I don't expect them to use it for future games. An add-on to watch movies is most likely.

Blu-Ray will be  mainstream for games next generation. PS3 brought Blu-Ray to the masses this generation but next generation expect both Sony, Microsoft, maybe Nintendo to all use Blu-Ray for producing games. Blu-Ray's are pirate free and scratch free and store up to 50GB storage data.

Microsoft might consider incorporating a new drive, but it wouldn't be used for gaming. That would come with the next console. Doing so would be very bad for gamers, and very bad for developers. Basically the console would rotate back to zero, and thus developers would lose all benefits of the large install base, and that bases lust for gaming.

The reality is that most developers are not clamoring for more storage space. They view that more as a luxury item. Making a eight gigabyte game is financially easier then making a fifty gigabyte game. Even on the PS3 the vast majority of the games do not use that space. They instead use about the same space that they use on the 360. Once again the new drive was not about gaming. Gaming did not need it. Sony needed it to capture the home movie market.

I actually doubt that Microsoft will use the drive in its next console either. Instead they will introduce a drive that is backwards compatible with all previous formats, but will instead be a step larger then BluRay. I say this, because that is what is needed for digital distribution to explode. A disc consumers can burn to has enough storage to store four or five high definition movies, or to burn and store four or five full length games.

That is the holy grail of gaming. Consumers are never going to accept the hard drive swapping for purchased content in massive numbers. They will however accept the ability of purchasing, and then burning to disc. Not only burning to disc, but burning a lot on to a single disc.

If it is true, expect them to deny it even in the last second before the press release that announces it. *coughZEPHYRcough*

Imagine this...

You go to the store and buy a disc for Final Fantasy XX. The disc doesn't actually have Final Fantasy XX on it though. It has a digital key with purchase data for Final Fantasy XX. You go home and you put the disc in your console and it uses your internet connection to make contact with an online warehouse of games and downloads the game onto your local hard-drive encrypting it for your key AND liscensing the game to your gamer ID. As long as you have the disc in the drive, the game will play. Take it out, the game does not play. One a game code has been licensed to your gamer ID you can take the disc anywhere that has a console, log in with your ID, and have it download your game, and play.

Hey WOW, I saw your topic about Okami a few days ago....read your complaints about how long the intro is (a pain in the ass, I agree)....my complaints are how Issun talks too *** much and many times the brush doesn´t detect your movement right,even though you do it right.

Anyway,what do you think about the title now that you´ve spent more time with it?

A little off-topic, but I'll answer. 

I didn't get a chance to play it last night.  Went out with friends and decided to do a few games of SSBB before washing up and going to bed.  Tonight I'll play it some more though.  If you want to watch that "Okami Wii... First Impressions and more" thread, I'll post my comments/criticism as I play through the game and get more used to the controls.  Depending on how much time I have to play tonight, I may update it before bed so you'd probably see something new tomorrow morning.   For anything more you'd probably do better to ask in the topic or via PM.  ^_^

And we now return you to your regularly scheduled topic! 

GTA IV could of been done on multiple DVD's.

The main game would be copied on every disc, but cinematics and voices which take a big chunk of space would be on seperate discs ala Blue Dragon

M$ screwed up by not having at least on of the following built into every 360.

A 20gig+ Hard Drive
A HD-DVD Player
A Blu-Ray Player

If they had at least one of those in every 360 then developers would not have to worry about the constraints of a DVD.

I know, I know, some of you will say HD-DVD is dead. That is true for movies, but if M$ had built it into the system the format would not be dead for games. It would just be a 360 exclusive format. (Just think Nintendo DS. They have their own format.)

If each system had a HDD then games that are larger than one disk could save parts of the game onto the HDD, like some PS3 games do.

Well... I doesn't matter this gen, for M$. There is no way that M$ would allow retail games to require that the consumers have at least a HDD or Blu-Ray to run a game. But they may allow online only portions to require it (ala Burnout.)

Adding Blu-Ray would be stupid. Not worth it driving up production costs when it wouldn't urge people to rush out and get a 360 any faster than they currently are. If MSFT is truly interested in making their console more desirable*, then lower the f'ing price! $100 cut on every model. If not at once, then maybe $50 cut now, $50 cut in October. If that doesn't push sales then nothing will.

*not that the 360 isn't desirable as it is. Sales are up 60-70% over last year. They really don't have to do anything, I'd just like to see what a price cut in NA could do.  The longer MSFT waits, the easier it will be for Sony to match. Is cutting the price now (end of May) worth selling an additional 30,000+ consoles a week? I'd say so.