gaming which require no disc. People will have no issue downloading stuff from a store, especially if that store looks just like the app store on their Windows 8 machine.
Besides, casuals aren't the launch customers for consoles. Be 2014 or maybe even later than that before the dumb downed customers will be looking into it.
specialguy
Banned
In store downloads not happening. On B3D though, we've had endless debates about the feasibility of next gen media being solid state (aka, flash discs/carts) so that's interesting. Some swear it's a no brainer, others that it's completely impossible. I tend to lean towards the second category slightly.
The Vita uses carts, and it's by far the most graphically advanced system yet to do so...
Who knows though, MS may have high level engineers who looked at it and said, hey we can solve a lot of technical problems in the system if we do this, and here's a chart of flash prices curve they'll be reasonable in year XXX, and so on. Or, none of that happened and the rumor is false.
By technical problems, I mean perhaps you could save a lot of money or gain a lot of performance on RAM and other things if you were drawing from a pool of speedy flash compared to a slow disc...you could set the box up as one big streamer, speedy flash>ram>GPU...maybe the performance could be way higher...maybe you get better performance from 2GB of RAM and flash than 4GB and a disc, or 2X performance with 4GB RAM, etc.
Just kicking a million ideas around here. On a basic level I am doubting any console maker wants to go back to relying on physical non disc media. Remember Nintendo's cartridge shortages? Even if a flash cart costs $2, that's probably prohibitive versus 5 cents for a disc, when you're talking 100's of millions of them.
How about...
...small, economical game cards. 8GB, say.
But they only contain the first chunk of the game. The rest you download.
Only original purchaser gets that download.
Bam - keeps retail there, cheap solid state storage, cut the legs off preowned... Basically hybrid physical/dd-only.
In-store downloads to the card you get with your 720 keeps everyone happy.
Halfway house for transitioning to download only which is the ultimate aim of Microsoft and others anyway, and future-proofed for when everyone can do it in their home.
eso76
Member
i dunno, streaming movies in hd is already possible for a lot of people, so that would be the last of my concerns.
Now, 50GB+ games worry me.
I don't think games retailing on memcards + DD is unlikely at all.
SD should be cheap enough
Yeah, if this really is true and there isn't a SKU that includes a disc drive, I see it falling flat on its face based on bandwidth limitations alone. Games are huge now and they're only going to get bigger once blu-ray sized games become standard. People simply wont put up with that shit, even you could somehow download from a kiosk at a store. That'd be annoying as all hell. Game sales would plummet on inconvenience alone.
We're just not ready yet for direct download only console.
We're just not ready yet for direct download only console.
Sounds sloppy, unless the rest you download is actually additional DLC you must purchase.
AHUAHUAHUAHUA.
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