Seagate - the answer to digital distribution?

by Justin Murray { Jan 2nd 2007 at 1:00PM }

When thinking of gaming, the companies that make the storage medium are rarely thought of. Seagate, however, is offering up an interesting view of the future; a future that could effect the way we buy our games.

According to Seagate, they are working on a technology that will drastically increase the amount of data we store on hard drives. Using a technology called heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR), the company expects to be able to shove 50 TB of information into a single square inch of drive space, or around 300 TB of information on a standard 3.5" drive. With that kind of space, the entire Library of Congress can be stored ... without any compression.

The technology is expected to become commercially viable in a scant three years, by 2010. This means we may be seeing the Xbox 720 and PS4 being entirely based around digital distribution or fully installed console games, mostly eliminating ugly load times and noisy disk drives. With that kind of space, we may never have to worry about filling it up; 300 TB can hold around 6,144 50 GB Blu-ray disks (or the entire Library of PS through PS3 games that could ever be created with room to spare).

Tags: big hard drive, BigHardDrive, digital distribution, DigitalDistribution, hard drive, hard drive size, HardDrive, HardDriveSize, large hard drive, LargeHardDrive, PS3, PS4, TB, terrabyte, Xbox 360, Xbox 720, Xbox360, Xbox720

Related From Joystiq

GameStop details three-point plan for digital distro future
18 days ago
Moore talks digital distribution; disc-based business model 'a burning platform'
22 days ago
Rockstar supporting PSP digital distribution, announces PSN storefront
25 days ago

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

redpill @ Jan 2nd 2007 1:05PM

Just think of all that pron!!!

Ignatius @ Jan 2nd 2007 1:07PM

Holy crap. I'm totally getting one of these when they come out.

Einhanderkiller @ Jan 2nd 2007 1:09PM

We still need fast Internet connections.

rajface @ Jan 2nd 2007 1:08PM

Now imagine having a Hard Drive crash of 300TB of information... I think replacing 1 game disc would be more convenient than re-filling that HD.

diamondxp @ Jan 2nd 2007 1:09PM

Gamestop must be freaking out about this.

Ignatius @ Jan 2nd 2007 1:10PM

@rajface

You'd think they'd improve the read/write head stability a billion times by then, considering the data at risk. I have never had an HDD crash on me and I've been using one in my system for about 10 years now. Then again, maybe it is just chance.

Kyoji @ Jan 2nd 2007 1:10PM

I think the internet can issue a collective "duh" to this. Digital distribution has been the "future" since broadband was widely available, it's just been a waiting game for prices on storage that is small, plentiful, cheap, and fast enough to make wide scale digital distribution a reality. What with social networking going the way it is, and online applications like Writely gaining a ton of popularity lately, I think the distribution and creation of all media across the board will be drastically changed. However, even if the storage options are there and are cheap enough, you've got to keep in mind that the majority of American citizens do not have access to a broadband connection beefy enough to really make large, large scale distribution convenient and "user friendly" enough that grandma can do it. Try explaining to your grandparents why their new movie is taking so long to download.

marty @ Jan 2nd 2007 1:15PM

Gamestop would find some way to rip people off with this!

VampireHunter Z @ Jan 2nd 2007 1:16PM

It's a pain to re-fill the disk if it crashed but at least you can get back your games. Downloading games will still suck with these Internet connections. One of my friends on XBL has a 30MBit cable connection. If everyone with broadband had that kind of speed then digital distribution would make sense.

crono141 @ Jan 2nd 2007 1:24PM

Yeah, one of these 300TB drives will be in the Xbox720. And it'll cost 800 dollars because of it. I dunno if you people pay attention to how much cutting edge technology costs the year it becomes commercially available, but its always damn expensive with very few exceptions.

It'll take 2 generations before this will hit a mass market price in a game console. We've got at least one more generation of games on removable media.

That said, I'll totally get the budget line 100TB disk for the PC when it comes down to about 150 bucks. I sure hope Vista will support disks of that size.

RyanLN @ Jan 2nd 2007 1:21PM

The bigger picture, as far as I'm concerned, will be the death of the secondary game marked. I buy a *lot* of games, and I would say that easily 80% of them are used. Why? Because I can't afford to buy new games all of the time. Digital distribution will be as easy as pie, but do you think that the cost savings- packaging, manufacture, shipping, distribution and the retial cut- will be passed along to the consumer? Doubtful, at best. Call me old fashioned, but ever since Super Mario Bros 2 I've loved the feeling of opening up a new game and holding it my hand, and will sorely miss it when it's gone.

buba @ Jan 2nd 2007 1:22PM

If you were to get one be sure to get a 2nd one to run in a raid, saving your precious data in the event of a failure.

that one dude @ Jan 2nd 2007 1:23PM

"This means we may be seeing the Xbox 720 and PS4 being entirely based around digital distribution or fully installed console games, mostly eliminating ugly load times and noisy disk drives."

Yes, we like to call those things home computers.

If that's the case then PC gaming isn't dead because every new console coming out would be...a PC.

livefromphiladelphia @ Jan 2nd 2007 1:25PM

Hmm

I’m somewhat hesitant to abandon real copies of games in favor of digital distribution. I like actually owning a product and knowing that if I don’t like it or grow tired of it, it still has some real world value as a trade in or a resale. With digital distribution, you’re pretty much stuck with the game, and so far companies haven’t given too much of a discount for buying digital copies as opposed to actual discs and cartridges. T

pwnut-butter @ Jan 2nd 2007 1:26PM

I've already got mine preordered from gamestop, it was an easy small $50 and I got one saved when it comes out. Just like SC: Ghost. YAY

Shizzle @ Jan 2nd 2007 1:28PM

"With that kind of space, we may never have to worry about filling it up"

Wrong! The question is never 'can we fill it up?' but 'when will it be full?'.

theburn16 @ Jan 2nd 2007 1:26PM

and i guess at this point nintendo might actually go to dvd's for their games...seeing as how they love using 10 y/o technology. and by the way i'm loving that my ps3 doesn't have one of those "noisy disk drives" you speak of...kinda gets annoying hearing my 360 over my a/c unit

Invisible @ Jan 2nd 2007 1:30PM

See Atomic Computers. With 2 bytes, they can store a number that is greater than the number of known stars in the entire Universe.

1,208,925,819,614,629,174,706,176 - Number that can be stored in 2 bytes.
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 - Aprox. Number of Stars in the Universe.

The first Atomic computer will be 32 times 'more powerful' than any computer currently made.

Flash @ Jan 2nd 2007 1:35PM

Internet speed is whats slowing it down, I have RR it takes 10 mins, to download 250 mb, can you imagne 40-50 gigs, that would take 12-13 hours.

Flash @ Jan 2nd 2007 1:44PM

DD will not be up any time soon, I predict 40 years, we will have digital distrabution. It can happen, but the phone/cable compines will need to update their lines, phone comps still use the same lines since the 30's.
It would take zillions of dollars to update all of them to fiber optics, but when they do, dial up will be 4x faster than my RR.

hohoho @ Jan 2nd 2007 1:49PM

We're still using broadband. Not superduperbroadband. Instead of going to shores, now you have to stare a download progress for days, sorry weeks.

crono141 @ Jan 2nd 2007 1:52PM

Flash,

Get a download manager. With multiple connection I regularly get download speeds up to 600Kbytes/sec. That 250mb file is done is 7 min.

I would love to get fiber, as internet speeds are indeed too slow for real digital distribution. 8Mbit is too slow. Give us 80Mbit dammit!

Even at 80 Mbit connection we're talking about 2 hours for 15 gigs. And thats as long as the server side of the connection is as fast.

RedStar @ Jan 2nd 2007 1:51PM

Um, how does having more HDD space decrease loading times (unless you ment less disk swapping)? Now if we could load the entire game into memory ... then we have something to smile about :)

UnmaskedHero @ Jan 2nd 2007 1:58PM

God, I hope this doesn't come to fruition for 10 years or more. I'm about to open a videogame store! Gah! Eh, I don't think I'll need to worry about it... I'm pretty sure every console will have some sort of disc load as many people won't have internet, fast enough internet, or the desire to download a game instead of buying it and enjoying the opening of and displaying of the cool looking game case. Well, I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Mr. Khan @ Jan 2nd 2007 2:02PM

I agree with Crono141

The PS4, Xbox 1080, Nintendo On (the latter two are fair bets for new console names) generation will still see physical storage and physical distribution

Then, in the wild and unforeseeable future of 2015 or so, shall we see such distribution

Also, theburn16, What Nintendo is using now is essentially a proprietary DVD
Just like Next generation, Nintendo will have a proprietary HD, Blue laser beam read disc
GC Optical disc= MiniDisc
Wii Optical disc= DVD
On Optical disc shall= HD-DVD, same tech, different name

Jake @ Jan 2nd 2007 2:19PM

Cool. I work for a company that supplies Seagate with one component of their drives and we have been working with them on this a little. Just a few blocks from my house no less.

Anyways, my two cents is that 720 and PS4 games will be on HD DVD or Blu-ray and will be 15-20 Gb a piece. I an many others are lucky to get 500kB/sec. I usually have more like 250. This still allows me to play Gears lag free (I can't host), but it would take almost two months to download a 20Gb game.

Even with a 4mB/sec speed (quite fast) it would take someone 90 minutes to download a game. Well, I guess that ain't too bad but you can't play online and download at the same time, so you would have to leave your stuff on all day or something.

I know many of you are laughing at a 500kB/sec speed, but probably 50% or more of people are at or below that right now. I live in a big metropolitan area as well, so it's not like I'm in the sticks with dial up. I have broadband.

Bottom line is that we have a long ways to go before everything is downloaded. Especially when 20% of gamers aren't online.

Colin @ Jan 2nd 2007 2:21PM

"12. "This means we may be seeing the Xbox 720 and PS4 being entirely based around digital distribution or fully installed console games, mostly eliminating ugly load times and noisy disk drives."

Yes, we like to call those things home computers.

If that's the case then PC gaming isn't dead because every new console coming out would be...a PC."

Not really. See the difference between consoles and PC's is the fact that consoles are a FIXED platform. PC's have an infinites amount of configurations, thus are more prone to bugs and hassles when it comes to games published for the PC platform. Also, with consoles, you get to see the hardware potential maximized after several years of being used because they developers know exactly what they have to work with, unlike the PC gaming industry, where a new top of the line graphics card is released every 6 months to a year!

Jake @ Jan 2nd 2007 3:16PM

What is the advantage of digital distribution anyways? How much money would be saved per game purchase? The only advantage I see to a 200 Tb hard drive is that you could fully install all of your games that you purchase in physical format from the store and get lower load times.

Perhaps a dual distribution method could be in the works. For people with really fast broadband, digital is an option. For others, Gamestop is still there.

Just think, though, how much cheaper a digitally distributed game would have to be. Besides games that are, like, Gears of War good I eventually sell back almost all of my games. You can't resell a digital game. So, they are worth at least $10 less to me right there. Plus, you don't have the instruction booklet, cool case, instant plug and play, etc. Honestly, a game would have to be at least $25 cheaper for me to prefer the digital form.

Heck, just the thought of dropping $60 on something where you don't have anything except the code. I mean, you physically own nothing but zero's and one's printed on your hard drive.

El Chino @ Jan 2nd 2007 2:30PM

Just imagine having one of these HDD full to the max and all of a sudden becoming corrupt!!! Imagine the possible weeks if not months to put all that stuff back. Give me Blu-Ray or HD-DVD disks any day. I love the feel of opening a new game!!!

Flash @ Jan 2nd 2007 3:33PM

Digital dis will not be here any time soon, so dont count on it, unless you can convince congress to update the phone lines, and cable lines, whitch will cost over a half a zillion dollars. Also hdds are not where storage is heading, flash is. To recap updated lines, 500 tb flash drives under $100, is when you will see DD, I predict 2043. So dont be afraid, to get Blu-Ray.

Hoffer @ Jan 2nd 2007 2:32PM

I noticed one other person refer to the next Xbox as 1080. I think that would be more likely than 720. If people saw Xbox 720, they might think it only does 720p. We all know 1080p will be the main resolution next gen. So, I say Xbox 1080 is the way to go. :-)

Burnt Meatloaf @ Jan 2nd 2007 3:17PM

To me, this technology means really cheap, miniature hard drives, and people will have to install games on the drives to play them, just like on PCs.

A mixed bag. But then, there's always a difference between making technology and applying it.

Tadashi @ Jan 2nd 2007 3:37PM

@18
2 bytes can have 256 states or a letter with ASCII, even if calculated with an atomic or molecular computer.
Maybe you mean atoms, but bytes are bytes.

ill trooper @ Jan 2nd 2007 3:15PM

Thank you El Chino... anyone ever had a hard drive die on you? Bummer. This is the future I guess. It's cool downloading stuff, but I like the physical media of game/movie disks because...

1) I like the item on my shelf
2) It's an easier 'back-up' than backing up a downloaded file
3) You can take it over to your friend's house easily and DRMlessly
4) I like packaging and little manuals

But then, I also like going and seeing movies in the theater and wearing expensive sneakers... Ah, downloadble movies and games - the metaphorical sensible shoes FTW!

SquirrelPhister @ Jan 2nd 2007 4:35PM

29. Hoffer:
"I noticed one other person refer to the next Xbox as 1080. I think that would be more likely than 720. If people saw Xbox 720, they might think it only does 720p. We all know 1080p will be the main resolution next gen. So, I say Xbox 1080 is the way to go. :-)"

i really doubt Microsoft would go with "Xbox 1080" as the name of the next console. their current console and their previous one were both capable of 1080 resolution, and it would be a bit silly to make the resolution one of the main selling points. they would want to differentiate it from their other products as well as their competitors'.

plus, since there is so little discernible difference between 720p and 1080p, I'd expect 720p to stay the standard for the next generation as well. the Xbox does a great job scaling to your native resolution, so there is really no advantage to rendering internally at 1080p (it takes twice the processing power for almost no benefit). Instead, expect 16xAA on 720p images. this will produce better looking results for the majority of users.

Moe @ Jan 2nd 2007 3:36PM

#10- "The bigger picture, as far as I'm concerned, will be the death of the secondary game marked."

I completely agree. I buy nearly all my games used because as it stands, new games are just too expensive. Digital distribution might make games cheaper, but how much cheaper? Knowing game companies, game prices will be reduced, but not dramatically enough to be viable for those of us without a whole lot of money to spend.

Brien @ Jan 2nd 2007 10:02PM

Just think what a few (hundred) of these in rack mounts would do. Petabyte RAID? Sure!

Shibathedog @ Jan 4th 2007 12:57AM

HAHA at what diamondxp said. Very true.

Having the entire PS, PS2, and PS3 library all in one place WOULD be pretty cool. It would be awesome if i could just have a 300TB HDD i could partition and swap it between the PC, Xbox 720/PS4/whatever. I mean thats GOT to be enough storage for all 3.

I can't wait to laugh at 300TB HDDs the way i laugh at this old 80MB HDD i have lying around though.

Ian @ Jan 4th 2007 5:48PM

I am one of those guys who love the "New Game" smell, you know what I'm saying? That factory sealed smell that feels like it's right off the presses and into my hands. Used games don't have that benifit unless their specific cases (Like my used copy of SotC was a brand new copy only no wrapping and had the used label on the Barcode). Nothing beats that smell eh :)

Dirk Dorkelson @ Jan 2nd 2007 4:15PM

Whoa! Here comes the HAMR!

Jason @ Jan 2nd 2007 4:30PM

"Digital distribution might make games cheaper, but how much cheaper?"

They won't be any cheaper to begin with on day 1. If anything, it will reduce the number of copies they have to sell before they go on the "Greatest Hits" list.

If it's a super popular franchise like Gears or Halo, that's just helping MS make money - you aren't going to see any benefit for the consumer on that.

droptop GP @ Jan 2nd 2007 5:01PM

damn, and i thought my 2 gig microSD card was cool.....

Kyouryuu @ Jan 2nd 2007 5:12PM

I still buy music CDs. You know why? Because they are tangible assets. I own a physical disk with music on it. I can do with it whatever I please. So long as there are CD players, you can't take that from me.

I think of digital distribution in the same light. While it may seem superficially useful, the trouble is that DRM is going to shackle our enjoyment of the product. It will get rigged to a specific machine, we could have a limited ability to re-download it, it could expire at some point in the future because some magic subscription runs out, we are forced to abide by their specific proprietary formats and terms of use, we could lose our entire collection because some company says so.

Yeah, REALLY looking forward to that future. Spare me.

Autocrawler @ Jan 2nd 2007 7:36PM

"DD will not be up any time soon, I predict 40 years, we will have digital distrabution. It can happen, but the phone/cable compines will need to update their lines, phone comps still use the same lines since the 30's."
Yawn. DD is already up for PC gamers.

Paul @ Jan 2nd 2007 9:02PM

It should be noted that the Wired Article that this article refers to and the announcement from Seagate both mention the data in bits and not Bytes.

there are 8 bits in 1 Byte. So a 300 terabit drive would be roughly a 37.5 teraByte = 37,500 gigaBytes. Which is still a lot of storage.

Negativecool @ Jan 3rd 2007 1:06AM

When digital distribution becomes mandatory for all consumers, or when products like the game consoles are sold with no physical media drives, we will all be very gray haired.

What it comes down to is ISP's. I live in Iowa City home to 30,000 educated...and not so educated...Hawkeye loving students that know how to use the internets and are in general, tech savvy. The best internet in the area is held by a conglomerate cable company, Mediacom. They have copper wire running all over hell. I haven't even heard of anyone saying anything about fiber optic around here, and this is a major Division 1 university for god sakes. Mediacom charges up the ass for their worthless internet because it comes down to profit, and they have a monopoly in the area. They would have to spend MILLIONS (billions?) to get a network of fiber optic high speed internet to everyone (we got farmers here in the middle of nowhere) in eastern Iowa and beyond. Why the hell would they do that in the next 10 years? And they probably will never cowboy up.
Taxpayers will have to foot that bill, and with Iraq, Katrina, and (enter next catastrophe), I don't see Congress seeing the need to spend that kind of cheese any time soon. I mean for god sakes, they approved DIGITAL distribution of TV…2 YEARS from now!! Snaaaaiiils pace!

In short, I hate Mediacom.
300 TB storage? I’ll be too old to care by the time these things are available and truly needed.