Topic: HD-DVD on X360: Not for Games

[Kairon]

Microsoft has no plans at all to have games for their 360 on HD-DVD discs, so they're stuck on good 'ol DVDs for this generation it seems... Nintendo will for the first time since the Super NES have the same size media for their games as a competitor!

Maruyama: No HD-DVD Games

Does this mean that there's a real logistics problem with using next-gen discs that aren't on market yet for next gen systems?

And this is the HD-DVD to boot! This is the easy-to-make next-gen disc.

Sony's Blue-Ray requires ENTIRELY NEW factories because old DVD factories can't be converted from old DVD manufacturing facilities... With microsoft shying from HD-DVD games could Sony have HUGE challenges ahead of them if they choose to go Blu-ray?

Or will...heaven forbid, all 3 next-gen systems, Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo have the exact same size storage medium?

~Carmine M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

[KnowsNothing]

Sony needed to produce Blue Ray Discs because the power the CELL would instantaneously disintegrate normal DVDs.  It's just that awesome.

[Arbok]

Quote
Originally posted by: KnowsNothing
Sony needed to produce Blue Ray Discs because the power the CELL would instantaneously disintegrate normal DVDs.  It's just that awesome.

I swear, KnowsNothing's avatar makes all of his humorous comments ten folds better...

Anyway, I'm hoping that Blue Ray is welcomed as coldly by the general consumer as I feel about the format in general, not just in relation to games. I'm not in a hurry to start on a new media format, unlike I was when I first started with DVDs back in 1998 (the lure of widescreen aspect ratios got me convinced).

[KDR_11k]

We knew about this bit some time now. As noone knows what discs the Rev will use we can't say if they'll be the same size.

MS decided that HDDVD drives would be too expensive for a console at that time so they dropped it from the initial design and promised to add it later. They have a strict policy of "must run everywhere" that prohibits games from being unable to run on some X360 config. All games must run without a harddrive, all games must run on the first 360s shipped.

[OptimusPrime]

Hah, tell that to Square....FFXI requires a hard disk to work on the X360. Makes you wonder what generation the X360 is actually in in some parts.

[nitsu niflheim]

What, what just a minute.... so Microsoft is going to game games in HD using non HD-DVD's.  That makes sense.  So Xbox360 games will have a lot of pretty graphics, but no room left over for the game, just $60.00 movies.

[couchmonkey]

I thought regular DVDs would be just fine for Xbox 360, but apparently developers and the media are already starting to whine that it's not enough.  Hopefully Nintendo will learn from this and offer at least a little bonus space in it's disc format.  HD-DVD would be even better, but I think Nintendo has already hinted against that.

[BigJim]

Quote
Originally posted by: nitsu niflheim
What, what just a minute.... so Microsoft is going to game games in HD using non HD-DVD's.  That makes sense.  So Xbox360 games will have a lot of pretty graphics, but no room left over for the game, just $60.00 movies.

Right now you don't need HD discs for HD content. See any modern PC game (DOOM, Half Life 2, etc.)

But it could be a problem later on.  

[BlackNMild2k1]

People were complaining about GC's disc size and space too when it first came out, but with the proper compression and better knowledge of the system(not using cg and figuring out how to stream properly), it hasn't been too big of an issue lately.

[couchmonkey]

I totally agree that people can (and should) make do with regular DVDs (I believe they can get them up around 9 GB?) but it still gets used as an excuse when developers do a bad job on a game.  Too much compression?  Blame the disc size.  Bad port with missing features?  Blame the disc size.

[KDR_11k]

More space means harder to warez.