http://news.teamxbox.com/content.php?id=5518
–Dave
I wonder how hackable this FFD (Fast Flash Disk) system will be ? Considering it is designed for military use I guess they must have some heavy duty encryption.
It will sure be a damper on the mod market and I suspect will definitely cost sales.
They didn’t specify what size of flash memory would be used though, and whether it will be internal to the Xbox or an addon to be bought seperately.
In fact, the article you linked describes M-Systems products as “hard drive replacements”. If the functionality is the same, I’d take a solid-state device over a harddrive anyday.
Apparently you didn’t read it too closely…
Microsoft has taken the hard disk out of its Xbox. The only thing left will be a CD; that’s all. At some point, when users want to save their e-mail messages, copy music, or anything like that, the only storage they’ll have is what we give them.
That means you won’t be getting one of these with the system. It’s going to be a separate purchase. It also means that the functionality of the hard drive as it exists today in Xbox will not be found in the next machine.
We can easily put two and two together here and quickly come to the conclusion that the Next Xbox will not be backwards compatible with the first. We could already pretty much guarantee that with the hardware they were using but I think this seals the deal. Microsoft is building a console much closer to what their competitors have been selling for years.
–Dave
The unbolded part could be read as “what we (M-Systems) put in the Xbox for them (Microsoft)”
I don’t think they’ll skip all internal storage, it’s a nice feature. I think putting in a 512mb flash or something will do a good job all by itself. And it’ll probably be cheap enough by then.
Disaster. Hard drives are one of the only ways to actually improve gameplay via hardware in a non-incremental way. Flash means it’s only for saves, and horrible extra slowness. Gah.
When I read, “The only thing left will be a CD” then that says to me no internal storage, period.
I’m not sure how that could be interpreted in any other way? They’re going to want to make money on these things, not give them away. They’re talking about making a profitable business out of Xbox. You don’t do that by giving away this kind of add-on device.
–Dave
Mmm. I will wait for the compelling games before buying anything without a hard drive.
Sure you can, by selling them to Microsoft, of course…just llike any other component manufacturer.
We could. We could also guess that there will be a hard drive add-on (available in multiple sizes at different costs) which could magically add backwards compatibility and be required for MMOs. All other downloadable content could just as easily be stored on Xbox Live, since the vast majority of it is multiplayer content. (Alternately, there could be an offline storage option for hard drive owners.)
Is backwards compatibility particularly relevant to most console buyers? How many PS2 owners played their first PS2 game and said, “Wow, I’d love to go back to those PS1 graphics.” Or alternately, they bought their PS2 and suddenly tossed that PS1 into the garbage.
Were people bitching that they couldn’t play their N64 games on their Gamecubes?
Thats another issue all together. ;)
Paging DaveC, DaveC to the XBox courtesy thread, please. :P
Is backwards compatibility particularly relevant to most console buyers? How many PS2 owners played their first PS2 game and said, “Wow, I’d love to go back to those PS1 graphics.” Or alternately, they bought their PS2 and suddenly tossed that PS1 into the garbage.
Backwards compatibility was a pretty big selling point to me, particularly during the first year of the PS2’s release when their games weren’t that stellar. I didn’t own the original PS1 so there were quite a few games I wanted to pick up. I still play PS1 games. The poor graphics don’t bother me after the first hour or so.
The other issue is with so many multi-console owners these days, a lot of us have limited TV inputs. If you have a separate DVD player hooked up, inputs are at a premium, to say nothing of the additional space an old console takes up in an A/V rack. This is a concern particularly with the Xbox since it takes up so much space to begin with.
May not be true…
Improve gameplay exactly how? Few games ever even use the harddrive for anything other than saving. Downloadable content can still work with flash.
In other news… sources close to Microsoft have confirmed reports that several monkeys did indeed fly out of Steve Balmer’s butt. Film at 11.
Hopefully M-Systems’ President Dov Moran will learn the difference between a CD and DVD drive, what with him being CEO of a mass storage company and all. :P
Microsoft has taken the hard disk out of its Xbox. The only thing left will be a CD; that’s all.
So, has Microsoft confirmed this yet? I’ll wait for word from them. Also, my pet theory is that if they do have any type of hard drive they’ll sell it with the next gen Live kit.
Sshhhh, you might dispell some illusions.
Maybe they’re downgrading the optical drive as well…I hear the Xbox3 will continue the trend and come with a cassette drive. Hrmm…maybe vinyl’s days aren’t over then if Xbox4 comes with a turntable…