Next Generation Xbox and Playstation Consoles Will Have Optical Drives 206
First time accepted submitter dintech writes "The Wall Street Journal reports that while Sony considered online-only content distribution for its next-generation Playstation, the manufacturer has decided that the new console will include an optical drive after all. Microsoft is also planning to include an optical disk drive in the successor to its Xbox 360 console as the software company had concerns about access to Internet bandwidth."
Internet Speeds Suck (Score:5, Insightful)
6 days to download TERA, I'm not doing that again.
Reminds me of the old quote... (Score:5, Insightful)
Good. (Score:4, Insightful)
(1) My 750k internet would take 7 days to download a 50 gigabyte Bluray-sized game. (2) Easier to just buy the disc from amazon and have it shipped to me. (3) Plus when I get bored with the game I can sell the disc and recoup my money. Example: I played Final Fantasy 12, thought it was kinda boring, and sold it for $55. Recovered my money.
Re:Good. (Score:5, Insightful)
That they will support physical media doesn't mean they will play used games.
Re:Internet Speeds Suck (Score:5, Insightful)
And for a lot of people, the bandwidth is capped, with extra fees if you go over it.
Assuming a modern video game puts a big dent in the disks now, I can only imagine that digital-only distribution would make the cost of the game more expensive overall.
I wouldn't go to a digital download model. It's a video game console. I want to put in a disk an play games ... I don't want it connected to the internet all the time. But, it seems increasingly, video game companies are insisting on an always-on internet connection.
Re:Reminds me of the old quote... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Internet Speeds Suck (Score:4, Insightful)
Considering how many patches these games end up needing, and add-on content, the happy medium (pun intended) between download only and optical ROM might be a flash stick 2x the size of the base game or so (with some r/o and write-once protections built in.) That would allow the game to store patches on the same medium as it is distributed, rather than filling up your console drive.
Content already owned (Score:4, Insightful)
You expected different? (Score:2, Insightful)
These systems sell globally and not everyone gets broadband (not even in the US) and a lot of people certainly don't have unlimited bandwidth or even want to let their system run for a day or more to download a game that will no doubt be expensive. Physical media won't be going away for quite some time.
Re:Hoping for flash media (Score:2, Insightful)
By the time these consoles comes out 16GB of flash media will be pretty cheap.
And 50 GB of blu-ray storage is even cheaper.
Re:Internet Speeds Suck (Score:5, Insightful)
>>>a flash stick 2x the size of the base game
If you're going to do that, you may as well just go back to cartridges. Let's see... the N64's biggest cartridge was Resident Evil 2 at 64 megabytes. The new PS4 will have 50,000 megabyte carts. ;-) Of course the reason cartridges were phased-out is because assembling hardware is more-costly to build than a flat disc of reflective foil. So you idea is a nonstarter.