Generic Gamer said:
Hang on...when you say 'Microsoft' do you mean specifically 'the xbox 360'? See every console has been designed to only take official plug-ins, no company supports unofficial peripherals by intent. Frankly if you want to be pissed off at closed-house accessory design then the Nintendo Wii is a far better example, I've literally never seen a third party wii controller. The drives were always intended to be optional because the 360 was never supposed to be used the way it is now and Microsoft wanted a scaled down console to be sold on the cheap but that would still be capable of playing all the games, the slim is an acknowledgement of the changed usage model. I'd almost be interested in the argument that the fan and disk tray were to force you to install to drive...except that the option to wasn't part of the original design. Again that is a refinement of the device to match the usage pattern and was adopted in 2008.
My PC also has the DVD trays with no locking spindle and I've never had a disk scratch with my PC or my 360. I don't tip them over whilst running so maybe that's why. I have noticed that the fan is thermostatically controlled, which means it gets louder because it's getting faster when the console is hot. The big killer for the 360 is heat and dust, dust clogs vents and most people seem to have theirs stood up which blocks ventilation, thus forcing the fan to rev up. The fact is that 360s are being used in ways they were never designed initially to be used, the memory sticks were fine for game files but the popularity of DLC and using the console as a media centre were never expected in the initial design. Since then the 360 has undergone a change to allow this new usage.
Ok I'll address the second paragraph first. While I understand this wasn't in original design I think it is very short sighted for people to even consider buying it without a HDD since Sony scrapped the 20gb PS3 almost straight away to make it future proof. Without any DLC you could survive on a 20gb HDD drive for its lifespan probably. Yes I understand people use their 360s horribly mine is kept on my chest of drawers in stable equilibrium(horizontal position) with a good six inches of space on the side vents away from any solid objects. Even with that and fan maintenance the fan and disc noise playing without installation is ridiculous.
Also PC don't scratch discs because everything on a PC is installed so the disc does very little moving and also people don't move the PC what so ever. Some people move the 360 from horizontal to vertical while the disc is in which moving a spining object about a different axis to the one it is rotating is pure idiocy. Also the 360 do spin at a higher RPM that most other things if I remember correctly which adds to the problem.
On the first paragraph I really don't Microsoft are as short sighted as you are making them out to be. Bill Gates didn't get to be the richest man in the world by building his company on short sightedness. He did it by making sure when he started off after he sold someone something that they had to come to him and his company for support and upgrades to guarantee customers. Also when I say MS I don't just mean the 360 as this is the business practise Microsoft has used to get where it is. I know because when I was in Business Studies we watched an interview with the CEO and Co founder of Microsoft and he explained this as their business practise to getting where they are.
So while I accept the Wii is awful for Third Party Support and maybe even worse than the 360 on the hardware side for third party support. Microsoft wanted a scaled down console that could easily be upgradable so that they could bring it up to standard of what it should be. The Slim really should of been what the 360 release should of been. Either that or the Elite model atleast with the level of memory. Microsoft wanted a cheap console to try get as much of the market as they could as that is why the PS2 excelled so much over the original xbox it was cheaper.
I do see your angle but overall given how Microsoft does business I reall think it was part of their original plan in the begining as once you have all your games on it which would you rather do upgrade your 360 or switch to get a PS3.