Xbox One's 500 GB HD Only Holds 362 GB Of Games

[Something Amyss]

Something like this and the reasons behind it should be completely expected and not surprising, but you can still see how a lot of people would find it misleading when they expect to get 500GB of storage out of their 500GB drive.

They should also understand how this works, based on pretty much every other device on the planet. Granted, 'losing' over 100GB of storage seems a touch extreme, but the launch 360 HDD was more than half unavailable, wasn't it? I think there was 9 GB of the advertised 20 GB storage space.

Further in its defence, it's not like you're going to be actively playing 20 games at one time so you can simply uninstall stuff to make up space.

That's great if you're not advertising it for online distribution/instantdownloadanywhere/thecloooooooud, and you don't want to use DVR or gameplay recording functions. And in a nation with a lot of bandwithd caps, to boot.

When a company try's to take advantage of the doubt or goodwill of their customers its cause for concern.

How is Microsoft doing either?

I see this becoming a problem in the future should updates not overwrite old versions so yes, in due time this CAN be a problem. Rotate your downloaded games to ones you and your friends are actively playing. I don't have Battlefield 3 installed on my PC anymore or any other MP game we've moved on from playing...

Sweet, will you pay my overages?

BTW, they're developing 1TB Blu-Ray discs too so... Yeah, welcome to the future.

Will the Bone or PS4 be able to read them? You have to be designed to read the extra layers, you know. This sort of thing won't in itself impact the console market, especially since both consoles in question will already be on the same level (unlike BD v DVD last gen)

I can see why they aren't willing to, though. A few years back I was visiting a friend in Washington and they used an external harddrive to pirate games. Not sure how it was done but her boyfriend was acting like he could just pick up new games on the spot.

Yeah, but that's not a problem with the external HDD. It's a problem with someone cracking the system. Which, I hate to say, doesn't require an external HDD.

Piracy is illegal, but there's literally no reason to crack down on external devices because of it.

Also 500 GB seems a bit small to me.

Consider Microsoft's last console launched with an optional 20 GB HDD.

Also, to your point on downloading, I just wanted to add that the XBL service is slow. I can download a game on Steam in the time it takes for a friend to recover his GT. Not a huge game, but one that is significantly larger than a FREAKING GAMERTAG. And Steam's often complained about for being a slow service. So yeah.

It does, the OS (or whatever it is) takes a 1/5 of the 500Gb on the PS4 but no one really likes to bring that up since it isnt Microsoft.

Or, you know, because you can slap in a new HDD with no special steps or violation of warranty.

Sometimes, it's not just about people hating on one company or another.

Just so you know Kyogissun, some people have limited bandwidth. When they go over their GB limit, they get charged additional money.

Actually, while I made that joke in my response, if I go over my cap, I can get shut down. Two times in a six month period? I can get permanently banned from the service.

It's kind of disturbing that people are defending these limitations when they're paying what I paid for my PC without the limitations. It's times like this where I really get where the the 'PC gaming master race' folks are coming from. I guess I'll just stick to my PC this gen, where I can keep over a TB of game data AND my music library AND my video library. And if I choose to delete a game, I'll probably be able to re-download it faster. And my PC that can play current gen games can also run the stuff I bought last gen.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Oh microsoft...you and the 'cloud' can both go and do one. I'm not going to have my data anywhere but locally so that when the internet decides to not be available, my stupidly overpriced hardware doesn't become just a shiny doorstop.

 

[Something Amyss]

The same could be said of a great many things in reference to the hobbies most prevalent on this website.

In fact, almost all of them. Maybe even all of them.

Let's face it, it's a website about (as you say) a hobby. Are there really going to be starving children in Africa concerned with DRM? Or anything gaming related?

Use of the phrase 'first world problems' lacks the exact sort of perspective the 'first world problems' line was poking fun at in the first place.

You're forgetting though, people play consoles to be stupid.

Then what do you say about all the folks on here who have just said they store their whole Steam libraries on their PCs?

Until consoles start getting the sheer volume of high-memory games that PC enjoys, I will remain in the "keep it all" camp.

Define "high memory." Do you mean storage space? Last gen already had 50GB games. How much higher does it need to be? current gen PS4 download games are set to all be that.

Why is xbox one's OS and updates take that much for God's shake ?

Bloatware, at a guess.

 

[Rattja]

My head hurts trying to understand the appeal of these things now.
Even if it was 500gb free space, that is way too small. I would never go under 1TB these days, unless it's a SSD.

I am guessing that the idea is that they have these first, as its cheeaper and there is not enough games or whatever out yet for people to fill it up. When that time comes, they will release new versions with more space, like they have done before.
Why accept this? We all know it's possible to change out just the HDD, so what the hell people?

Also, uninstall games to get room for new ones? The whole point with a console was to just pick up and play. Say I got 20 minutes to kill, and I suddenly get the urge to blast through a level or something on a game I have not played in a while.
I don't have time to re-download/install the thing now do I?

What I really love about my PC is that I can have EVERYTHING on it at all times, ready to go whenever I need it. Music, movies, series, games, pictures, and whatever else. Should I run out of space, I'd just pop a 2TB HDD in and keep on goin. And it would take me about 1 minute to do it.

Xbox one and PS4 are supposed to be entertainment systems right? So you should be able to fit all your entertainment on it, not just some of it.

I... Just don't get it.

They should have done something like my gaming rig has. It has a slot on the top where I can put a HDD in, reminds me of the old consoles with cartridges. I have 3 drives that I swap between, depending on what I need, and they are all larger then 500gb.

 

[Rattja]

doublepost...delete

 

[misg]

I don't know how console gamers can put up with this lack of hard drive space. I personally have a 2Tb just for my steam games and sadly that is almost full I'm thinking of buying a 4Tb over Christmas for myself. How someone would make it on just 500GB I just don't know how you would do it.

 

[Barbas]

Well, this is simply terrible news indeed. Meanwhile, at Microsoft, the PR people are already on the case:

Spoiler

 

[Callate]

I have to say that I have a 500 GB hard drive explicitly for my GOG and Steam files, and it's constantly perilously close to full. Of course, I'm something of a pack rat.

I guess we know why the XBox One has USB 3.0 ports, now, huh...? Wonder how long until we see explicitly XBox-branded external hard drives.

 

[the_deku_nutt]

I have over 400 games in my steam library. Every single one of them is either actively installed, or compressed in my secondary storage drive for quick install.

I hate redownloading games. I never uninstall anything, just buy more space.

 

[Jeroenr]

Also 500 GB seems a bit small to me.

Consider Microsoft's last console launched with an optional 20 GB HDD.

Also, to your point on downloading, I just wanted to add that the XBL service is slow. I can download a game on Steam in the time it takes for a friend to recover his GT. Not a huge game, but one that is significantly larger than a FREAKING GAMERTAG. And Steam's often complained about for being a slow service. So yeah.

Yes, but also Consider that Installation was optional on the 360, and at launche not even posible.
And not long after that there came a 120gb hhd upgrade and not to long ago 250gb.

also games were just about 8gb, and except for the later versions the updates didn't go on the hhd.

My point about time was more about when people pick a game to play from the shelf, they want to play it right away.
And not having to copy 45gb of data to the hhd first.

If you download a digital version of those games, you beter invite them for diner to.

 

[Something Amyss]

The whole point with a console was to just pick up and play.

Was.

Last gen, it became "pick up, download mandatory updates, and wait through five minutes of logos."

They lost the simplicity, which is part of why they've lost me.

For a generation with mandatory software installs this seems pretty stoopid. A 20GB install for a game in not unfeasible in the Bluray era, with that 8GB of ram i would expect some bigger, better textures this time around.

And we're seeing 50 GB games already. Which they want us to download. Or install on our HDDs.

Well, this is simply terrible news indeed. Meanwhile, at Microsoft, the PR people are already on the case:

that was far more polite than I've come to expect from Microsoft's PR.

I guess we know why the XBox One has USB 3.0 ports, now, huh...? Wonder how long until we see explicitly XBox-branded external hard drives.

At least they won't use proprietary connectors and enclosures like the last gen did.

 

[Frezzato]

Just to play devil's advocate here, but I think the planned external on the Xbox One is a better strategy--IF that happens. And when that does happen then Sony would be smart to follow suit.

Thing is, yeah, you can swap out the hard drive on the PS4 just like you can on the PS3, but it begs the question just how easy it will be to transfer the contents of your 500GB PS4 hard drive to a 1TB after a year's worth of games and/or purchased content. I remember seeing instructions on transferring a used PS3 HDD's contents to a new, larger drive, but you had to have two (2) PS3s in order to do it. I've never tried it, so I can't really say.

As of right now however, I think PS4 owners will be forced to make a choice regarding the HDD size. It's either 1TB now or 1TB later, in which case you'll have to transfer your game saves somehow. And transferring those saves will require the paid PS+ subscription so you can send them to the cloud, seeing how external USB drive support is gone.

I don't imagine too many PS4 owners will have this issue though. And Microsoft's still got some time left to push out the external support update. I'd say until next March or May.

 

[DrOswald]

...Who the fuck needs to have 20+ games around installed to their HDD like that? Delete games you aren't playing for fucks sake!

And for the love of fuck, do NOT drag the whole 'WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE SERVERS GO OFFLINE AND YOU CAN'T DOWNLOAD THE GAMES ANYMORE?!' issue because that's NOT what this is about.

I see this becoming a problem in the future should updates not overwrite old versions so yes, in due time this CAN be a problem. Rotate your downloaded games to ones you and your friends are actively playing. I don't have Battlefield 3 installed on my PC anymore or any other MP game we've moved on from playing...

There's support for external HDD's coming in the future so while I get that this is kinda lame, it REALLY seems like 'First World Problem' than an ACTUAL 'problem'.

My internet connection is fairly slow. Call of Duty Ghosts is about 40 gb. If I had an Xbox One I would likely have to wait around 20 hours to download the game. During that time my internet would be basically unusable for any other purpose, and since I live with other people who might want to use the internet the only time I could leave the box on for an extended period of time would be over night, for about 8 hours a night. This means that the amount of time from deciding I want to play COD:Ghosts to actually playing it would be around 3 days.

And my situation isn't even that bad. Many people are going to have bandwidth caps and the like that means downloading a game even once must be planned in advance. Deleting a game from the hard drive might mean you cannot play it for a month or more, or at very least severely limiting your other internet usage.

But you are right. This is a first world problem. "Microsoft sold me a shitty console" is certainly a first world problem. But that doesn't mean people are not right to call Microsoft out on this. "Don't complain, people are starving in Africa" might be the worst excuse for a console being bad I have ever heard.

 

[gamegod25]

That is usually what happens when you give devs more space and power then they know what to do with, most of it will go to waste.

I think you mean that's what happens when you require games to be installed on a console, don't increase drive space accordingly, and reserve a large portion for system and "updates".

That's one thing I love about my PS4, I already swapped out the 500GB HDD for a 1TB drive just to be sure I won't be running out of space anytime soon

 

[razaelsrevenge]

I had issues from this from Day 1 when the PS4 launched first and I saw how much space was required for those games. I suppose that the companies thought that since everyone seemed to be especially happy with the 500gb PS3's around and the 250gb(and 320gb models/HDD replacements you could buy) that they figured 500gb was a good enough starting point? 1TB would've been an awesome starting point, but then we all have to realise something: They're going to come out with slimmer, better, bigger hard drive capacity systems later down the road, just like they always do/did. And this is coming from a guy who has a Day One Edition of Xbox One. I knew it was going to be an issue, but I still bought one anyways.

They either need to hurry up and make external HDD's an option within the next 6 months, or figure out a way to make it to where you don't need to install the games anymore, like they did with the 360. I realise it's blu-ray tech and all that, but is it necessary to have to install every game now? It can't just read it from the disc like my blu-ray player reads movies? I'm not very tech savvy so I really don't know the answers to those questions. I'm a novice at best when it comes to tech stuff.

Also, another random gripe: If they aren't going to make it to where it reads off the disc, at least make it to where it doesn't take me damn 30 minutes, or longer, to install a game! Talk about a buzz kill man. Get home with a new game, can't wait to play it..but oh yes, you've gotta wait, almost an hour. It took Ghosts, and I'm not kidding here, almost 6hrs to completely install on my system. Something has to be done about that.

 

[BooTsPs3]

This is why it should be made illegal to market things like this at X gigabytes when it has X-20 gigabytes in reality.

Sure, technically it's a 500gb hard-drive. But unless you specifically look it up, you never know how much you're really getting. It's just anti-consumer and flat out misleading. The xbone isn't anything new on this, but it's the most extreme case i've seen of such a thing.

Honestly, it doesn't make a difference to me if it's 363gb or 8tb. If i can only use 362 that's what i want on the box. Not some misleading crap put there just because it sounds good.

 

[Strazdas]

What is this shit? Why would you need 4 partitions to run a single OS, why would you need seperate partitions for updates? why do you need a frigging 40 GB for OS? have they just made the worst programmed most bloated system ever invented?

 

[GAunderrated]

Well its not a good sign if we can't even make it out of the first month of the new console war without finding a massive flaw in their design. I can't see this generation making it past 5 years unless they do some serious remodeling or restructuring.

 

[Geekeric]

So, let's see. Console games are $70, no Steam sales for those guys. Twenty games @ $70 each= $1400! Can you share those games with your friends now, or what? Microsoft must be expecting an up-turn in the ecomony.