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"Console HD Capacity"

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Sun 13/01/08 at 00:31
Moderator
"possibly impossible"
Posts: 24,985
The xbox has a bit, the Elite has more, the PS3 had lots and a little, now it has somewhere in the middle. Nintendo is keeping promising some but hasn't yet delivered. Re-writable memory by the Gigabyte seems to be of growing importance in the days of digital downloads and multi-media consoles.

So far the Wii has escaped, but all those Virtual Console games are taking their toll and as soon as WiiWare comes out then Nintendo are going to have to step in a provide support for hard drives.

Meanwhile, Sony and Microsoft seem to be changing their minds every minute. The 60GB on the original UK PS3 was a fair amount, but the new 40GB is perhaps a little short of space given the size of demos and media files these days. Many owners have found, however, that it's easy to install a new larger laptop hard drive instead and get the most from it.

The Xbox is the worst, stuck with such a tiny amound of space you have the option to either spend a fortune on the next model up or spend a fortune on the larger drive. All this as Microsoft try to sell their media downloads. Surely something has to give?

Storage is getting important and as needs increase the cost should surely decrease and the options grow, yet it doesn't seem to be happening. We need more space for files, demos, downloadable games and more. Let's hope the people in charge listen and provide it.
Mon 14/01/08 at 18:44
Regular
"Picking a winner!"
Posts: 8,502
It does indeed appear that we will need more storage space for downloadable content.

An 80gb PS3 will be released and there is talk of an xbox360 ultimate with a 320gb hard drive.

It's annoying though that they can fix the price as only the official products can be used - the option of being able to save onto a USB device such as an external device would be great.
Mon 14/01/08 at 00:47
Regular
"Devil in disguise"
Posts: 3,151
pb wrote:
> FantasyMeister wrote:
> First console to allow gamers to stream dedicated gaming
> programming to their console will probably win. Being able to
> flick on a console and watch Gamesmaster, Gamer.TV, G4TV, Spike
> TV, gaming tournaments from around the world or any of the
> hundred other shows in the same genre is probably a lot more
> entertaining than being able to flick on a console and watch
> the
> news one hour after it aired live.
>
> You know, that's a pretty good idea. I guess it's similar to
> the content which will be available in GT5; Top Gear etc fitting
> around the location of the player.

Difficult to imagine any of the console makers being too keen on it though. Would Sony really want to stream The World Cyber Games sponsored by Microsoft? Would Microsoft really want to stream a bad review of Halo 3?
Nice idea, but while broadcasting such shows gives airtime to rivals and/or may damage their products its hard to see why they'd want to do it.
Sun 13/01/08 at 20:05
Moderator
"possibly impossible"
Posts: 24,985
FantasyMeister wrote:
> First console to allow gamers to stream dedicated gaming
> programming to their console will probably win. Being able to
> flick on a console and watch Gamesmaster, Gamer.TV, G4TV, Spike
> TV, gaming tournaments from around the world or any of the
> hundred other shows in the same genre is probably a lot more
> entertaining than being able to flick on a console and watch the
> news one hour after it aired live.

You know, that's a pretty good idea. I guess it's similar to the content which will be available in GT5; Top Gear etc fitting around the location of the player.

As for downloads, well demos are deleted, yes, but there is a growing market for full downloadable games now and these take up far more space.
Sun 13/01/08 at 13:09
Regular
"Captain to you."
Posts: 4,609
I think that nintendo really don't need to sort out a hard drive just yet, VC games take up very little space and although i am not sure of the maximum the wii can take SD card wise i assume it's a few gig.

The games are of a size that if you have filled up even a 1gb card you probably have more games than you will play in a week and so you could easily remove some to make space for a new one.

People horde things too much, demos don't need to be kept at least not in great numbers and if the demo is so good that you plan to keep it longer term it makes sense to just go buy the game.

As a PC gamer i never keep demos after i have played them a few times (assuming i like them) and certainly not past the release date.

I think the only problem is that people forget that they can just download something again quite easily, i think it's poor management on their part if they have filled it up as there really isn't any need.
Sun 13/01/08 at 08:33
Regular
"Copyright: FM Inc."
Posts: 10,338
I think if they look at next gen now and say 500Gb minimum they should just about have it covered. A 500Gb HDD is around £70-£80 so in 3 or 4 years' time it'll probably be a quarter of that, enough for a lot of HD content e.g. movies, trailers, music videos, demos, extra game content, customised sound tracks, recorded programming, full game/arcade downloads and so on.

Alternatively they could give up the idea of trying to become a multi-purpose home hub, which isn't really a great idea when you think about it because you end up with X content on one console and Y content on another so most people will end up sticking with their existing provider e.g. Sky/NTL/Freeview etc, and just bring out a next gen console that concentrates on playing games, which seems to have worked well for Nintendo this generation.

First console to allow gamers to stream dedicated gaming programming to their console will probably win. Being able to flick on a console and watch Gamesmaster, Gamer.TV, G4TV, Spike TV, gaming tournaments from around the world or any of the hundred other shows in the same genre is probably a lot more entertaining than being able to flick on a console and watch the news one hour after it aired live.
Sun 13/01/08 at 00:31
Moderator
"possibly impossible"
Posts: 24,985
The xbox has a bit, the Elite has more, the PS3 had lots and a little, now it has somewhere in the middle. Nintendo is keeping promising some but hasn't yet delivered. Re-writable memory by the Gigabyte seems to be of growing importance in the days of digital downloads and multi-media consoles.

So far the Wii has escaped, but all those Virtual Console games are taking their toll and as soon as WiiWare comes out then Nintendo are going to have to step in a provide support for hard drives.

Meanwhile, Sony and Microsoft seem to be changing their minds every minute. The 60GB on the original UK PS3 was a fair amount, but the new 40GB is perhaps a little short of space given the size of demos and media files these days. Many owners have found, however, that it's easy to install a new larger laptop hard drive instead and get the most from it.

The Xbox is the worst, stuck with such a tiny amound of space you have the option to either spend a fortune on the next model up or spend a fortune on the larger drive. All this as Microsoft try to sell their media downloads. Surely something has to give?

Storage is getting important and as needs increase the cost should surely decrease and the options grow, yet it doesn't seem to be happening. We need more space for files, demos, downloadable games and more. Let's hope the people in charge listen and provide it.

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