Source claims Xbox 720 will ship without optical drive

[Guest]

First came rumors of mandatory Kinect crap integration into every new Xbox.
Second came rumors of crappy HD6670 style-GPU or at most some low end HD7000 series.
Now, no BluRay drive and mostly digital distribution for games, perhaps flash cards?

It's like MS is telling me to play all cross-platform games on the PC and get PS4 for media device + Sony exclusives.

Thank you MS, you are making my next generation console purchasing decision easier than ever.

 

[Guest]

Some of you people think online gaming distribution is the future and you are correct, in 10-15 years. Here in Canada, I pay $50 and only have 60GB bandwidth limit per month. That's what 2 games to download a month, at most? But I also use the bandwidth to stream content, do distributed computing on my PC, etc.

Also, some of you forget that next generation games are going to have higher resolution textures and much better graphics. Already now some games are pushing 25GB or more. You think 32GB flash cards won't limit next generation games for the next 5-8 years of the console's life?

Right now a 32GB flash card is at least $20-25 vs. what like $1 for a 50GB Blu-Ray disc?

Games would need to cost $69-79 to even make this viable.

Also, if MS wants to be the media entertainment device, without a Blu-Ray drive, they are toast. You can't get high definition sound through Netflix, and such. Blu-Rays have no substitute right now for people who want the best experience at home.

The only way this is viable is if MS has 2 system - a system without optical drive for budget casual gamers with Kinect and a hardcore system for gamers with BluRay drive and all that jazz.

Otherwise, MS just wrote its death sentence in the next generation console wars.

 

[Guest]

Looks like i might return playstation.

 

[soldier1969]

Wow even worse without a blu ray drive lol. It will be well out of date when it releases anyway so whats the use. PC gaming ftw.

 

[ramonsterns]

Typical Microsoft.

Red ring of death? Remove Red LED.

Scratching dics? Remove disc tray.

I, for one, have no interest in buying the FauxBox 6670.

 

[Gamesinner]

Here is Sony's chance to retake the number one spot during the next generation. I really like owning hard copies of games and I'm big into selling and buying used games. Give a game six months and you can buy it for less then half the price on the internet. I think I'm going to pass this next one up and wait to see what Sony's answer is.

 

[Burty117]

gamesinner said:
Here is Sony's chance to retake the number one spot during the next generation. I really like owning hard copies of games and I'm big into selling and buying used games. Give a game six months and you can buy it for less then half the price on the internet. I think I'm going to pass this next one up and wait to see what Sony's answer is.

Agreed, if sony can make there next console backwards compatible (Which I would assume wouldn't be too difficult) and with an optical drive plus more powerful, they could be onto a winner, as long as they get some decent exclusives though...

 

[gingerbill]

I can't see it myself , you need a big HDD when downloading your games , so i cant see how they could possibly not have a large HDD , SSD are too expensive to have a large one in the console. I took it for granted they would have to put a big HDD in with everything switching to digital downloads.

 

[Guest]

Only a fool would assume this rumor is true. So for all you "I'm heading to PS right now" I feel sorry for you believing rumors...

 

[Guest]

I have a friend who works for BASF in Germany. He claims that microsoft have been in secret talks with BASF for nearly a year. Now BASF used to make the magnetic tape that you would find in old tape recorders. He believes that the XBOX 760 will use some kind of tape to hold game/game info. rather like the ZX Spectrum computer from decades ago. Silent, superfast load times, and of course, no more wearing out or breakages. After all, who ever heard of magnetic tape (think C60, C90 etc (ask your Grandad)) getting chewed up. He also has an update on the XBOX 760 controller! And yes folks, just like the rumours you laughed at when you first heard them, IT'S TRUE!! there is no controller supplied! It is believed that you will control all on screen moveable objects via pure thought control. Or, any kind fresh (non cooked) radish. If you do not think that is true, guess who is buying up the radish farmers whole... I am sorry if you are still reading this. I think I am having a breakdown. Apologies for wasting your time. But, the radish thing is true. True I tells ya. True. So look out for BASF magnetic tape radishes coming to a store near you. Or, not to far away

 

[Guest]

mmmmmmm spectrum.

 

[Guest]

The X-Box 720 would make a good paperweight or a footstool while I game on a PC.

 

[treetops]

Cant wait for redboxs to have giant hds for loading games into a consoles mobile ssd.

what no vcr??!

 

[Tygerstrike]

Microshaft can and will release whatever they want. Its the general buying public that will decide the fate of this console. If the ppl like it they will crank them out. If the ppl dont, its not like MS is going to be hurting any from a failed launch. I will say to all of the PC gamers out there that some of us dont want to game on a PC. Some of us like to sit there and veg out will playing some Halo or COD. The reason consoles still do as well as they do is that they hit the section of market that caters to NON PC gamers. Its a very very large group. When nintendo released the Wii, we got to see how much Grandma and Grampa like to play games. Im sure your individual playing method may be PC, but others neither care nor want to share in your PC gaming experience. Some cant afford a decent gaming rig while others just arent PC savy. So that being said, any rumor about new consoles and specs gets us interested. Im personally hopeing that MS learns to put out a better product or else Sony will snatch up MS market share.
Sony lead the way for quite a few years in console gaming. I personally hope they take up that role again. Maybe we will see another Dreamcast type system instead of the same ole rehashed crap MS likes to release lol.

 

[Guest]

why cant consoles be scrapped and use pcs instead which are much more future proof and are upgradable, just make every game for pc and have the games coded to have native support for ps3 or xbox controllers for those who cant use a mouse, win win.

 

[ramonsterns]

Guest said:
why cant consoles be scrapped and use pcs instead which are much more future proof and are upgradable, just make every game for pc and have the games coded to have native support for ps3 or xbox controllers for those who cant use a mouse, win win.

Ever heard of "a fool and his money"?

There's a lot of fools out there.

 

[Jibberish18]

Most of you should just calm down. Do you really think that IF MS did something like this they wouldn't give the rest of the LARGE population that DOESN'T have fast internet connections a way to buy games? And personally I wouldn't mind games being downloaded or bought/flashed onto a flash card. Another thing, why the hell are Discs still so big? Gamecube had the right idea with the smaller discs.

 

[Adhmuz]

Jibberish18 said:
Most of you should just calm down. Do you really think that IF MS did something like this they wouldn't give the rest of the LARGE population that DOESN'T have fast internet connections a way to buy games? And personally I wouldn't mind games being downloaded or bought/flashed onto a flash card. Another thing, why the hell are Discs still so big? Gamecube had the right idea with the smaller discs.

Remember the UMD? No, well it flopped due to lack of capacity, same reason the gamecube discs stopped with the gamecube. Its not feasible to compress that much data on to such a small medium, besides as long as DVDs exist and Blurays are only getting more popular the size will remain the same. Besides, if we really want to compare disc size look at the old 12" laserdisc and then say our little 4" disc are too big. Quad layer Blurays at 100GB should be alright for next gen games, it all depends on what the hardware can run, graphics wise.

 

[Guest]

Game companies want to eliminate the used game market - one way to do that is by forcing Microsoft to not include an optical drive in their console.

 

[Guest]

Oh sure like that will work.

I can already see people spending $60 dollars and realising their "storage device" has no data on it or it does not function.

Discs are "low tech" but quite reliable. Kiddies and noob customers can obviously destroy or make discs unreadable but the risk is far lower. Tradional customers won't shell out $60 for a title provided on some "flash drive thingy".

Digital can be great but slow Internet in emerging markets is a big problem. M$ will probably keep on selling the "older" 360 at some exorbitant price in the "rest of world market" 'till the chickens come home that is.

I'll take that PS3 / PC thank you very much.

 

[Guest]

As a PC gamer and a XBOX gamer i must say that people are hitting the xbox with so much bad ****, i like the idea of the no optical drive i never use mine anyway (unless im playing a game i havent bought on-demand) but that said i dont agree with it, it will make some of the old games not playable and of course for those people who use it as a dvd player. Also i think some people fail to see how a console gaming can be better then PC, hand ups if you actually own a GAMING LAPTOP like alienware or asus high end, cause i dont, i have a entry leven 14inch laptop for tafe/school. now my point is if you were to buy.build a decent gaming computer your looking at $1000 (in my area market) or you can spend 400-500 on a console and 300 for a laptop total $800 spent, some people dont have space for a desktop, or travel alot, or cant afford to have a laptop and desktop, its simple to plug a console to the tv and play it and own a laptop for school/tafe/uni etc. also it looks like microsoft MAY be allowing cross platform gaming now on there pc n xbox (check windows 8) So dont bag the **** out one thing without thinking it through, I LOVE my PC Gaming, but i also ENJOY my xbox,

 

[Guest]

No way for a multimedia console ...

by the way playing backups fully from a hdd -> Nice, killing 2nd hand trade + supporting piracy?
Like the way Microsoft thinking

 

[Guest]

Everyones complaining... think about all the space your going to create on your shelves for things like chinese ornaments.