The Next XBox

[amirnetz]

Fumanchu said:

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.

 

These are better points, but all are addressable:

1. HD streaming (15 Mbs+) is viable in significant parts of the US and in most of western Europe even today. When the new Xbox will come out 80% of the target markets will have it available. So adding a BR player to the next HD makes no sense to Microsoft - it inflates the cost structure with very little return.
2. The limited storage space can be handled in multiple ways - on demand streaming from Live (i.e your games are stored on Live and the local 40GB is just a cache). So you'll "never run out of space".
3. Similarly - you can use a networked local PC HDD as an additional cache to minimize the need for on-line communications. A 1TB PC disk is available today for less than $150. Imagine 1TB disks for $50 when the next gen is released.
4. Lastly - you can just buy more flash capacity from Microsoft, and if you really want to - buy a BR drive accessory. All for more $$$ for Microsoft.