As Kotaku revealed last month, work has begun on the next Xbox. It’s codenamed “Durango”.
Today, website MCVUK reported a source revealed that the next Xbox apparently won’t have a disc drive. Instead, according to MCVUK, the next Xbox “will offer compatibility with some sort of interchangeable solid-state card storage, although it is not known whether this will be proprietary or a more standard format such as SD.”
The console, MCVUK added, is slated for a 2013 release.
The source supposedly told MCVUK this info was issued under “the strictest NDA” the source has seen.
This rumour differs from what Kotaku previously heard — namely, that the next Xbox will upgrade its disc format to Blu-ray.
If MCVUK‘s report is true, then what would a disc-less system mean for backwards compatibility? What about as an entertainment device? A disc-less console would make it impossible to watch Blu-ray movies without an add-on peripheral.
Kotaku is following up with Microsoft and will update this post should the company respond.
Granddaddy blocked the pipe again!
That would be hilarious. With Australia's download limits people would only be able to buy 1 game a month!
How slow is your internet, and how small is your cap? Even if a game was 25GB to download I think most people serious about games have around a 200GB limit per month, and personally my speeds are pretty damn good. A game downloaded off steam, or even the PSN only takes a few hours, worse case I leave it while I am sleeping.
"Even if a game was 25GB to download I think most people serious about games have around a 200GB limit per month, and personally my speeds are pretty damn good."
That's YOU, mate. Glad you're not running things. No offense.
I dont know anyone in NZ with 200gig a month, your doing well if u have 40gig here
So even for you with pretty good speeds it can take a few hours to get a game?
I'd much rather be able to reliably head to the store and pick things up on a whim.
However going without a disc drive doesn't mean going without removable media, I've said for years I thought the next generation of consoles would use some kind of hard-to-copy flash media, that still looks to be the case reading this.
The fastest internet I can buy at my house would take a little over 2 days to download your 25gig game. Would have to have storage cards otherwise retail will only sell hardware and developers would miss out on sales from people who wandering into a store and finding something.
It's not true. Despite the increase in digital sales, the majority of people still want to purchase their games on disc. I will also point out that they would be loosing support in the largest independent games retailer, Gamestop. They wouldn't even think about stocking this product if they couldn't sell games to customers.
Also, look how well the PSPGO went... that worked great now didn't it?
"will offer compatibility with some sort of interchangeable solid-state card storage"
More likely carts or flash roms like the Vita, also A great way to cut down piracy as everyone has a DVD buurner and some a Blu-Ray burner but none an eprom burner.Eventually an R4 type device would come out but D.I.Y. piracy would be eliminated.
You're right, instead of them burning the ISO's onto discs, they're sticking the ISOs onto their memory storage in the R4 type device, totally eliminated DIY pirating...
This would be a terrible move for ms, i would consider not purchasing there next console if this was the case.
they have to understand they we wont the choice.
Australia will have to get cap free internet before i would even look at something like this. Even if we do get cap free internet (please NBN please) it would take a lot of persuading to get me to buy a media reader-less console.
I seriously can't believe how many people can't read past the titile...
The article says:
the next Xbox “will offer compatibility with some sort of interchangeable solid-state card storage, although it is not known whether this will be proprietary or a more standard format such as SD.”
It doesn't say anything about digital downloads for game only, I except it means they're looking at moving towards a cart system like PS-vita/DS use rather then disc, YOU CAN STILL BUY THE GAME AT RETAIL.
That said it's a rumour and I honestly doubt it...I imagine MS will want to keep BC with 360 and the BD/DVD movies. Also IIRC a 50GB is much cheaper to make then a 50GB storage card.
Idiots didn't even read the article, it wasn't long!
I'm happy for them to use sd cards should run nice and quiet, unlike my 360 =(
Sounds like a high-tech nod to the cartridges of old (sort of) and it's kind of cool.
But, will that mean higher prices due to more technical proprietary hardware/software. Microsoft are good at that (look at their USB Storage).
i still wanna no why they dont ship movies and games on something like a usb? maybe slightly modified, has as large as you want for the media
Because it's more expensive and less reliable than disc media, I imagine.
I'm Australian, I have a pretty cheap Internet plan and I get 100GB/month. I don't even buy a game every month.
Bring it on.
I'm tired of discs, boxes, cases, limited edition plastic junk, online passes. I'd love to have my gaming experience all contained within a box under my TV. So convenient. But then again, I would miss out on the opportunity of trading in my games for $7 each.
Calling it now: not true.
Remember when the new iPad wasn't going to have a home button?
I don't believe this either. Conflicting rumours are flying around the net these days - not so long ago there was a rumour it'd have hardware to lock out pre-owned games.
If they're distributed on SD's or whatever then it still applies, I guess, but I'm just not buying this one. It seems ridiculous to stop people being able to play their DVD's and Blu-rays.
Why do people complain about the 1-2 sentence long articles when it appears that they only read the first 1-2 sentences anyway? :P
Haha. I was thinking the same thing. :)
If the card format is true, a) we're going backwards (not necessarily a bad thing), b) hello eliminated seek times, and high throughput! (faster loading for those non-tech savvy).
This could explain the 'no secondhand games' rumor. Having games stored on (proprietary) cards will make it possible to lock those games to a particular console (and store any DLC or patches). The ugly face of DRM.
I also don’t think MS or Sony are keen on backward compatibility in home consoles anymore. It adds to the cost of the console and give them extra headaches ensuring most popular games work flawlessly. I guess they have also discovered that they can still sell ever-smaller revisions of their old consoles this way. The PS2 is still selling relatively well for Sony.
As a substitute, they may make these games available on the online stores. Judging by how Sony is handling PSP-UMD-to-Vita transfers (or the lack thereof), I won’t be too optimistic about one’s ability to transfer their games to the newer devices. Maybe they will sell some sort of optical drive add-on that would allow that…
Never been a fan of discs, I've always preferred cartridges.
Sounds like a good change from my view. :D