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greenmedic88 on 19 July 2008
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There is no firmware update that can change the hardware specs of an optical drive.

If there were, there never would have been a market for a 4x DVD drive, or 4x CD-ROM, saving manufacturers the trouble of having to constantly shuffle updated hardware stock and clear outdated older stock.

I think opinions on this issue are so polarized, most people are overlooking the obvious here: both the PS3 and the 360 have made the decision to increase the standard size of their HDD (long, long overdue for the 360) to support the additional functionality each platform offers.

They simply aren't ideal for the lower cost storage options (20GB, and 40GB SKUs).

XBL video store: this feature is of extreme limited use on a 20GB SKU, due to the amount of data juggling that must be done. Barring rentals, video purchases are something most users would prefer to keep on drive for immediate access. You can't store any sort of collection on 13GB of storage at all.

And that was the chief marketing point for the Elite: it had a practical amount of space for buyers interested in video store rentals/purchases, and then Xbox Classics, as well as any other large downloads to be introduced in the future, none of which are practical on the standard 20GB drive.

I really don't care what the apologists say regarding the 20GB drive, it has been one of the more nagging issues I've had with the 360 since I bought one and the premium being charged to fix the issue (120GB HDD) is excessive only because MS has consumers over a barrel on the issue (all proprietary peripherals).

Hence the decision to upgrade HDDs to 60GB standard, as well as offer a reasonably priced kit (mainly for Arcade/Core owners) that also includes a headset (standard for online gaming) and an extra 3 months bonus of XBL Gold. A much better deal than paying $99 for a 20GB HDD, which was an underhanded way of selling an overpriced peripheral to Core/Arcade owners who realized how the lack of an HDD severely gimped the 360.

With the PS3 mandatory installs, assuming the typical user has more than just a few games and has most likely downloaded quite a few demos, that does not leave a terrible amount of space for video store purchases, even with twice the space of the standard 360 20GB.

Hence the decision to upgrade the core model to 80GB. To push the media download angle, as well as PSN game purchases, while accounting for additional game installations.

The same arguments I hear from 360 20GB SKU owners in regards to having no issues with managing data (deleting demos, videos, etc.) will end up applying to some owners of the 40GB PS3, just not quite as bad.

Anyone who claims that every PS3 owner plans to keep every single game they own installed on HDD for the lifetime of their console (assuming a non-casual gamer who won't be buying dozens of games), is either exaggerating, or one of the people who upgraded their HDD to a considerably larger standard 2.5" drive and no longer have to worry about space again.

And that is the big difference between the two platforms. One is open, one is closed. Because of this, I will not be upgrading that 20GB clip on HDD and as a result, will not be making use of optimized installs, other than for games that severely need them (Mass Effect), will not be buying any Xbox Classics (buy used copies on Ebay instead) and will not be using the 360 as any sort of media player beyond game preview clips and movie previews.

In other words, all the things that make the PS3 more usable to me as a multi-platform gamer.