Microsofts Next Media Format?

[Comrade Tovya]

nightsurge said:
I think flash memory would be a great possibility, but then it seems like it would be too easy to pirate, or perhaps too easy to corrupt the data by popping the flash drives in and out all the time.

The benefits of flash storage, though, would be:
Size: could fit 16GB of data on a 2 inch device. makes having a large collection of games much easier to organize
Speed: great data transfer rates using either SD or a USB flash drive.
Cost: low cost, as you said already.

The only other negative I could see is that right now flash media is topping out at around 16GB for USB flash drives. Perhaps in a year or two this number could have doubled or so, but that still leaves Blu-Ray with a data size advantage. I'm really not sure what they will use, but it's really a toss up between Blu-Ray, flash, HD-DVD, and downloads at the moment.

I don't think it will be all downloads, because not everyone will have fast enough internet and many people like to own the physical media, plus you can't "resell or trade" downloaded media so the used games would no longer be available.

 

I agree.  I think 6mb download speeds will have to be the standard rule rather than the exception before downloading games becomes the #1 format.  I really hope it starts to take hold by 2012.

And I do agree that tiny flash media would be best if they can make it cost effective by then.   Maybe to prevent data corruption, they could make a digital button that would unmount the OS from accessing the flash drive prior to it poping out of the flash drive or something?