but still, it's optional, and it improves games.

Right, it's optional. An option that people who said installs on consoles are stupid should NEVER take advantage of.

Oddly, they do.

P.S. Installs on the PS3 are optional as well, but it's an option the developer exercises, and not the end users.

Sounds like I need to plan on gettting one of those 60GB packages. Having 3 months of live included actually helps justify the price a little but more.

a really nice move by MS, they give the users the option to not use the (still?) loud DVD-drive and are creating another very good reason to buy the expensive (and without a doubt very profitable) 60/120GB HDDs, well done

This update looks to be great for bigger games, but people forget that the reason PS3 all have it already built-in is not because Sony was benevolent, but for he fact that BRD drives are s-l-o-w...they had no choice. I'm not going to knock other gamers on their console of preference, as I've got mine choice. M$ has been much smarter and craftier on this console, over the last, and sony just wasn't, which is why they are still playing catch-up....look at the Wii...Nintendo was smart as heck, and it paid off.

I'm looking forward to this update, and many of the other updates introduced at E3...2008 is looking to be a bigger year than 2007...just like many 360 fanboys hoped.

Thats good news, but install a full game, IMO that's a little too much. Like many have said before, this is pretty much gonna alienate the Pro and Arcade, but for the 60gb and 120gb, thats ace. 10 min is great, but imagine for a multi disc game like Lost Oddysey, that'd be 40 min installing!

I totally disagree. The 360's first generation has a 30% fail rate. The HD is not upgradable with any laptop HD (sure, you can pay MS 4x what it would cost per MB on the PS3, but why?).

Both MS and Sony this time around, tried to make a gaming box that was also a media center (not sure that was a smart move, but that's another story). Sony pulled it off. MS's attempt was far less successful.

I bought the 360 as a media extender, and from a software perspective, it did well. It was far to loud however, and got very hot. They have fixed a lot of these issues (and installs is another creative step for fixing them), but to say that the piece of hardware that MS released was "smarter", I don't agree with.

Ehhh.

With a Pro model, you can get atleast 1 typical install, or 2 if the games are around 6GB/each.

The big thing is that although this is universal, there are a handful of games that REALLY will benefit from this (again, I always cite Oblivion and Mass Effect)...So your going to be able to fill up that 20GB HDD with ME, and get a huge performance advantage, whereas you might only need it for those 1-2 games.

I agree that the 40min installation on a game like LO is going to be horrible. But considering the normal load times on LO......That 40min installation could save you a ton of time.

And about the PS3-bashing installs. I think some have been, and are hypocritical to bash the PS3 installs just for the installs themselves. I think where it's valid, however, is the nature of them being mandatory to make the game playable, or equivilent to the Xbox 360 version.

I can't wait for that feature! Well as a matter of fact I can....I need time to get an elite.

Exactly. Look at a game like Uncharted, that sucker loaded ONCE (first time u load ur save file) and u can go through the entire game without ever seeing a loading screen. I don't understand y so many ppl - especially Capcom - forcce these lengthy installs on us. They should be like Ninja Gaiden Sigma, which was optional. Oh crap, I just hope that they don't force us to a lengthy install for RE5.

I got a question about the installs. Can someone install the game and return it/give it to their friends and can they install/play it or will it be like with PC games that u need a CD key?