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MCV rumour: Next Xbox will not have a disc drive, 2013 release

Bandwidth in this country is still not where it needs to be. US is their core market. They would be limiting the amount of people who could use the console. I know tons of families who bought Kinect are not on Live at all.

No disc drive, no used games. I am sure these rumors have some truth and MS would LOVE to do these things.

Where there's smoke there's fire...
 
Like someone mentioned, digital only doesn't necessarily mean download only. They could have stations set up at game retailers where you make purchases and download the game to your drive, then bring it home with you. It's just information, use your imagination.
 
El_Chino said:
You guys believe the Xbox Live servers will be prepared for such a thing in the next two years? Especially let's say for example launch day?
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, Bellevue's Microsoft tower is whole of full servers. Rumor MS want buy whole One World Trade Center so it can have all server tower.
 
I'm guessing all this stuff is for real. Maybe the SD cards will be used as keys for online downloads? Dongles for purchase in stores if you will.

Either way, it kills the used market (which seems to be a goal) and still keeps something on store shelves.
 
Are people really this dense or are they not reading that the rumour is for SD Media and not a DD future?

There are 2 questions that need to be answered.

1) Is Microsoft willing to give up DVD/Bluray/Backward Compatibility?
2) Are Developers willing to pay $5-10 extra in packaging per game to eradicate piracy/second hand sales.

I think the answer to both questions is yes, and it becomes and even easier choice when Microsoft can sell an accessory that allows for DVD/Bluray/Backward Compatibility, sorta like they did with the HD-DVD. This will keep the core price down, while giving the option for those that want DVD/BR/BC...which follows the philosophy they used this gen.

They hitch might be in the second part where I'm sure the developers are willing to pay to eradicate second hand sales, but if they release multiplatform games on the PS4/WiiU and then all the piracy will be dedicated to those systems. So then...will developers make exclusive content for the Xbox Next or will the system tank and developers be forced to abandon the platform.

There is a lot of potential in this plan if all goes according to plan...but you never know..
 
Didn't CD Projekt just released their numbers for Witcher 2, and 80% of their sales in Europe are from retail. I can see this work in the US, but for the rest of the world it's not going to happen.
 
There is no way anyone would launch a new console that is DD only. It will be an option that if successful may warrant a revised console further down the line.
But it would be suicide to launch a DD only console at launch.
Imagine queuing at midnight for the launch and then once you're home and setup you get shitty DL speeds that mean your 3 game launch collection take up to 2-3 days to DL.
Not going to happen. Bluray drives can be slim, cheap and quiet, why take the risk ?

The largest query I have is how they will justify the live sub because everyone will launch with achievements, party and cross-game chat.
 
I'm highly doubting this rumor for a variety of reasons

1. Broadband isn't everywhere, you would be cutting your install by going DD only

2. If we are talking about retail games on SD like cards, then you are increasing production cost, eliminating a lot of backwards compatabilty, and reducing the functionality of the device.
 
i-Lo said:
You know what, that actually makes pretty good sense.

One mainstream and another to test the water. Possibly cheaper as well.
Click to expand...

Yeah one that will go against Roku, Apple TV, Steam Box (that can even be integrated in Comcast & Direct TV sets) which will serve as MS's trojan into all homes in America and one cutting edge media player/gaming console sku that will keep Ms' hold on gaming industry. As earlier Digital Foundry report have suggested.
 
I won´t be getting it if true
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Edit-
aeroslash said:
Nice to meet you, i'm also from Barcelona;)
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oh hi Barcelona Gaf. Hope you a haver a better connection!
 
polyh3dron said:
can't wait for the version with a measly 40GB HDD or something
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No HDD manufacturer makes such small HDDs anymore. I expect them to use 320GB or 500GB HDDs. It's not unlikely that MS release one SKU without a HDD, though.

Wii U won't use a HDD, so it will only have 16-32GB.
 
I love how so many come in to say DD-only is suicidal. Why wouldn't MS already know this when they have numbers to tell them who, how, what, and where people buy their stuff? It's guaranteed that MS will not make a DD-only console platform. Maybe a specific model of their next one, but not the entire platform. If one territory sells next to no digital games, they'll probably do the obvious and make sure to ship them more physical copies instead while they'll ship less to those places that prefer digital based on their sales and pre-order data. They aren't a big business by accident or inexperience.
 
I don't think this is happening, unless there is 2 skus. A lot of people don't have broadband, or crap/capped broadband.

They would be cutting out alot people in NA if they did this.
 
I like the two SKU ideas mentioned; one that's all solid state and DD and another that's the same but comes with an optical drive.

Given a choice I'd get the SKU without the optical drive any time. Faster, quieter, cheaper, more reliable and maybe even more compact. I don't collect physical media and I've also sold/given away all my xbox360 stuff so BC is not an issue for me. Maybe to offset the price of not having an optical drive they can stick a big hard drive on there and make the non-optical drive option the 'higher end' option (the optical drive SKU would be sort of a consolation device that they could slowly phase out).

At a competitive price I can see people picking this up, especially iPad buyers and PC gamers. I haven't bothered including an optical drive on my latest PC and my Thinkpad doesn't have one either. Yup, I hope that happens.
 
surly said:
Why is "interchangeable solid state media" an instant failure compared to using discs? Cos it won't play DVDs and Blu-Rays?
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Would be too expensive. They'll either make up costs by not allowing resale (locking them digitally to a console) or we foot the bill. Most games will be at least within the 6-8 gig range, which can be cheap, but any game that goes over will start to see cost increase after cost increase.

On the plus side. Load times would be sex.
 
Microsoft wouldn't be foolish to do this, would it? Developers like Epic Games will have to slap some sense into em.
 
Am I the only one who thinks we're not really that close to DD only future? High speed broadband isn't as common as people seem to think. Not everyone lives on Sweden.
 
AndyMoogle said:
No HDD manufacturer makes such small HDDs anymore. I expect them to use 320GB or 500GB HDDs. It's not unlikely that MS release one SKU without a HDD, though.

Wii U won't use a HDD, so it will only have 16-32GB.
Click to expand...

Wii U doesn´t include HDD into the unit, but it will support external HDDs as additional storage.
 
This sounds awesome. I am excited. Hopefully internet companies will get rid of their bandwidth caps so that online can flourish.
 
Mzo said:
Like someone mentioned, digital only doesn't necessarily mean download only. They could have stations set up at game retailers where you make purchases and download the game to your drive, then bring it home with you. It's just information, use your imagination.
Click to expand...

Hmm..

A) Should I sit on my ass and purchase any game I want in my living room.
-or-
B) Should I get up, take my SDD with me, go to the store to download the game, come back home and re-insert the SDD into my system.


I'll go with A. There is no need for such middle-man retail business with digital content distribution.
 
the bigger news here is the 2013 release date. ohhhh yeahhhhh
 
GodfatherX said:
2. If we are talking about retail games on SD like cards, then you are increasing production cost, eliminating a lot of backwards compatabilty, and reducing the functionality of the device.
Click to expand...

You're increasing the cost of producing games, but decreasing the cost of the console.

We don't know if backwards compatibility is important to MS. They may only care about it for stuff you but over Live. They could provide an additional ($$$$) external drive to those people that care. I doubt many will.

I'm not sure that many people care about the functionality of a console as a DVD/BR player. It mattered when there was the PS2 and DVD players were +200 or when the PS3 came out and BR players were $1000. No you can get a player for $50 so it's not a big value add. A bigger value add for consumers is "can it play netflix?" or can I rent movies online.
 
Mzo said:
Like someone mentioned, digital only doesn't necessarily mean download only. They could have stations set up at game retailers where you make purchases and download the game to your drive, then bring it home with you. It's just information, use your imagination.
Click to expand...

That doesn't seem like too bright of an idea, especially with all of the I-only-buy-online-from-Amazon shoppers (like me) we have in this day and age.
 
A potential upside to have all titles available for DD would be for publishers to dynamically update the pricing depending on performance, similar to Steam sales. Know a game is tracking badly before release? Put it on sale week one for $40. Initial sales sucking wind at full price? Cut it by 33% on week two.

Won't please retailers mind you, so I'm not sure if it would ever fly.
 
I went for the first time to the Games on Demand part of the dashboard last night, and I was LMAO at the price tag of some of the games, is like they don't want them to sell.

If that is the future, Thank GOD for Steam.
 
Lets say it is true. Will there be a deal where you can digitally download the games you already own?

I don't know how it will work since you can't prove you have the disc without a drive.
 
This doesn't make any sense at all.

By leaving out the disc drive you decrease production costs by maybe ten or twenty bucks. But you sacrifice an entire distribution system that is still very necessary and remove any chance of backwards compatibility. You also make the user reliant on an unreliable internet connection and a storage medium with a defined capacity. Who really wants to download a 30GB game on a cheap DSL connection? What happens when you run out of hard drive space?

I think when you compare the number of Xbox Live users to the number of 360s sold, you see that something like 25% of people never even go on Live. Are they just giving up on that market?
 
I think this is completely feasible. I envision a console with a large hard drive, and a memory card reader.

People could either download games directly to the console, or take their memory card of choice to a retail outlet where the game could be copied to their memory card. They would then install the game from their memory card to the hard drive, freeing up the memory card for their next purchase.

With a 1 TB drive, and a 32-64 GB memory card, you'd be good for many high quality next gen games.

I do expect that each game will need to be activated on each console. For those whose consoles are not online, this could be accomplished via a phone call to Microsoft. Assuming that each console has a built in hardware readable serial number, you would simply provide that number and the game's serial number, and would be given a specific activation code to manually enter, which would activate the game for that specific console.

There you go. No used games, no optical media, no expensive cartridges for each game, and no need to be online.
 
jmdajr said:
Lets say it is true. Will there be a deal where you can digitally download the games you already own?

I don't know how it will work since you can't prove you have the disc without a drive.
Click to expand...

The only way that would work is by sending the disc to Microsoft and getting a download code in return. Otherwise you could just sell the disc and enjoy a free copy of the game. I doubt this solution would work without you paying Microsoft 5 to 10 bucks for every game you want to have replaced.
 
Probably the proposed copy protection: Being able to write your console's serial # to the game "sd card" so it's locked to that console.

Still, those memory cards are not cheap to manufacture. Certainly not as cheap as an optical disc. The copy protection would obviously benefit the developers/publishers. But I'm willing to bet they'll be taxed a little extra per "disc" by Microsoft for that second-hand sale lockout. At worst, the cost of those chips are passed on to the consumers.

This won't concern me a bit, however, if retail games appear day-and-date with digital downloads. This is something I am expecting with "next-gen", and it damn well better happen. I am over purchasing physical discs.
 
Eh, sounds like a bunk rumor. Can't imagine this is true. Not having a disc drive would basically kill the goal for an "entertainment" center. You want people to always use your device, and have it always on, always connected (mostly for mindshare). Taking out a disc drive removes DVD / Blu-Ray functionality, and I think that's still semi-important to most households (in the era of Redbox and all).
 
padlock said:
With a 1 TB drive, and a 32-64 GB memory card, you'd be good for many high quality next gen games.
Click to expand...

There will not be a 1TB HDD in the next gen consoles. It won't go higher than 500 MB, after all they want you to buy more HDDs once the first is filled up. They could even try to use a combination of local storage and the Cloud. Sort of what they did with the HDD cache this generation, you have your last five games fully installed on your local HDD and the rest is always in the Cloud, once you want to play it you have to download it again and then play it - unless you copied the installation to a USB HDD.
 
With zune and the ability to stream content from my computer bluray movie playback functionality isn't necessary for me.

I like the idea of a solid state system. fewer moving parts means a lower hardware failure rate and lower power requirements. Also seek/load times with solid state are nearly instantaneous.

I buy a console for games first and foremost. While I enjoy all the other functionality, if its a cost choice between a better CPU, GPU and more memory versus all the fluff, get rid of the fluff.
 
MrPliskin said:
Not having a disc drive would basically kill the goal for an "entertainment" center. You want people to always use your device, and have it always on, always connected (mostly for mindshare). Taking out a disc drive removes DVD / Blu-Ray functionality, and I think that's still semi-important to most households (in the era of Redbox and all).
Click to expand...

I understand why that makes sense, but without a drive Microsoft funnels everyone into their digital media services. So if you want to watch a movie, you rent it on Zune. Plus, I have a feeling within the next two years Apple will drop optical drives from their devices. I just feel like that's where it's going.

Of course, Sony is a consumer entertainment hardware manufacturer. Which is why PS3 will play all your AVCHD files. In other words, Sony has a commitment to support all the other hardware devices they sell. So you can certainly expect a Bluray player in PS4, not to mention Dem Bluray Movie Royalties. It could be a good card to use against Microsoft in their marketing materials: "The only console that plays your CDs, DVDs and Blurays", etc.
 
so digital distribution and thumbdrive type stuffs...it could work. Every year that goes by less and less people will miss blu ray's anyway. Streaming seems to fill the void quite nicely for most.
 
McLovin said:
Doubt this is true. Blu-ray is too nice a feature to give up, plus 4k is around the corner.
Click to expand...

If around the corner means in 15 to 20 years, yes, 4k is around the corner. Why would they need BD if they're already streaming and selling almost every movie? They don't get anything by having BD in the box, they just pay for it.
 
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