No HDD in Core 360 a 'mistake', says dev Options

[Xbox-Scene]

No HDD in Core 360 a 'mistake', says dev Posted by XanTium | March 3 19:50 EST | News Category: Xbox360

From computerandvideogames.com: [QUOTE] The decision not to include a hard drive as standard with every 360 was a "mistake" by Microsoft, Bourne Conspiracy's lead game designer has told us. "In retrospect I wish Microsoft had made the choice to have [mandatory] hard drives like Sony did with the PS3," he said. "Developers certainly benefit [from a hard drive]," he went on to explain, adding: "if you have a hard drive, the whole game loads faster. Obviously you'll be facing a short install time, but the developer benefits from it and you definitely benefit from it as a player. [/QUOTE] Full Story: computerandvideogames.com

[proger]

Hmm.

Well, X360 games still seem to load faster than PS3 games.

[juntistik]

Don't we already know this?

[TMownsu]

Yeah someone should tell him that if we had games that ran only off of the hard drive it would load faster.

[Tiuk]

It still bothers me how Microsoft went backwards. Including a HDD with the Xbox and not the Xbox 360, it just boggles the mind.

The only conclusion I can come to is so that they can sell a 20 GB HDD for $100, basically just one big money grab. The sad part is it hurts everyone by not allowing the devs to count on the existence of a hard drive.

[majik655]

Isn't this a easy fix... just put a requirement on the box "Hard Drive Needed"

If the game is that entailed and needs a hard drive, chances are the game is not for young folks and are for mature (M) rated players who more than likely have a hard drive anyway.

[Deihmos]

The games already load fast. Why not make the installation an option if he cares so much.

[Merc178]

It still bothers me how Microsoft went backwards. Including a HDD with the Xbox and not the Xbox 360, it just boggles the mind.

The only conclusion I can come to is so that they can sell a 20 GB HDD for $100, basically just one big money grab. The sad part is it hurts everyone by not allowing the devs to count on the existence of a hard drive.

Totally

[kraken]

Hard drives in game consoles should be used exactly like the xbox1's was, for caching only. Nobody wants to sit for a half hour and wait for their game to install, and then have to delete other games to make more room and then reinstall . This is something big consoles have always had over PCs. With that said, not having the HDD standard was a huge mistake. Anybody that has seen the horrible texture popup, or heard their DVD drive grinding while playing Mass Effect knows this. Often used textures, models and maps should be temporarily stored on the HDD for fast easy access like the xbox1 did. M$ should allow developers to do this. It wouldn't even take up any space if M$ let them use the xbox1 cache partitions already on the drive.

[Exobex]

Good call there about the Xbox1 partitions, Kraken. As long as the devs keep things neat and tidy like they did on the Xbox1, it would be nice if they used those. If the drive's not there of course, just fall back to reading from DVD without caching.

[elocin671]

this is stupid. we know this already. m$ just wanted to force everyone to get premium consoles. cause they = more $$$

[Hopeful]

Isn't this a easy fix... just put a requirement on the box "Hard Drive Needed"

If I remember correctly, 360 games are not allowed by microsoft to actually *require* a hard drive.

[xlx Methos xlx]

If I remember correctly, 360 games are not allowed by microsoft to actually *require* a hard drive.

I believe you are correct, but i also think that one game actually required a HDD, but i'm not sure how they got around that.

Now, I don't fully understand why 360's didn't require the HDD, but at the same time I am glad the 360's HDD is upgradeable (at a price that makes me scream, but that's besides the point.) I do believe that it's all about choice too, even though most everyone chooses to have an HDD. Now, as a media center user using the 360 as an extender, i did buy a core without a HDD, and use a mem card to put my profile on so i know who is online and what not, and to cache the media center app, but i don't do any gaming on it. I would have bought the HDD version if i didn't have a choice, but i felt that this 360 wasn't going to be a gaming system, so why not buy the cheaper one.

[Namarrgon]

I really don't understand the fuss over the HDD issue. Sure the hard drive might not be there, so you can't do a mandatory 5GB install of your game, but who wants mandatory anything?

If you make it optional, you're not limiting your market and MS won't object. Games already allow downloaded expansions to be run from the HDD, so there's no technical limitation. There's a lot more Xboxen hard drives out there then there are PS3s, so it's well worth putting in the little effort required to check for it. If it's so desirable or so necessary for your game, why not support the HDD if one is installed?

If the machine has a HDD, then offer to install on it, or at least cache on it automatically. A few games already do this (e.g. Burnout Paradise), it's not a limitation of the platform, so what possible excuse is there for other games not to, rather than just complaining?

[stevenalvarado]

I believe you are correct, but i also think that one game actually required a HDD, but i'm not sure how they got around that.

Now, I don't fully understand why 360's didn't require the HDD, but at the same time I am glad the 360's HDD is upgradeable (at a price that makes me scream, but that's besides the point.) I do believe that it's all about choice too, even though most everyone chooses to have an HDD. Now, as a media center user using the 360 as an extender, i did buy a core without a HDD, and use a mem card to put my profile on so i know who is online and what not, and to cache the media center app, but i don't do any gaming on it. I would have bought the HDD version if i didn't have a choice, but i felt that this 360 wasn't going to be a gaming system, so why not buy the cheaper one.

now THAT´s a good reason. however not everyone will ever be able to buy buy a 360 to not be a gaming system. that´s pretty hard to find