While the $US199 price tag on Microsoft’s 4GB Xbox 360 slim model might seem attractive, Halo: Reach owners eager for a little online co-operative multiplayer campaign play are finding out the hard way that you get what you pay for.
Kotakuite Captain Fuzzy brought the issue to our attention yesterday. After picking up his copy of Halo: Reach, he decided to spend a little time online going through the campaign with friends, only to find that his 4GB console wasn’t capable of doing so.
When I tried to join them, we got a message saying, “One or more players do not have a hard drive which is required for this playlist.” Apparently, the 4GB Xbox 360 slim will not allow online co-op because it has a “Memory Unit” and not an HDD. Adding my 16GB flash drives didn’t help the case either, I still got the “hard drive is required” message. I can still play online vs games, but any co-op like campaign or firefight are locked out to me.
The support section on Xbox.com has updated with information on Captain Fuzzy’s problem as well, giving the following answer to the issue:
One or more players do not have a certified Xbox 360 hard drive attached to their Xbox 360 console. Some multiplayer aspects of Halo: Reach require an Xbox 360 certified hard drive.
While my copy of Halo: Reach doesn’t list the hard drive as a requirement, it does contain the line “features and requirements may change without notice”, which effectively covers Microsoft’s arse in this situation.
The only real recourse Halo: Reach players have now is to pick up an Xbox 360 slim hard disk, which retails for $US129.99 at GameStop. That brings the grand total for their Xbox 360 to $US329.98, roughly $US30 more than just purchasing the 250GB Xbox 360 slim in the first place. So much for getting a bargain.
And while we’re on the subject of depressing Halo: Reach news, we’re currently looking into issues with bad game discs that are currently the subject of a very long forum topic on Bungie.net. Thanks to Jackson, Bill, and everyone else who brought this other issue to our attention.
Kyle_Katarn
Thursday, September 16, 2010 at 2:32 AMOuch.
alinos
Thursday, September 16, 2010 at 7:52 AMi believe that this would go against M$ only policy regarding HDD’s and that’s that any storebought game should be able to survive without a HDD from day1
Blake
Thursday, September 16, 2010 at 9:09 AMIt can survive, you just don’t have access to all the features, which would be the same with many games (saving without a hard drive or memory unit would be problematic for instance).
It’s not against any policies on the game side, it’s just stupid the console doesn’t recognise the memory unit as a hard drive.
EzyLee
Thursday, September 16, 2010 at 8:40 AM*DOES THE NELSON POINT AND LAUGH*
HAAAAAAAAAR HAAAAAAAAAR!!
glennc
Thursday, September 16, 2010 at 9:11 AMmy copy says “some features require hard drive”
SemiConscious
Thursday, September 16, 2010 at 9:55 AMI’m sorry, I can’t hear you, son.
I’m wearing a jacuzzi suit!
Starshield
Thursday, September 16, 2010 at 10:09 AMWOW i hate Microsoft so much! they are a bunch of cost cutting bastards, do they even care about the average consumer? do they play monopolies every time something new is released, wether it be on PC or Xbox….im sticking to PS3 all the way, at least i dont have to play to play online as well.
James Mac
Thursday, September 16, 2010 at 11:11 AMGood for you Starshield… I’m proud of you.
Mr Waffle
Thursday, September 16, 2010 at 11:28 AM“cost cutting bastards”
“im sticking to PS3 all the way”
Sorry, can’t hear you over, you know, all the things Sony removed from the PS3 to ‘cut costs’.
bobby
Thursday, September 16, 2010 at 12:07 PMhmm there’s probably a discrepancy between what you and Microsoft think is an “average consumer”. To say the xbox slim without a HDD is designed for an “average consumer” is probably not an apt description either.
Microsoft likely targeted a cheap kit with no HDD at the casual/family gamer, which in most cases is not likely to be someone playing Halo Reach online multiplayer…
Jamie
Thursday, September 16, 2010 at 4:02 PMI disagree kinda strongly here. Family and casual users are, IMHO, /much/ more likely to want to play co-op than online deathmatch.
Needs A New Username
Thursday, September 16, 2010 at 7:18 PMwould they buy reach in the first place though?
Stinky
Thursday, September 16, 2010 at 11:02 AMSo does it also not work on the arcade?
veddermandan
Thursday, September 16, 2010 at 11:50 AMNot sure why this is a problem now. This has always been the case. I have bought a few arcades for friends and the EB guy always say you need a hardrive to play online. Also to download the Optional Media Update to watch DIVX.
He was sort of right. We did need a harddrive to connect to Xboxlive but saved the Media update to the arcades memory unit and it works fine.
I thought this was well known. You need a hardrive to play online.
But you would have thought this issue would have been resolved with the new xboxes
mutleydub
Thursday, September 16, 2010 at 12:29 PM“But you would have thought this issue would have been resolved with the new xboxes”
It was , you still need a hard drive to play online….sorted.The End
Steven Bogos
Thursday, September 16, 2010 at 12:38 PMThis is why you flash your console…
Michael Ormando
Thursday, September 16, 2010 at 12:58 PMburnout paradise didnt allow online play without a hard drive. its not the first time this has happened.
unfortunately most people need things shoved in their face before they pay attention so the entire cover of halo reach should have said “YOU CANT PLAY ONLINE CO OP WITHOUT A HARD DRIVE”
Kyle_Katarn
Thursday, September 16, 2010 at 5:04 PMLol.
http://yfrog.com/49reachfailp
Ethan Iacobozzi
Thursday, September 16, 2010 at 5:15 PMAnybody reminded of MW2? Much hyped, expected to be great, successful launch… and then the problems start.
Jamal Hzaife
Friday, September 17, 2010 at 11:41 PMLOL, the kind of move id expect from MS
It fits quite nicely, palm off 360s for real cheap and launch a big title that will force people to buy the over priced peripheral, GENIUS.