Microsoft: Who needs blu-ray? (Dtoid Article)

[migo]

If it had Blu-Ray most of the games would have way more content.

Hell, even if they'd gone with HD-DVD integrated rather than as a stupid $200 add-on. BluRay built in did Sony a victory twofold - it helps the PS3 in the long term be the much better system, and in the short term (and therefore extra long term) wins the format war for Sony.

 

[Lovelocke]

chortle "nobody needs videogames" and "I don't buy a console until I'm sure there's 10 games for it I need to own."

I think you've read too much into it... and in the wrong direction. Try not drinking water or eating food for a week, then try not playing a videogame for a week. Report results... we'll wait.

 

[Mortons4ck]

Well I think they'll probably have Blu-ray support with whatever console they ship out next.

However for now I agree that it was right for them not to include it.

It kept Xbox prices and Xbox game prices down.

Blu-ray is the way forward but where we are is still okay for another 2+ years I reckon.

I doubt Blu-Ray is the way forward. Flash drive or cards are the way forward I think. No need to be screwing around with discs any longer.

They said the same thing about SSD replacing HDD in laptops a while back. Didn't happen. USB Flash drives may be the future of floppy disks. However, for storage unit per unit of cost, disks will almost always win. I wouldn't count them out just yet.

 

[vato_loco]

Well, here's the thing: most of you guys are chatting from the USA, meaning that you have a very good connection that allows for digital content download and FullHD streaming.

Me? I'm from Argentina, where Internet speed can't even come close to the ones on USA or Europe. So for us, streaming isn't really the future of gaming, and I much prefer to have a physical copy of my games since, you know, I can lend them to my friends, I can check the games I have without having to turn on the TV and PS3, and they make one hell of a decoration.

 

[homer9250]

really didnt wanna wander into this fanboy debate but just couldnt resist correcting some stuff.

That HDD won't work on the 360, nice try though. I'm more referring to the SATA 3 Drives that the PS3 can use, all of the drives actually, since they don't restrict to 1st party hardware. I keep a hell of allot more stuff on the 320g in my PS3.

PS3 can't utilize SATA3. Motherboard doesnt have it, itd just run the drive in SATA1.5.(Just for balance, neither can the Xbox 360) I hate it when people use technology in fanboy debates they know nothing about.

They said the same thing about SSD replacing HDD in laptops a while back. Didn't happen. USB Flash drives may be the future of floppy disks. However, for storage unit per unit of cost, disks will almost always win. I wouldn't count them out just yet.

SSDs will replace HDDs. There just not cheap enough yet. Vastly superior performance, seeing as HDDs utilize essentially the same technology as a record player (think about it), but at $180 for 60GB only high end PC builders have made the switch so far. It is coming, however ...

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My opinion, people like getting something tangible in return for their money. Flash could be an alternative to Blu-ray, what with USB 3.0 out now. However i just don't see the disc dying anytime soon (at least for games).

Sidenote: The Microsoft guy said Sony technology is gonna be bypassed? OMG im shocked!

 

[Legendary Alucard]

Considering a great many games have been 'chopped' down, due to capacity restrictions on the 360 (FFXIII, Lost Planet 2, for example). I think he's talking out of his ass. Couple that with Microsoft charging additional costs for each additional disc a game launches with, and yeah, leaving Blu Ray (or some other high capacity format) out is a bad idea, from a gamer/developers perspective. Cause it impacts us the most. For Microsoft? It just makes them more money.

Ey I wantid to bash Xbox and talk smack of there lack of HardWare... But yea its a good point.. I dont know wha they Have against blue ray..

 

[TPiddy]

Well, they really can't go full DD anytime soon. Think of people with bandwidth caps, slow internet or no internet at all. They still want those people to be customers. It would be foolish to go full DD anytime soon.

However, going Blu-Ray just means more loading times and I don't want that either. Flash drives or SD cards seem the smart way to go.

Totally agree.... go back to the cartridge format... though that could open them up to more pirating I guess, so we'll see more DRM if they go that route... but it just makes sense to me. Have the game data stored externally. I don't want to download everything, but at the same time I don't think MS should be paying Sony for the rights to Blu-Ray. It was a dick move by Sony to force the format, but it's one that will play out in their favour.

 

[Woodsey]

So why is Games on Demand so shit then?

You'd have thought that if skipping a pointless cost was the real intention then they'd actually bother with their store.

 

[TPiddy]

Well DD is easy to pirate as well, you don't even have to rip it off the discs. The DRM is going to get more harsh no matter what method they choose because the industry doesn't trust it's own customers.

Yeah, it's understandable though, considering the amount of piracy going on. When MS can kick 1 million modded XBoxes off of LIVE you know it's a problem. Everyone wants their gaming, no one wants to pay for it. I'm a bit guilty of this myself. I buy all my games new, but I like to trade mine in to get credit and discounts on the purchase price. Still, I'll typically pay for 4-5 games full price per year... so I feel like I support the industry. I also buy a lot of DLC.

 

[zfactor]

SSDs will replace HDDs. There just not cheap enough yet. Vastly superior performance, seeing as HDDs utilize essentially the same technology as a record player (think about it), but at $180 for 60GB only high end PC builders have made the switch so far. It is coming, however ...

..........................................................................
My opinion, people like getting something tangible in return for their money. Flash could be an alternative to Blu-ray, what with USB 3.0 out now. However i just don't see the disc dying anytime soon (at least for games).

Sidenote: The Microsoft guy said Sony technology is gonna be bypassed? OMG im shocked!

Yeah, SSD are coming, there just too freaking expensive and have low capacities now. They have vastly faster read/write time, make much less heat, and aren't completely runined when you drop it! Imagine four of those bad boys in a raid 0 configuration... Goodbye load times.

 

[RowdyRodimus]

What a stupid statement.

What makes that statement stupid?

There are lots of reasons why people make min wage, not the least of which is that the employers only pay min wage because they are greedy.

Besides, min wage workers keep your Big Mac prices down.

When I was in college (8-4 Monday through Friday), I worked at Long John Silver's for minimum wage because they were the only people to work around my lectures and labs I had to go to. So I was lazy because I was in school and work from 8 am until almost Midnight five days a week and going to wrestling school two state over on the weekends.

Garack, this wasn't pointed to you, I was just giving another reason why some people make minimum wage while (not) being lazy. As for homework, I scheduled an hour off each day during my classes where I did it and wrote papers in the car while going to Texas on the weekends (my friend always drove because he just found it fascinating to watch us take bumps and wanted to wrestle but couldn't because of a handicap he had, so he got to live his dream vicariously through me lol)

 

[TPiddy]

No, it's not understandable. No other industry treats 100% of their customers like thieves. Every industry faces theft, not every industry mistreats 100% of their customers.

Sorry but being "understanding" only encourages more and worse DRM.

Well, there's always a right and a wrong way to go about things, but being someone who has had something they've worked hard for stolen from them, I can sympathize. You have a point in that their treatment of consumers has been shoddy of late, but that's only a select few and not the majority.

 

[Willsor]

Really? Instant blu ray streaming. PFft yeah, if people have the best internet connection in the world

 

[SyphonX]

Really? Instant blu ray streaming. PFft yeah, if people have the best internet connection in the world

Yeah, some people are extremely ignorant. This is the part that stuck out the most, for me. People actually think you can "stream blu-ray" (lol, sigh). He's not stating it as fact, he's just saying it that way because it's all they have to offer. So people will believe it anyway.

Try downloading the Lord of the Rings 'trilogy' in full unripped Blu-Ray in anything short of a week. Try it, I dare you. Then come back and tell me how stupid it is to suggest you can "stream Blu-Ray"..

 

[GonzoGamer]

Considering a great many games have been 'chopped' down, due to capacity restrictions on the 360 (FFXIII, Lost Planet 2, for example).

You forgot to mention gta4.
This reminds me of the George Carlin bit:
?And now a message from the national apple institute: Fuck Pears!?

I can see why these companies (especially MS) would like to abandon physical media but I think they?re going to have to come to the realization that while digital distribution is a great format for rentals (as we see with Netflix) nobody wants the things they own to be so insubstantial. Of course they can all band together and still force it on us which is probably what they?re going to do: as long as people don?t get completely fed up, these companies can make a lot more money off us with digital distribution.

Of course it could also blow back on everyone and make piracy even more popular than it is now. Many will figure "if I'm not going to properly own it, I'm not going to properly buy it."

 

[TPiddy]

Really? Don't most publishers use some form of DRM that goes beyond a cd check?

Not really, my only experience so far has been EA's online activation and Ubisoft. Then again, I only play legit copies of games and I don't have Steam.

 

[IsoNeko]

I'm a 360 fanboy at heart, I mean I'm posting right now in between playing Reach, and even I know Blu-Ray will be around for a long ass time.

 

[tinkyyy]

I just can't imagine any one I know being able to stream "1080p Blu-ray quality video" due to the fact that here in the UK (well were I am at least) our internet connections simply can't reach speeds good enough to handle that. We replace the rubbish 2mbps max connections around here, blu-ray will definitely be the best way to watch HD video.

 

[ImprovizoR]

Don't you need to switch the disks at some point to play Mass Effect 2 on Xbox 360?

Yeah, who needs Blu-Ray...

 

[TPiddy]

Did you notice that Starcraft II lost LAN play so they could force people to log into b.net to play multiplayer? That's DRM that goes beyond a cd check. If I am not mistaken you are forced to create a b.net account to even activate the game.

Just EA and Ubisoft you say? What percentage of disc based titles do these two companies produce? What about Activision, aren't they introducing a sub to play online for one of their games? That would also be DRM beyond a cd check.

Didn't play Starcraft II, but not all of EA's titles have the DRM. EA's Bioware releases didn't and I don't even have a Bioware account, but I was still able to play all of Dragon Age and Mass Effect 2 without jumping through any DRM hoops. As for Activision, they haven't done so yet, so you're just speculating.

I've never experienced DRM with Gears of War, Valve 360 titles, Crackdown, Red Dead Redemption, Fallout.... hell every game I've ever played on the 360 outside of EA's NHL 11.