The Next XBox

[Fumanchu]

amirnetz said:

Fumanchu said:
I think the optical drive will be a big umming and ahhing point for them next gen. Should they include a blu-ray drive they can't expect much 'forward compatibility' and will pretty much kill off the 360 or at least they'll be a lot more PS3/next xbox exclusives...but then if they don't include it I think some of the devs focussed on the HD experience will be forced to boycott the system as we've already read several complaints on the DVD space limitation.

So yeah including it plays into Sony's hands of a longer lifespan of the PS3 and not including it potentially means less games.

You are so wrong in so many ways...

The Blu-Ray drive is so last-gen. It is already on the market for two years and is really struggling. There is no innovation in it anymore.

The Blu-Ray is a wonderful thing for Microsoft because it is going to ball-chain Sony to a high cost structure for a long time. Microsoft should instead forgo all physical media (including the DVD - make it optional) and enjoy a superior cost structure.

Instead, Microsoft should just go with online downloads. It allows them a brand new business model of premium subscriptions (think gamefly online or netflix "watch instantly"), eliminate piracy (no DVDs to copy), and unlimited media storage capacity (it is streamed online anyway).

 

The problem with that is not everyone has high speed broadband Internet and downloading games above 10gigs would put alot of plans at risk of exceeding monthly download usage.  This also puts your proposed 40GB SDD drive under much stress as the OS plus 2 games could maxed it out.  They then would have to include the HDD standard with all models and that negates the price of including an optical drive + some.  In America it probably wouldn't do so bad, but they're WW devices and alot of countries don't have great ISP plans.