Microsoft Xbox One, Xbox One S Discussion

Somewhat relevant article: PS4 may appear at CES

 

Good point - I do think this is where the cloud thing has some serious pro's. I quite dislike the current profile transfer system... The problem I see is that the "cheats" and the "pirates" always tend to force the console makers into doing things that make life hard for the general fair playing population who are quite willing to cough up to play games. , it'll be interesting to see how it all develops.

Anyway, I'll just enjoy what we have for now...

Z...

 

No way digital will work for the next round of consoles, it failed miserably with PSP Go too. Take up on DLC is piss poor, especially on PSN. No way I can see companies risking it.

Then you can also kiss EB goodbye too... That's not in MS and Sonys interests imho

 

plus you have to factor in the cost it takes to make a USB stick over a DVD/BD and USB sticks will cost more obviously.

 

So your only real argument is they're smaller. So as a for and against.

Against
Smaller and easier to loose.
More expensive then discs
They loose DVD/BluRay movie compatibility
No backwards compatibility

For
Doesn't require an expensive disc drive
player hardware is more reliable (ever had a usb port die? how about a DVD drive?)
allows for smaller consoles
flash drivers are far stronger then discs.
Faster
No need to use a sony patented device.


Piracy could go either way and has a lot more to do with the how the security is implemented then the type of technology so I've ignored that. I honestly doubt they will leave optical storage for the next generation, but I can hope.

 

I don't see losing DVD/BD ability as an issue. The movie houses seem to be doing a good job of convincing the general public to download shit quality versions of movies via Netflix style systems of high quality uncompressed BD versions (defeating the purpose of the whole HDTV thing, to be honest), so I see "online rental" as the way of the future, even though I hate the idea.

Z...

 

wouldn't the USB die after a number of writes? if that's something they implement for saves or updates.

 

You wouldn't need to write to the USB at all, saves can be based on the console or cloud storage (preferably both) so then you only have to do reads off the USB, the same as you would for any optical storage medium. That said we're all using SSDs now with out an issue so I think limited read/write cycles are a thing of the past. (by limited I mean where the limit is likely to be an issue)

 

xbox is moving to cloud storage in the next update (those in the preview program get to try that out) though i think if they did go USB that the games would go up to cover the cost of the flash drives. if they did it like steam (i.e. pre-load then unlock via live) then that would be good.

 

It could work with the preload idea, however im sure MS wouldn't solely go that route for a while.

It would single out too many gamers i.e those who don't want live or internet for their console, those in certain areas that can't get fast enough internet, or those on a lower budget (that might not be able to afford a higher cap plan to then buy games) and then there is the loss of being able to market special editions with physical bonuses (such as skyrim and the alduin statue) that im sure game devs would be displeased about.

It could work, although they already have relatively new titles downloadable on live. id like at least another generation or two before we have to go down that road

 

Just so I can blow my own horn & quote myself....

http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showpost.php?p=13832999&postcount=55

...I've pretty much addressed multiple ways that USB-delivered games could not only be designed & developed hardware/software wise, but piracy & game/copy sharing issues as well.

I agree, if the flash drive is used only as readable & not rewriteable media, you wouldn't have to worry about the number of read/writes to the device.

Ie;

1. Read USB
2. Copy game from USB to HDD
3. Only use USB from there after as a form of verification (anti-piracy)
4. Game boots only from HDD (never from the USB itself), via the bootloader only on the USB (anti-piracy)

I don't think MS & developers would like my idea of game/copy sharing, however (ie; they'd sell less copies per 1 household, if 1 household has more than 1 console).

 

the only reason they don't do it is because it's damn expensive to make the USB sticks over conventional DVDs. i would assume you could customise the sticks to store whatever the final game size is but really i don't think it'll happen next generation.

 

flash drives, are not limited to USB

I have no problems with proprietary cartridge / interfaces. 16 - 32gb flash is cheap enough and will only get cheaper, put all interface circuitry on the console itself, so the cartridge only has the flash rom chips on it.

and make it ROM, any dlc would be tied to the system anyway, so nothing changes.

Sony doesnt really need BD in a console anymore, if they had a proprietry flash rom cartridge. they have already established BD as the current movie medium and as a ROM for games, its not exactly great (apart from sheer storage)

 

dlc should be tied to the account foremost while i think any patches that do come out be allowed to write itself to the USB and only patches.

 

i think they would be crazy to not deliver it with a blueray drive.

but an easy way to make drives last longer is to only use them from copying the data to the harddrive, and not using them to run the game.

after all, a read only BR drive costs less then $30 for them, its not that massive cost, and people still want the added function of hd video playback.

 

I'm still waiting for the new Atari & Sega systems.

 

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/329829/xbox-720-launching-in-2013-microsoft-source-confirms/

 

I think they worry about piracy to much. If they go down the flash drive route, they will end up losing more money due to manufacturing costs than they would due to piracy using CD's. CD's are cheap and can be popped out like hotcakes.

Shit, didn't one of the top sellers make a billion dollars in a month or something?

If the new xbox ends up getting hacked, I will be surprised. If they didn't learn anything from the xbox 360 then I don't know when they will.

 

Just had a look at the Xbox360 graphics. Xbox launched in 2005 and on the PC the best graphics card from ATI was the X1950...

Well I'm excited about the next Xbox. 1080P and 60 FPS should be a given on every game...

 

I'm sure at launch it will... then 3-4 years down the track they'll sacrifice resolution for the pretty graphics... then another 1-2 later they'll sacrifice frame rate to keep up then... it's what's happened so far

What I would love to see is a 1080p upscale and 60FPS unlock with backwards compatibility for all or most existing 360 games, that would be pretty sweet.