Xbox 360 MMOs allowed hard drive requirement

I never did understand why they offered the 360 without a HDD, especially when every XBox had a HDD.

It may be a "duh" thing for MS to announce this, but it was previously a requirement that the ONLY space on the hard drive a game could use was for storage and temporary cache.

Ben, Microsoft has stated that they don't want to use the HDDVD player for games because they don't really want to take sides in the hi-def format war. I wouldn't expect any games like that this generation.

Saying that MS is screwing over Core buyers is like saying Sony screwed over PS2 buyers by requiring you to buy a memory card to save games. Notice the photo says "storage" required, no mention of hard drive. Chances are the Master Storage Files will be small enough easily fit onto 360 memory units which Core owners already need to save games at all.

Stop using games that cache to the HDD as an example. That's a completely different use of storage.

FrankTheCrank,

you're really much better off playing F.E.A.R. on the 360. even without the hard drive.



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who the hell plays MMOs on consoles?

Bah, $70 and $170. Me math no work right head hurts.

Remember when Krazy Ken said that the PS3 will probably NOT come standard with a hard drive? He said that including a hard drive on the PS3 was not a good idea because no matter how big a drive they included, that it would still not be enough.

I thought at the time as I do now that this was a clever way of getting Microsoft to release a Core console without the hard drive.

It obviously worked, every single PS3 has a hard drive, 20% of 360's do not.

Krazy Ken was Krazy, but he was also a genious and a visionary. Modern console videogames would be very different than they are 2day if it were not for Krazy Ken.

So is Microsoft going to start marketing XBox360 Harddisk drives like crazy now then?

well on the surface it seems that this is actually a good call by microsoft:

Consumers know how much storage they need and can manage the space accordingly.

Consumers can immediatly see if they need to uprade their harddrive or buy a new one.

Consumers with a slower internet connection can make a decision as to whether they want to invest in a game with masive downloads.

But on the minus side this can cause a massive amount of trouble on the developer end. And as I speculate companies might shy away from releasing MMO's on the xbox 360 and heres why.

MMO's are based on giving consumers what they want. For example if there is a public outcry that a certain class needs a new ability a lot of times it will happen. But what if what the primary code base doesn't allow for an easy addition of said feture? Wich brings me to my next point.

Building a preliminary codebase that is flexible enough to accomidate any and all features that a future development team might implement in an expansion pack, download, etc. That is a huge sticking point because as my first point states an MMO is all about what the players want. And you don't know exactly what the customers are going to want 6 months into the game. So what do you do? You have to add to the primary code base in order to add more features. And 9 times out of 10 that requires a massive download. A game that was projected to only be a few gigs in the begining now turns into a 20 gig game withen a 1 year time frame. Withen 3 years the game has bloated to 40+ gigs. Thats the nature of the game. The developer can't say with certainty the limit of the game size. Witch leads us to my next point.

Developing a flexable code base across multiple platforms. Today it's just not profitable or economicly feasable to release an MMO on one console (unless you are doing it strickly PC) the consumer base is too small the development costs too high and the risk too large. So inorder to minimize there risks you need to release across multiple platforms. such as was the case of FFXI (released on multiple platforms across multiple continents to maximize player base and revenue). That was a massive feat and the first endevor of it's kind i believe. But of course squareenix. wasn't hindered by restrictions of this nature when they created their game.

So how does one create complex flexable code across multiple platforms while having an albatros around ones neck when developing for 1 specific platform? It's easy reduce the risk buy not developing for that platform. Not that 360 was the haven for MMO's andyhow,But this could be a large bain to those wishing for the age of MMO's on 360. Only time will tell though.

I don't see what the big fuss is, the core is meant for beginning gamers, and maybe not everyone wants to play an mmo. It's not a mistake in my eyes, if someone really wanted a hard drive, they could save there money and buy one.

Man! There are a lot of panties in a bunch here.

People who bought Core didnt care about online or mmos. It was most likely a gift. If the current owner cares, he/she/it can get a hard drive themselves. Sheesh. Why all the haight!?

The key thing is to lower the entry point (as PS3 demo'd). Yes, they make money on the accessories, but stiq's we have to acknowledge that we are all a bit spec obsessed. The market is bigger than HARDCORE~!

On topic, I cant wait for 360 MMOs. Online is what Next Gen means to me. I dont care about anything else but being able to substitute artificial intelligence for actual intelligence (albeit, sometimes its not necessarily better) - its so much more satisfying. And MMOs are the best expression of online play, except for H A L O ! ! !

What if people don't have broadband...ever think about that? Not everyone plays MMOs, so they could care less about this stuff. And doesn't MS make memory cards forthe X360 too...ever wonder why there are memory card slots on the machine? I don't care about high def. I don't care about HD-DVD or Blu-Ray. I don't care about HMDI ports, CIA ports, ADHD ports, whatever ports is it.

Yes I have a hard drive, and yes I bought the prenium console. But not every X360 owner has to have a hard drive nor a wireless controller. It is an option, not a nessecity. The core is there as a beginners system. You upgrade from there...20 gigs or 120gigs, and even the elete is less than a PS3!

Why MS isn't putting games on the HD-DVD drive? Becuase it's a MOVIE PLAYER DEVICE, not a game drive. Thus Xbox 360 is a game system. And if you wanna watch movies so much, get a regular DVD. It doesn't bite, and you'll get good picture quality too. Oh I also use my X360 as a media extender sometimes....neat to have a media center PC eh?

Man, remember when one of the benefits consoles had over PCs was that you didn't need a hard drive to load jack shit? I miss those days.

Chances of WoW on X360 are probably still nil.

It continues to amaze how ignorant some of these hardcore gamers are...

You guys represent a very small percentage of gamers. And you're NOT that important.

The Core was made for average people who really don't really care about online that much.

It was a great move and it probably resulted in a lot more sales for MS. Nothing wrong with that from my POV...

Ugh!
"Microsoft says designers can get around the console space issues by offering up lower resolution models and textures, make areas off-limits and stream assets from their server."

So make a crappier game in order to work around this. NO THANKS! PS3 FTW!