Rumor: Xbox 360 update frees 1GB space on game discs
The mysterious "updated Xbox 360 disc format" Microsoft's testing opens up an extra gigabyte of DVD space for developers, rumours say.
The mysterious "updated Xbox 360 disc format" that Microsoft is testing publicly will create extra space for developers to use on game DVDs, Digital Foundry reports.
The technology fetishists claim an anonymous "highly placed development source" has confirmed to them that the new disc format allows for an extra gigabyte of usable space on Xbox 360 discs. Current game discs use only around 6.8GB of a DVD's theoretical 7.95GB capacity, with the rest being filled up with gubbins such as anti-piracy measures. Digital Foundry speculates that Microsoft is either greatly reducing or outright removing the extra data.
Extra space will allow developers to include more (or higher-quality) textures, sounds, movies, and the like in Xbox 360 games.
As Microsoft's Xbox 360 successor is nowhere in sight and developers are still wringing more performance out of the current console, an extra 15% of storage space would become increasingly useful. It might also have a knock-on effect of improving some multi-platform PlayStation 3 games, as developers re-using assets across both platforms would have more space to play with.
If you're in North America and want to join Microsoft's testing for the new disc format, you can sign up now. Participants will receive a free copy of Halo: Reach for their troubles.
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Shacknews
replyComment on Rumor: Xbox 360 update frees 1GB space on game discs, by Alice O'Connor.
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Sony can be seen snickering in the corner. suing their userbase.
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They would be #1 right now if it wasn't for those pesky users.
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You just crossed out the same thing and rephrased it. Are you high?
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Fortunately, their customers are safe.
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So Sony's entire userbase is GeoHot and users who used his (well, the actual team that got the key ...) to make homebrew... wait? Was there any homebrew being made for the PS3 or were they just using it to play burned copies of games. Oh wait! They did that not only for homebrew but because Sony took away Linux (which ran really frakkin slow anyway). But wait Sony took it away to TRY to prevent people from doing what ended up happening. Darn Sony for trying to protect content and devs hard work. Darn them all!
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or they could just have multiple disks install to the hard drive.
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Great idea Microsoft, keep investing in 5 year old tech. You're doing great.
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Not really sure what the alternatives are.
Downloads to HDD storage isn't viable for a console when you have games regularly exceeding 30GB these days and it's only going to be more next generation. Ignoring bandwidth cap issues many people are dealing with now only offers storage for 30 games on a 1TB drive with no other content stored on the drive.
Flash? 32GB is still very expensive to produce compared to optical discs. And you're still 18GB short that a double layered Blu-Ray can offer.-
What games are you downloading other than MMO's that are more than 10 GB's?
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Come on, there are no 30gb games that need to be 30gb right now. Even on the PC with higher-res textures and such, you're usually only hitting 10-15. PS3 games are swollen with uncompressed audio or eight language tracks or whatever, but it's not like that kind of size per game is truly necessary yet.
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Ya, but I still don't agree with you because MS and Sony will only have to let users put regular or laptop HDDs with any size. With a 2TB drive a 30GB game doesn't THAT much.
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what are you getting at here?
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This actually sounds like a pretty smart move. It's late in the console cycle so most developers are pretty familiar with the tech and maxing out the performance they can get from the 360. Now they'll have an additional GB of on-disc storage to use for more game assets.
The cost for implementing this is probably pretty minimal to MS since that wasted space is just used for DRM dead spots and the DVD-video section that plays when you put a game disc in a normal DVD player.-
They've also been criticized for having such a small game distribution storage medium (even the Wii has a larger capacity, at 8.54 GB for dual layer), as well as allegedly charging unappealing licensing fees for games over 2 discs. There was the controversy of Id Software cutting down Rage ( http://www.shacknews.com/article/53976/rage-will-look-worse-on ), which they later denied and clarified ( http://www.shacknews.com/article/54780/id-rage-not-cut-because ).
Now if only they could do something about the 2 GB "hard" limit on XBLA titles. I wonder how Microsoft felt when it was announced that Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath was coming to PSN and not XBLA.
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I'm not saying don't grow on old tech that's good, and can be advanced. Xbox 360's can't be upgraded (beside HDD) so there's no point in investing into something that can't perform any better than it could 5 years ago.
Now if they made a new DVD that could hold 230523GB and could be used on any system then sure that's great, but that's not what their doing.-
Xbox 360's can't be upgraded (beside HDD) so there's no point in investing into something that can't perform any better than it could 5 years ago.
Your conclusion doesn't follow from the premise -
they are upgrading it - more disc space. they upgraded the hard drive. they added HDMI. the games look way better than the 2005 titles.
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Do you understand what they (probably) are doing? This isn't a new DVD drive that is being released. It won't require everyone to buy new hardware.
All they are (probably) doing is adjusting the DVD formatting on the disc to allow for more space to be used for games. There is basically 2GB of wasted space on an xbox DVD used for DRM checks and the DVD-video session. -
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Really? I'm pretty sure I do know what I'm talking about.
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Game. Set. Match.
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I'm sorry, I have better things to do then respond to every post.
I'm done by the way, I hate dumb console people.-
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its funny how animals will still fight when backed into a corner, even though they know they have lost.
Even funnier when that animal goes "I'm not listening! NANANANANANANANAN!" -
Yeah, it's amazing that console players are able to dress themselves in the morning.
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He's got you there, Korban.
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We should have hoverboards. The fact that real life will be nothing like Back to the Future 2 is the greatest disappointment of my life.
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Everything about your statement (as it is obviously sarcastic) is wrong.
They ARE doing great.
The tech is older than 5 years but is still doing well for its age.
This move shows that, even though devs have been able to squeeze their games onto that space, MS are still looking for ways to improve what they already have out there.
I hope they continue doing this until they are ready to release their next console.
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Either way, the whole physical media problem basically plaques every console in development. Pipes aren't fast enough to download a 50gb game, or even a 10gb game in my opinion. Not to mention hard drives aren't big enough to store a library of 10-50gb size games.
UGH! Please don't make something like OnLive be the future of consoles. Shoot us all now.-
Eh, a nice 3TB HDD could hold 120 games at an average of 25GB each. What I think is going to happen though is reverting back to cartridges via specially made SSDs.
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That would reduce their margins substantially unless they raised game prices by a large percentage. DVDs cost almost nothing to produce (a couple bucks with the case). Small drives of any sort would be much more expensive.
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Yeah, SSD prices need to come down substantially before it becomes viable.
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Interesting concept regarding SSD's. Not a bad idea considering you can make an SSD out to any size that your game requires so long as you can still make a profit.
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They could do digital distribution WITH discs I think. I don't think they'd ever do this because of the required internet connection, but imagine that every game was unlocked online with a card. They'd be just like the cards that exist now for Gold subscriptions or XBL/PSN money. You could buy just the card at the store for $55, or you could buy the physical disc package for $60, that would look just like today's games. The physical copies would still have an unlock code in them, but you could install 99% of the content from the disc to save yourself the download.
If the cards were going to be widely used, it would probably be best to just make them as barcodes or something like that.
They'd like something like this because it would destroy the used games market, and make shopping on the console itself more appealing. However it gets away from the console appeal of "just put in the game and play" and turns it into getting your new game then waiting for it to install.-
I find it hilarious that you think the download card would be cheaper than the disc.
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I doubt they would. If they do everything online, all developers and publishers lose relationships with customers since we won't be shopping at GameStop and such. That's pretty much all that represents them when it comes to making a purchase. People like to talk about the success of Apple but it's a lot easier to buy a $1 browsing a menu as opposed to a $60 game. The covers, the people working the stores, and the people there shopping all factor in making the decision to buy the game. Not to mention if it isn't physical, you can't take it to a friend and play it at their place.
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It'd totally be NeoGeoTastic
Although like.. 32GB sd cards are getting cheap, they're still a few orders of magnitude more per MB/GB than optical media
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I'm hoping the "next" Xbox will use flash memory. USB3 and eSata (heavily hidden to not immediately look like either) provides plenty of external bandwidth for any method to transfer from flash. Many of the current games are less than 8GB now, increasing this size to 32/64GB would have a small cost that would easily spread over time.
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I can't imagine any scenario where the next-gen consoles don't include SSDs instead of platters.
It makes life a lot easier for developers, both since they don't have to optimize for sequential-transfers and don't have to wait anywhere near as long to access from main memory. It's such an easy improvement too, and probably much cheaper/cooler than dumping the money into speeding up the CPU/GPU.-
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At the same time, though, I think they could get excellent bulk-rates and it's one of the components whose price would decrease the most rapidly. Sony's certainly shown the will to pursue expensive components who ramp into profitability much more slowly.
SSDs have been effective in the PC space where they're simply replacing platter HDs, but if implemented in a standardized environment where they can be assumed? They'd be a long-term trump card if only one of the two consoles implements them.-
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I can easily see having internal storage of decent quantity using some form of SSD -- probably higher reliability rates. Prices on SSD will need to significantly come down for console adoption (even low ends are more expensive than spinning platters).
For non DL'd games, I want to avoid spinning discs. Flash is plenty fast MS could easily rope some proprietary connector onto their cartridges to cover up the fact they are using USB3/LightPeak/eSata. Either of those three interfaces will be plenty to supply bandwidth to a cart.
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Citizens of a socialist state don't get mugged?
Or are you alluding to the feeling that you were getting short changed and paying for the privledge? That's the beauty of a capitalist society, if you don't like the product you can go somewhere else. Capitalism isn't extortion.
What's that, they all do it? Then deal with it.-
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You think that's [free content] you're breathing? Hmmm?
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From a technical stand point, it is pretty amazing but it isn't something the game player will see.
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Great! The only thing I care about is Skyrim making use of it!
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