Could the next gen be disc free?

[Mayhem]

and having the game ready to play in minutes.

Hah hah hah

Where do you live? South Korea? Hours here more like...

[SomeScrub]

Not the next gen but the one after that will be all downloadable.

[Matt_B]

and having the game ready to play in minutes.

Hah hah hah

Where do you live? South Korea? Hours here more like...

I'm in London, and it takes me about 20 minutes to download something the size of a DVD image. I do have an FTTC connection that's probably a bit better than most broadband users, but those sort of speeds are going to become commonplace in the next couple of years, quite possibly in time for the launch of the 720.

For what it's worth the average South Korean broadband speed is only about twice the UK one, and that's for a country with much more of the population concentrated in urban areas.

[thevulture]

Would still expect to see retailers on-board, when hardware finally does go down load only.

You'd buy a DVD case, with a slip of paper inside, with code to redeem for purchase of game from say PSN or XBL or Steam, or just sell MS points/PSN top up cards, as they do now, along with iTunes vouchers etc.

After PSN hack and with 360 hacks still hitting headlines, know i'm not giving my card details to Sony or MS ever again.

[Sel Feena]

Ultimately, it's an issue of convenience. Price considerations aside, would you rather buy your games:

1. By going to a shop, browsing through a limited range of titles, and fending off overzealous shop assistants.

2. Buying from an on-line retailer offering the full range of games, but waiting a couple of days for someone to leave a package under a bush in your front garden.

3. Buying from the comfort of your sofa and having the game ready to play in minutes. Not only that, but you'll get an even larger range of games including those from indie publishers who would be unable to finance a production run of physical media.

Wow...Just wow. You should formulate questionnaires for the government!

[Jonboy1977]

A third of all xboxes sold are not connected to the internet.

Many people are unable to connect online, or have such a poor connection that downloading big games is simply not viable.

going download only is a great way of limiting your customer base and sales.

I never ever want digital media to replace physical, and will only buy whichever console that allows me to have the choice to buy hard copies

Not only will microsoft effectively be limiting sales of games, but also create a feature that will turn off many people from actually buying the machine.

By all means push digitasl downloads, but be sensible and cover all bases by providing a physical media option.

[Matt_B]

Ultimately, it's an issue of convenience. Price considerations aside, would you rather buy your games:

1. By going to a shop, browsing through a limited range of titles, and fending off overzealous shop assistants.

2. Buying from an on-line retailer offering the full range of games, but waiting a couple of days for someone to leave a package under a bush in your front garden.

3. Buying from the comfort of your sofa and having the game ready to play in minutes. Not only that, but you'll get an even larger range of games including those from indie publishers who would be unable to finance a production run of physical media.

Wow...Just wow. You should formulate questionnaires for the government!

I'm guessing that you wouldn't pick option three then?

Seriously, what's there to be afraid of? I'm sure you could use the extra shelf space for something else too.

[Jonboy1977]

Ultimately, it's an issue of convenience. Price considerations aside, would you rather buy your games:

1. By going to a shop, browsing through a limited range of titles, and fending off overzealous shop assistants.

2. Buying from an on-line retailer offering the full range of games, but waiting a couple of days for someone to leave a package under a bush in your front garden.

3. Buying from the comfort of your sofa and having the game ready to play in minutes. Not only that, but you'll get an even larger range of games including those from indie publishers who would be unable to finance a production run of physical media.

Wow...Just wow. You should formulate questionnaires for the government!

I'm guessing that you wouldn't pick option three then?

Seriously, what's there to be afraid of? I'm sure you could use the extra shelf space for something else too.

Why, I would rather put in extra shelves and fill those full of games too.

[DreamcastRIP]

It's Microsoft so they'll do it on the cheap. Get ready for 'Xbox 720' games on the old HD-DVD format.

[Jonboy1977]

Another thing. Who wants to give up unwrapping new games at Xmas and Birthdays. I love doing that.

Am I supposed to want to swap that with getting some sort of boring download codes for about 5 games, then sit there all Xmas morning downloading about 50Gb of info whilst probably having the service crippled bt millions of others doing the exact same thing at the exact same time.

Talk about sucking the enjoyment out of something.

What about those Brothers and sisters who each own consoles but share games, now the parents have to buy 2 copies of each game.

And like someone else has already said, what if your internet goes down, especially if, like I suspect, you have to be connected to play your games.

As for price, do I even have to mention the PSP go and some of the laughable prices on GOD.

What happens when friends get together to play games and everyone takes games round with them, unless the host has every game then there is going to end up with 4-5 consoles being switched around depending on what game you want to play. Thats if people can be bothered to drag their consoles about with them.

as for storage, what about HDD size. I own 250+ 360 games. is the next HDD going to be large enough to store that much stuff.

[thevulture]

I'm looking at it that things have got to radically improve in UK, in terms of infastructure, pricing, fair usage policy etc over next 5 years at least.I mean iPad 3 has 4G support, no use to UK as yet is it? 2 years away? Cornwall had limited trail, sure they said nothing major happening until another 2 years, so thats a case of the cart going before the horse has even left the stable,.

Will MS follow suit and launch a platform that will be waiting for a delivery means to catch up?.My ISP throttling bandwidth back again tonight it looks like and classes PSN/XBL as P2P (if that's correct term).If i cannot even download an HD movie to my 360 at any given time of day/night or even connect to XBL after 23:00, long road to travel yet.

[Mayhem]

I'm in London, and it takes me about 20 minutes to download something the size of a DVD image. I do have an FTTC connection that's probably a bit better than most broadband users, but those sort of speeds are going to become commonplace in the next couple of years, quite possibly in time for the launch of the 720.

20 minutes on torrent, I can see. Not from Microsoft's or whoever company servers it is, I bet. Given it took me 40 minutes to download "I Am Alive" and that's 1.8GB, then I'm not holding my breath. And I'm on a 12Mbps connection here. You go further into the wilds where people are lucky to have a 2Mbps connection, and see what they think.

[Misery]

Having used digital-download type services (or normal download links) to get/buy probably 95% of my games over the past 2 years, I can sorta see where they're going with this (if indeed they are going there).

Buying something from Steam is SO much less irritating than buying from, say, Gamestop, who is the major game store around here.

Gamestop is FILLED with problems.

Shelves that make no sense, somewhat randomized order, and the games NEVER fit on the shelves, so the last row or two is all..... clumpy, makes it hard to NOTICE things there.

The employees.... having worked there before, I know that they are FORCED to be pushy about Gamestop's stupid "deals", even if they dont want to be. Means ALOT of pushy employees, giving you deals that you only accept if you're rather dimwitted.

And alot of those employees dont have a CLUE what you're talking about if you ask for something that isnt a AAA game. Want something obscure? Hahaha.... better find it yourself, cause they sure cant.

Oh, and those obscure games? Yeah, Gamestop is known to NOT ORDER ANY if you dont give them pre-orders in advance. I'm currently waiting for Armored Core 5 to come out in a week or so. But since it's not Call of Halos, I *have* to go put a pre-order on it (today actually) or they WILL NOT ORDER ANY. Which would mean the game would release that day.... and not be in the store at all. They've done this SO many times.

I could keep up this anti-Gamestop rant, and probably do some anti-BestBuy stuff as well, but here we come to the point:

I could go to Gamestop and buy such-and-such game and deal with all of that crap.

....but if the game is available on, say, Steam (or PSN or whatever), I click a couple of buttons on Steam, use my debit card, and.... that's it. That's all. No pushiness or anything. Connection here is good (most of the time) so even something like Skyrim downloads in like 10-15 minutes. (no, seriously, that's how long it took). .....from Steam, anyway. I dont see it being that fast from PSN, for instance. But it is at least POSSIBLE.


I think this type of thing, with these types of arguements, is WHY digital distribution is becoming bigger and bigger. It's the reason why you see groups like EA starting to offer their own Steam-ish service. Because, for those that DO have access to it, and who DO have the right connection, it makes it REALLY REALLY EASY to give EA (or whoever) money. And the number of people capable of using the service increases all the time.

But the next-gen being disc-free? Hmm..... probably not yet. Or at least, I dont think it'd be a bright idea. Even with disc-based systems though, I can see them trying to focus that much harder on XBLA and similar services as the place to buy your games if you can.

[do_sucol]

I'll just post my comments from C&VG

EXCELLENT !We've come full circle (nearly).Tape,(floppy)disc,cartridge,optical disc and now back to a solid state fast loading cart type medium,YAY

It's about time they did,as todays solid state media has evolved way past the expensive rom carts we used to use.

Can someone please quote a part of the C&VG article which states/hints at the software being downloadable only for the next xbox ? You can't ,because it doesn't mention it anywhere !Instead ,it's another case of ignorant people not reading what's put infront of them !It's "rumoured" not to have a disc drive .

So how does that translate to being a console which needs an ISP (the interwebs,for the ignorant morons among us)to download it's software ??

Turn it around and pretend we have only ever had cartridge based consoles.

Microsoft's new xbox console is rumoured to have no cartridge slot .The site claims the console will "offer compatibility with some sort of interchangeable optical based media storage, although it is not known whether this will be proprietary or a more standard format such as cd/mini disc".

Oh noes teh new xbox console will need an interweb connection to download teh games ,we're all doomed,microsoft have failed if they think a download only games console will work .



I'll quote myself again

The old carts we used to use were only ROM type.(they could only be read,not written to).So they could implement a check and update type system on the new carts.Where the cart reads a unique encrypted key that's stored on the console(like the system used today,(but obviously, a disc can't update itself with the console's key) ,then the cart writes this info to the game cart and updates itself to be locked to only this console .SIMPLES

The whole second hand market is wiped out with ease ,no more lending your games to your brother,sister,kids,mates and no more cheap bargains for the consumer ! YAY

[kiwimike]

The Vita is a powerful piece of kit, up there with the PS3 apparently and Sony have chosen to abandon the UMD in favour of cartridges. A good move imo. Is it beyond the realms of possibility then that the next gen consoles could follow suit? Its a given that the PS4 and 720 will be more powerful than the Vita and the games will undoubtedly be bigger. But if Sony are mass producing carts for the Vita it may be viable for them to do so for ps4. And Microsoft have a Choice to make as it is, get in bed with Sony and use Blu Rays, resurrect the HD DVD, or do something new.

It would make for a quieter and more reliable console wouldnt it. I would love to see the disc format ditched if im honest. Ive always preferred carts.

Yep, I do much prefer carts, but won't mind either as long as there is a way to buy the physical software. Couldn't stand the idea of download only formats.