Interesting story. But it makes sense. The HD was useful for saves and stuff, but they never made a compelling reason why it was really necessary to have. Good lesson for them to learn if they want to be in the business long-term.
Title: RE:Xbox2 = No Hard Drive?
Post by: The Omen on March 05, 2004, 12:41:45 PM
Yeah, i read something about this a week or so ago. Funny that the Xbox 2 will be more akin to the GC. Oh wait, Nintendo took the wrong route with the GC..never mind.(sarcasm)
Title: RE: Xbox2 = No Hard Drive?
Post by: KDR_11k on March 05, 2004, 07:18:23 PM
Well, of course MS will do everything better than Nintendo! And Sony will be able to make good use of connectivity! OMG LOL N1NTEND0 SI T3h DOOM3D!!11!!
Microsoft learnt: Nintendo beat them in almost everything, so they figured they should do what Nintendo did... Now if we just remember what crap Microsoft spouted about the GC we can see it's an admissal of defeat.
Title: RE: Xbox2 = No Hard Drive?
Post by: Uncle Rich AiAi on March 05, 2004, 09:49:36 PM
No surprise. MS is learning their lesson on how to develop a freaking console!
Title: RE:Xbox2 = No Hard Drive?
Post by: mouse_clicker on March 06, 2004, 06:31:07 AM
Personally, I hope Nintendo DOES put a hard drive in the N5- there's really no reason not to. It eliminates the necessity of having memory cards, which is one reason I loved carts so much. Nintendo can still sell memory cards on the side if you want to back up save files or bring them to a friends house. It's not like they're expensive, either- I got a 120GB hard drive for about $80, and the N5 doesn't need anything anywhere near that big. If there's anything I think they did RIGHT with the XBox, it would be the decision to include a hard drive- I thought was a very smart move on Microsoft's part.
Title: RE: Xbox2 = No Hard Drive?
Post by: Draygaia on March 06, 2004, 07:41:00 AM
Holy crap I just realized this. Memory cards cost way more than a hardrive when you do a size to price comparison. That is a very smart movie.
Title: RE:Xbox2 = No Hard Drive?
Post by: The Omen on March 06, 2004, 12:30:17 PM
Theres no reason for a HD unless developers, and Nintendo support it. My friend barely gets any use out of the Xbox HD, so why bother? I'd much prefer it as an add on for those who want it, after weighing the benefits(ie:support). However, if the N5 comes with an legit online plan, i'll be all for it.
Title: RE:Xbox2 = No Hard Drive?
Post by: The Omen on March 06, 2004, 12:34:14 PM
Quote Holy crap I just realized this. Memory cards cost way more than a hardrive when you do a size to price comparison. That is a very smart movie.
You can't look at it that way though. Consider this: I have 2 59 cards and one 251, mostly for Madden. I spent a total of 35$. I will not need another for the life of the GC. On the other hand, you'll never need all that the HD supplies.
Title: RE: Xbox2 = No Hard Drive?
Post by: Draygaia on March 06, 2004, 01:40:44 PM
But thats the thing. Unless people actually pay extra to use as backups or bring data over to a friend's house it's nice to actually have something to already save on. If the next N system is much more expensive than the attractive $200 I don't want to worry about buying something else other than a game. Using the computer for a while the only thing I know an HD does is hold data. Thats exactly what you are doing with GCN saved games.
Title: RE:Xbox2 = No Hard Drive?
Post by: Ymeegod on March 06, 2004, 02:06:42 PM
"M-Systems CEO Dov Moran said in an interview with Israeli business newspaper Globes that "Microsoft has taken the hard disk out of its Xbox. The only thing left will be a CD; that's all." "
Did anyone else read that? MS didn't confirm anything but a "partern did". And it states it's taking out the HD's of the current Xbox and nothing to do with Xbox 2.
Title: RE: Xbox2 = No Hard Drive?
Post by: KDR_11k on March 06, 2004, 07:49:45 PM
That guy's a manager, he cannot tell the difference between CD and DVD, much less XBox and XBox Next. MS cannot remove the HD from their current device, Halo needs it.
MC: Piracy. You can easily add a larger HD to the box and put warez on it. If they put a large solid-state memory inside, that would not be a problem, but that stuff's not exactly cheap. Smaller HDs aren't cheaper, either. Those are under the minimum size manufactured, thus needing to be constructed specifically for Nintendo. Even if these things cost only 50 a pop that's still a considerable price for a single component.
Personally I'd expect Nintendo to use those 128MBit cards they use for the DS, that's enough for most games. It's not like we're going to see X2 for consoles (22MB saves), anyway.
Title: RE: Xbox2 = No Hard Drive?
Post by: Infernal Monkey on March 08, 2004, 12:06:10 AM
Microsoft will make more money by making memory cards a crucial buy for Xbox 2. That's all that matters. Erm, maybe they also realized a whole crap load of people are using the HDD to store full version Xbox games and emulators on, too.
Title: RE:Xbox2 = No Hard Drive?
Post by: mouse_clicker on March 08, 2004, 02:25:08 AM
Ah, that's a shame. If piracy wasn't an issue, it would've been nice for hard drives to become standard.
Title: RE: Xbox2 = No Hard Drive?
Post by: manunited4eva22 on March 08, 2004, 11:39:10 AM
Flash memory is faster anyway, and by the time xbox2 comes out, a 4GB flash module will be around 30 dollars, so it isn't that big of a deal. The whole HDD thing on xbox is far more detailed than just a HDD. It was a full scale annihilation of the piracy prevention, dumping of the ROM, and the hard drives being used are almost always 120GB+, the origonal is tossed in the garbage.
Title: RE:Xbox2 = No Hard Drive?
Post by: AERO on March 08, 2004, 01:25:59 PM
The hard drive is awesome. You can use it for more then just game saves. (even those are pathetically enough to overload a memory card). I have new levels, soundtracks, and have alot of level replays in certain racing games saved on mine. And as many play replays in NFL Fever as I want. I wouldn't be able to do some of those, and very limited of the others with just a memory card. Those things are pathetic and I hope not to have to deal with them again. The convenience, price, make them worth it. And the fact that you don't put down money on something that may crap out on you. I can't see anyone that has actually used the xbox hard drive, much less to its potential, saying it was a mistake. Yeah MS really dropped the ball on that one...
Title: RE:Xbox2 = No Hard Drive?
Post by: The Omen on March 08, 2004, 04:35:23 PM
Quote Yeah MS really dropped the ball on that one
Well, nobody said they dropped the ball, Sir Xbox. All i said is, I have no need for it. But MS apparently feels a HD is not needed for the Xbox 2. Why is that?
Title: RE:Xbox2 = No Hard Drive?
Post by: Clevergamer on March 09, 2004, 03:45:05 PM
hey u never know, maybe they will use "flash memory" as a solution?
Title: RE:Xbox2 = No Hard Drive?
Post by: The Omen on March 09, 2004, 05:33:49 PM
I hope Nintendo goes to flash memory. I kind of think all three will, actually.
Title: RE: Xbox2 = No Hard Drive?
Post by: vudu on March 10, 2004, 09:36:45 AM
i remember reading somewhere that the only reason doom3 could be ported over to xbox was because it has a hard drive. no hard drive seems like a step backwards, at least from microsoft's perspective. i'm still waiting for final word from bill gates on this one.
Title: RE:Xbox2 = No Hard Drive?
Post by: BlackNMild2k1 on March 10, 2004, 11:21:34 AM
Quote ”It’s a cooperation agreement. The potential isn’t clear, but it’s in the billions of dollars. Microsoft has taken the hard disk out of its Xbox. The only thing left will be a CD; that’s all. At some point, when users want to save their e-mail messages, copy music, or anything like that, the only storage they’ll have is what we give them. It’s worth hundreds of millions to the company, spread over a few years, and we’ll be the main supplier for it; and I hope the sole supplier.
They took out the the HD but that doesn't mean there isn't going to be any internal storage. M-Sysytems does make Flash memory and will most likey put some sort of solid-state memory inside the Xbox.
Quote "What we're going to offer for the Xbox doesn't currently exist," Ronit Maor, Chief Financial Officer of the Israel-based unit said.
(Or they could simply be making Flash memory cards)
Title: RE: Xbox2 = No Hard Drive?
Post by: vudu on March 10, 2004, 11:31:51 AM
easy on the spacing there, killer.
Title: RE:Xbox2 = No Hard Drive?
Post by: manunited4eva22 on March 10, 2004, 02:24:01 PM
At 14k for 40GB, don't count on much killer, I read the inquirer too.
Title: RE:Xbox2 = No Hard Drive?
Post by: nolimit19 on March 12, 2004, 04:36:14 PM
no internal memory does seem like a step backwards. hopefully they all move to flash memory.
Title: RE: Xbox2 = No Hard Drive?
Post by: Termin8Anakin on March 13, 2004, 01:45:22 PM
Listen, I reckon the only way of making the whole hard drive thing work in consoles is if they make them so that they can ONLY be read by consoles, instead of simply using PC HDDs, like MS did, which lets people pirate games and 'upgrade' their XBox HDDs.
Perhaps it'd be good if they made the console-only hard drive like a huge version of a memory card.
I, personally, prefer using a memory card instead of a hard drive. That flash thing sounds good.
Title: RE:Xbox2 = No Hard Drive?
Post by: manunited4eva22 on March 13, 2004, 03:47:20 PM
And do you propose of a different development of a hard drive standard, to only be used by consoles? If you think that will ever happen, xbox would have cost 3 times what it did.
That flash thing is years off, when it is released it will be goog for one thing, saves, nothing more.
Title: RE: Xbox2 = No Hard Drive?
Post by: blackfootsteps on March 21, 2004, 08:07:12 PM
Having just bought an Xbox, i love the hard drive idea.
Memory cards are annoying to me. I had 4 or 5 memory cards (251's were not available to me until recently) and having to constantly remember what games were on what cards was a drag.
Additionally, the fact that sports games took up whole cards was a waste of cash.
