Rockstar's Sam Houser: 360 'Needs To Sort Out' HDD Usage Options

[Xbox-Scene]

Rockstar's Sam Houser: 360 'Needs To Sort Out' HDD Usage Posted by XanTium | April 23 00:30 EST | News Category: Xbox360

From kotaku.com: [QUOTE] 1UP recently interviewed Rockstar's Sam Houser. Houser says what we've been saying for a long time now: the 360 needs to sort out the issue of its non-compulsory HDD usage: "One of the problems with the 360, and it affects games like Grand Theft Auto if you think about how much content we put in the actual machine, is the fact that they don't have a significantly larger storage medium than the previous systems." You're damn right, and-oh. You're not done. "I think that the 360 is going to have to get 'round this issue we're talking about. I can think of various ways they can do it. Hopefully, they're going to adopt one of those in the next year or so, because it's going to become more of an issue. If we're filling up the disc right now, where are we going? It's not like our games are going to get any smaller. I think that issue's on the table with a bunch of games right now. I'm sure they'll come through with an intelligent solution." [/QUOTE] Full Story: kotaku.com | 1up.com

[GomerPyle]

Uh oh what can this mean is the Ps3 gaining momentum?

[Heet]

I dont see how with 256MB of ram. Thats sony's issue. Guess they are even somewhat.



Oops, bluray won.






This was a stupid idea to begin with. Ya you make a cheaper console (core) but then choke games? And I dont think this is all because some dev doesnt want to opt code. They should have ALL been 20GB boxes just like ALL of the 8GB xboxes.


The only more assinine thing they could have done was limit it to 256MB of ram.

This post has been edited by Heet: Apr 23 2008, 06:27 AM

[PerfectGun]

Hasn't it already been confirmed that GTA IV will have an optional install if you have an HDD?

I agree that MS's short sightedness with wanting to make a cheaper model available and have all the games work on it while at the same time gimping the entire platform was a bad idea. MS does need to sort this out but I think they are going to say "FU" to everyone on it. It is what it is and if that gives the PS3 more exclusives then so be it.

It's funny that he mentioned there were problems on both platforms but didn't go into specifics on the PS3 so of course every news site is going to latch on to the 360 is the problem child and how it's satan himself. While people forget we would of been playing this game in 08 if it wasn't for the PS3.

Let's say I'm not a bit surprised that Kotaku is regurgatating 1up's post.

[PincheAnimal]

I dont see how with 256MB of ram. Thats sony's issue. Guess they are even somewhat.
Oops, bluray won.
This was a stupid idea to begin with. Ya you make a cheaper console (core) but then choke games? And I dont think this is all because some dev doesnt want to opt code. They should have ALL been 20GB boxes just like ALL of the 8GB xboxes.
The only more assinine thing they could have done was limit it to 256MB of ram.

You know from what I remember they were actually considering making the 360 a 256MB machine, with all units having a standard HDD. Epic showed Microsoft what Gears of War would like if it only had 256MB of RAM, and then they showed MS what it would look like with 512MB of RAM. Microsoft didn't want the losses they had with the original Xbox, so they started asking Developers what was more important. Either Double the RAM, or make the HDD standard. I guess most devs said they could do more with the RAM than they could with the HDD, so that's what we got.

Just another way in which Microsoft cut corners with the 360. The main problem with the 360 is that Microsoft let the accountants design it, while the first Xbox was designed by gamers.

BTW, PS3 also has 512MB it just isn't unified.

[Heet]

Yup your exactly right. And im glad they went with the ram versus a mandatory drive but damn.

[Nutech]

Hasn't it already been confirmed that GTA IV will have an optional install if you have an HDD?

The solution isn't as easy as that. Currently all 360 developers have to code their games with the assumption that a hard drive is not plugged in. As you can probably guess, this gives the developers very little memory room to play with and is probably a very frustrating task.

Saying to that same developer "hey, now code for a different scenario where the the 360 does have a hard drive" is a complete kick in the teeth and any improvements in gameplay/loading will be rushed at best.

The only real solution is for Microsoft to do exactly what they don't want to do, and that's allow games to require a hard drive. In their minds this splits the installed base into 2, however I'm pretty sure the side without hard drives is a very small minority.

This was a very obvious problem at 360's launch that will probably cost Microsoft in the long run, as it shows up the general short-term thinking of American companies. The typical Japanese' long term outlook is probably what's causing the PS3 to be picking up such a momentum.

[Heet]

^Thats a really good description of the problem. Everytime somebody says dvd is too small for the next few years I always think of the real problem.


Anybody have numbers of "arcade" compared to premium or elite? Im lazy.

[hardcandy]

Lack of storage space will also affect video sales as well. And $100 for a 20 GB drive is too much. But how would they fix this? Maybe a "new" model in the next year or too. Basically the same Xbox but with a builtin hard drive and better heatsinks, maybe built in wireless as well.
Get rid of the current models and have only the one "new" xbox available. Otherwise they are limiting their sales of download games, movies, etc.

[Chancer]

MS simply needs to provide some large drives at reasonable cost. I don't see it as a real issue unless there was no way round this, but there is a simple way round it if MS want.

[bucko]

If the 360 had a mandatory hard drive you would get mandatory installs before you play the game, GT5: Prologue did this to me when I bought it had to wait 20mins or so for it to install and 30 mins for it to update online to the HDD cache.

Do you really want that on the 360? Imho PS3 Blu-Ray drive is so not good enough for games they have to do godam mandatory installs it really annoys me with Sony bragging about the disks being 50GB in size.

[Kharoof]

Maybe another solution could be to include the HDD in the low end models from now on, and they could simply send an HDD to the few that have the core and arcade models by registering with their serial numbers online,

I mean how much is MS really paying for them 20GB HDD's? Yes it would cost them a bit of money but they would get rid of that problem that seems to becoming more and more of an issue lately and in the future it's only gonna get worst.

They did something similar with the power cords back on Xbox1 when it was found to be faulty...

And about the installs, it wouldn't necessarily be an issue with the Xbox since the DVD has faster read speeds i believe than blu-ray but the advantage is that they can have cache like they did on Xbox1, none of the drawbacks and only the advantages

to quote a fellow member "Just another way in which Microsoft cut corners with the 360. The main problem with the 360 is that Microsoft let the accountants design it, while the first Xbox was designed by gamers." it already cost them over a B$ (don't think them accountants are very happy right now) because of faulty hardware what's another 100M$

But hey we're not surprised are we?!?! It is M$ we're talking about

Just my 0.02$

This post has been edited by Kharoof: Apr 23 2008, 02:18 PM

[chronno]

Or they could just open it up and let us put in our own drives. Just sell the case and say we need a 2.5" SATA drive. Problem solved.

But I do agree that the programmers should not expect a drive. If they did we'd get installs like FFXI that take over an hour.

[Ranger72]

If the 360 had a mandatory hard drive you would get mandatory installs before you play the game, GT5: Prologue did this to me when I bought it had to wait 20mins or so for it to install and 30 mins for it to update online to the HDD cache.

Do you really want that on the 360? Imho PS3 Blu-Ray drive is so not good enough for games they have to do godam mandatory installs it really annoys me with Sony bragging about the disks being 50GB in size.

Yea but have you noticed how fast the tracks load up each time you play? 3 maybe 4 seconds?

I would rather have to wait for the first time play and spend little time waiting for the rest of the life of the game.

One would only be able to guess what all extra content they squeezed into that 50GB they had to play with.

[Chancer]

Yea but have you noticed how fast the tracks load up each time you play? 3 maybe 4 seconds?

I would rather have to wait for the first time play and spend little time waiting for the rest of the life of the game.

One would only be able to guess what all extra content they squeezed into that 50GB they had to play with.

I agree. the very thing the original modded Xbox gave , which everyone wanted was the ability to load games onto the drive. Nobody bothered about the wait for those and the PS3 installs is certainly less of a wait.