Analyst: Only HDD holding Xbox 360 back now
A new terrabyte hard drive for the Xbox 360 is rumoured to be tied in with the launch of Project Natal.
Thankfully, a new terrabyte hard drive is rumoured to be in development for the Xbox 360 and will likely launch at the same time as Microsoft's new camera-based motion sensor, Project Natal.
The new Games on Demand service will let users download full Xbox 360 games to their hard drives and pay for them straight from a credit card, without MS Points. Discussing how this system might affect retailers, Wedbush Morgan's Michael Pachter suggested that retail stores might be forced to adapt to the market whether they like it or not - with the GameStop chain for one being firmly in the 'not' category. In comments yesterday GameStop said they did not believe that digital distribution would have a proper, sustainable market for a few years yet.
"While retailers may baulk at the possibility of day-and-date downloads, I don't see too many refusing to carry Microsoft product in retaliation," Pachter said in an interview with GI.biz. "Should a retailer boycott Microsoft, I think that the full force of the publishers would be brought to bear on that retailer, and they would find themselves starved for product."
"Many publishers favour such a model. It's true that retail partners wouldn't like it, but it is not necessarily true that they would have much to say about it," Pachter continued.
Would you prefer to buy your console games in a wholly digital format, or would you expect a price reduction if you were foregoing the physical benefits? Let us know your thoughts in the forums.
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Discuss in the forums ReplyJudging by the current pricing (120Gb for £75), which is about twice the cost of the hard drive alone, a terabyte (notwithstanding the availability of 2.5" drives in terabyte sizes) would cost around £250...
There aren't many things that Sony did right with the PS3, but allowing the HD to be user upgradable was one of them.
Its like the dark ages... 20GB vs 40GB vs 60GB blah blah blah
when we all know that there is 'little to no' cost difference these days between HD's at the 160 to 250 GB range. Its also a false economy too, Unless you are a massive downloader. Both my 360 'elite' 120GB and my PS3 40GB drive are massively under utilized at the moment.
Maybe it will make more of a difference for the next generation where digital downloads will be 'the norm', rather than the exception like they are now.
The typo is twice on this page and once on the front page.
Sam
Although the idea of downloading the some of the 4 DVD RPGs kinda scares me. That's a lot of data. :) Either MS' servers get hammered, or it's going to be a P2P system... which ISPs are gonna hate.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: until everywhere gets high-bandwidth uncapped internet connections... there is a market for stores selling physical copies. And no, I don't mean the UK Government's idea of 'high speed broadband' - 2Mb? Pfft. [b]True]/b] 20Mb would be OK... true 50Mb or higher would be better.
While MS shouldn't sit around doing nothing, it's a bit presumptuous to spout off about publishers boycotting retailers boycotting Microsoft products. I think that Michael Pachter is just wanting to kick up a fuss to see what sort of storm he can create. Instead he comes across as an arrogant bully with no one to pick on.
What will ms charge for a 1tb drive would also be a major worry. + £200 would be my guess. when you can get a 1tb drive for as little as £60. £75 for 120gb is shocking pricing. at that conversion rate cost of 1tb drive would be an amazing £600. Lets hope Microsoft at least try to get the price so something resonable ( below £150 is resonable sorta lol)
What I would REALLY like to see is FREE online service. PS3 has a lot of excellent features that are more expandable but Xbox will soon have the Natal thing, but I dont know if that one thing the Natal is enough to sway to the 360 side, Im still leaning towards the PS3 but ehh I just dont know.
This decision is just so hard for me, I don't know if I'll ever decide.
[To be fair, I do like being able to download free demos and the Xbox arcade games, but that's just because if it wasn't for digital distribution-- you wouldn't see half of that content on there.]
The good thing about Microsoft'sl 'ambitious' digital download push is that someone needs to 'start the ball rolling'.
Microsoft are pushing for that change.
If Microsoft said to themselves, "let's not do this because most people have limited connections and our servers won't handle high downloads", ISPs will continue to drag their feet over high bandwidth services. The government will also feel there's no need to encourage investment in updating the ancient copper wire links that most homes have.
When people start getting used to Microsoft's vision, people will expect more from their ISPs and demand that more is done to cater for their needs. The more people with 'high needs', the more technology will be put in place to serve the needs. Eventually, the cost per internet bandwidth will fall as more people take up high bandwidth services.
Then retailers will see that if they don't adapt, they will be in trouble.
I thought people were already managing to do this, though it may have been counted as 'console modding', and thus would ban you from Live...
Microsoft has done this several times before. They are leader. I would never bash on someone making the lead on anything.
Without companies like Valve (Steam) and now Microsoft pushing hard for digital distribution we would never see it.
This doesn't mean that brick and mortar stores can't sell games at the same time. Why can't we have both?
Some people are just too narrow minded or little opportunistic.