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The hard drive that comes with the Xbox will be 10 gigs, a lot of space for anyone who's used a computer. The average PC game takes up about 500MB nowadays, so that means that you'll be able to have anywhere from 15 to 20 games installed at one time -- and that's if they're doing big time installs, instead of just smaller installations. So if you're thinking that's not a lot of space, think again. However, don't think this means that games will require an install for play on the Xbox. Again, this is a console, not a PC. No games will required to be installed on the drive.
Microsoft has announced that there will be an 8MB memory card, which leads most people to believe that it won't likely be used simply for storing games. There are a lot of possibilities that the company has put forward, such as allowing gamers to download demos of upcoming games before they're released (and without having to subscribe to magazines just to grab demos), as well as allowing developers room to let games grow.
Getting back to the hard drive for a second, it has been confirmed that several developers will be using the extra hard disk space to smooth out load times, store textures, and speed up overall performance of games. Titles like Azurik and Tony Hawk 2 X are both planning to cache data on the Xbox hard drive upon first play to virtually eliminate load times, making the games' boot up time comparable to that of a cartridge-based system.
Does this mean that you'll have to install games when you first load them into your console? No. It simply means that the developers will be using the HD to store data while you are playing a game. For example, if there is a very large track in a racing game, parts will be stored on the drive until they are needed. However, this cached information will vanish when you are done playing the game.
Microsoft has announced that there will be an 8MB memory card, which leads most people to believe that it won't likely be used simply for storing games. There are a lot of possibilities that the company has put forward, such as allowing gamers to download demos of upcoming games before they're released (and without having to subscribe to magazines just to grab demos), as well as allowing developers room to let games grow.
Getting back to the hard drive for a second, it has been confirmed that several developers will be using the extra hard disk space to smooth out load times, store textures, and speed up overall performance of games. Titles like Azurik and Tony Hawk 2 X are both planning to cache data on the Xbox hard drive upon first play to virtually eliminate load times, making the games' boot up time comparable to that of a cartridge-based system.
Does this mean that you'll have to install games when you first load them into your console? No. It simply means that the developers will be using the HD to store data while you are playing a game. For example, if there is a very large track in a racing game, parts will be stored on the drive until they are needed. However, this cached information will vanish when you are done playing the game.
funkygamer wrote:
> Oh, and if your game needs patching it can be downloaded to the hard drive...
> ahem... what do you mean console games don't need patches???? This is MS
> OK????
OH.. Why are there 2 sonicrav type people hanging around here?
I changed my name a couple of times...
Oh, and there will be no need for patches. Xbox is a console, plain and simple... and ms don't make many games anyway!
Just be happy that it has the HDD rather than that being an option that will, as a consequence, be far worsely supported.
Sonic
> Oh, and if your game needs patching it can be downloaded to the hard drive...
> ahem... what do you mean console games don't need patches???? This is MS
> OK????
OH.. Why are there 2 sonicrav type people hanging around here?
I changed my name a couple of times...
Oh, and there will be no need for patches. Xbox is a console, plain and simple... and ms don't make many games anyway!
Just be happy that it has the HDD rather than that being an option that will, as a consequence, be far worsely supported.
Sonic
Its an 8 gig hard drive. Microsoft accidently put 10gig in some, but the Xbox still only recognises it as an 8gig, and won't let you use the full amount unless you hack it.
SD3 king wrote:
> 10 gigs is nothing and a pc games usually takes up about 900mb
did you pay any attention to the orriginal post!!!
The whole point that the HDD might be used by developers to temporarily store games... but not perminantly!
Sonic
> 10 gigs is nothing and a pc games usually takes up about 900mb
did you pay any attention to the orriginal post!!!
The whole point that the HDD might be used by developers to temporarily store games... but not perminantly!
Sonic
finally someone who understands what the HDD does!
Sonic
Sonic
The hard drive that comes with the Xbox will be 10 gigs, a lot of space for anyone who's used a computer. The average PC game takes up about 500MB nowadays, so that means that you'll be able to have anywhere from 15 to 20 games installed at one time -- and that's if they're doing big time installs, instead of just smaller installations. So if you're thinking that's not a lot of space, think again. However, don't think this means that games will require an install for play on the Xbox. Again, this is a console, not a PC. No games will required to be installed on the drive.
Microsoft has announced that there will be an 8MB memory card, which leads most people to believe that it won't likely be used simply for storing games. There are a lot of possibilities that the company has put forward, such as allowing gamers to download demos of upcoming games before they're released (and without having to subscribe to magazines just to grab demos), as well as allowing developers room to let games grow.
Getting back to the hard drive for a second, it has been confirmed that several developers will be using the extra hard disk space to smooth out load times, store textures, and speed up overall performance of games. Titles like Azurik and Tony Hawk 2 X are both planning to cache data on the Xbox hard drive upon first play to virtually eliminate load times, making the games' boot up time comparable to that of a cartridge-based system.
Does this mean that you'll have to install games when you first load them into your console? No. It simply means that the developers will be using the HD to store data while you are playing a game. For example, if there is a very large track in a racing game, parts will be stored on the drive until they are needed. However, this cached information will vanish when you are done playing the game.
Microsoft has announced that there will be an 8MB memory card, which leads most people to believe that it won't likely be used simply for storing games. There are a lot of possibilities that the company has put forward, such as allowing gamers to download demos of upcoming games before they're released (and without having to subscribe to magazines just to grab demos), as well as allowing developers room to let games grow.
Getting back to the hard drive for a second, it has been confirmed that several developers will be using the extra hard disk space to smooth out load times, store textures, and speed up overall performance of games. Titles like Azurik and Tony Hawk 2 X are both planning to cache data on the Xbox hard drive upon first play to virtually eliminate load times, making the games' boot up time comparable to that of a cartridge-based system.
Does this mean that you'll have to install games when you first load them into your console? No. It simply means that the developers will be using the HD to store data while you are playing a game. For example, if there is a very large track in a racing game, parts will be stored on the drive until they are needed. However, this cached information will vanish when you are done playing the game.