Poll: Microsoft's Next Gen Format?

[TPiddy]

With Sony winning the HD format war against Toshiba's HD-DVD, it kind of leaves competitors Microsoft and Nintendo in a sticky situation. The current generation of games is starting to push the boundaries of what is possible on a 4.7 GB DVD (well, not Nintendo at least), as we've seen such 360 releases as Final Fantasy XIII and Mass Effect 2 requiring multiple DVD's, while Sony's Blu-Ray format is expandable into the area of 100-200 GB per disc.

However, today's current bandwidth penetration and high-speed internet adoption and usage rates still make it very difficult for 100-200 GB downloads to be commonplace. So what, then does Microsoft do to deliver their games with the next generation? Here are some options I've thought of:

1. They could acquire the rights to HD-DVD from Toshiba, which holds anywhere from 15 to 30, and that could sustain them until bandwidth adoption is better.

2. They could acquire a license from Sony and the Blu-ray board for Blu-ray technology. But do they really want to give royalties to the competition on every game they release?

3. With the advancement in storage technology, could we see Microsoft develop a flash drive based 'cartridge' system that installs the game to the hard drive but requires the cartridge connection to play it? The best Flash drives have been able to achieve so far is 256 GB.

4. They could go with complete digital distribution, counting on the bandwidth and adoption rates.

5. They could run XBox Live service 'on the cloud', in computer terms. Basically, host the game content on servers and have users purchase licenses to access them rather than physical copies.

6. They could stick with DVD or go in an entirely different direction.

TL;DR - Vote on what format you think Microsoft will go with, or offer your input / suggestions below!

 

[ninja51]

I still think the next gen is a ways off and by the time it comes out Microsoft will have worked up a disk capable of handleing that much data on their own. We've got around 4 yours minimum I think till they come up with a next gen system, and even thats shooting it short considering when you think about it, the consoles out right now are pretty much at the peak of what they can do. Sure theres a few minor tweaks here and there that could be made, better disks being one, but I wouldnt worry too much about what they'll do. I highly doubt they'll go full digital with any new games, just because with my console I prefer having a disk, and I know most of the population does as well. Also, a few disks doesnt even matter to me, Mass Effect 2 is the first console game ive ever had that had more than one, and thats because it was truely massive, not JRPG massive, which is more like average sized with a shit ton of padding, but massive in every area. So new disks wont even be a problem for a long time, when we start making 50+ hour games as the norm in the future, then ill care a bit about how microsoft makes their disks better

 

[TPiddy]

I still think the next gen is a ways off and by the time it comes out Microsoft will have worked up a disk capable of handleing that much data on their own. We've got around 4 yours minimum I think till they come up with a next gen system, and even thats shooting it short considering when you think about it, the consoles out right now are pretty much at the peak of what they can do. Sure theres a few minor tweaks here and there that could be made, better disks being one, but I wouldnt worry too much about what they'll do. I highly doubt they'll go full digital with any new games, just because with my console I prefer having a disk, and I know most of the population does as well. Also, a few disks doesnt even matter to me, Mass Effect 2 is the first console game ive ever had that had more than one, and thats because it was truely massive, not JRPG massive, which is more like average sized with a shit ton of padding, but massive in every area. So new disks wont even be a problem for a long time, when we start making 50+ hour games as the norm in the future, then ill care a bit about how microsoft makes their disks better

It won't even necessarily be that the games are longer. Uncharted 2 is a game that could not be done on one DVD due to the massive amount of data it uses for poly rendering and environments. As games get better looking and more complex, they will need to store more data, whether or not the actual game play exceeds x amount of hours.

I'm just thinking that with the Blu-ray board cornering the market on high-density storage formats, would Microsoft invest the money to develop their own system? Would they license another pre-existing system?

 

[TPiddy]

Sorry, there's a copy of this thread with the actual poll, we should move this discussion there. Mods please delete this thread.

 

[Vek]

There are new disc-based technologies that Microsoft could invest in. Like the 1TB holographic discs described here [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_disc]. Sure, it'd be expensive, at first, but with enough investment, now, prices and manufacturing costs could be low enough by the time 2015 rolls around and the 10-year Xbox 360 life cycle ends.

 

[demoman_chaos]

Considering they had an HD-DVD add-on for the 360, I'd go with that.
When people saw it recently, they thought it was the 360-Slim (before the real 360 slim was announced) so that shows how well it sold.

HD-DVD could work in gaming, but it didn't work for movies obviously.

 

[TPiddy]

There are new disc-based technologies that Microsoft could invest in. Like the 1TB holographic discs described here [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_disc]. Sure, it'd be expensive, at first, but with enough investment, now, prices and manufacturing costs could be low enough by the time 2015 rolls around and the 10-year Xbox 360 life cycle ends.

Hmm, seems like HVD IS a viable option, but it looks like it's really far away, and Sony still has their hand in it.

 

[TPiddy]

Considering they had an HD-DVD add-on for the 360, I'd go with that.
When people saw it recently, they thought it was the 360-Slim (before the real 360 slim was announced) so that shows how well it sold.

HD-DVD could work in gaming, but it didn't work for movies obviously.

Yeah I don't see why MS couldn't just acquire the rights and use it only for games. It'd be cheap and easy, that's for sure.