Dan Dare

@Lou D

I totally agree with you!
The console makers are shooting themselves in the foot with this issue.
But there are no doubt that, if it can be done (patching later) then IT WILL be done. That's the rule of money we are facing here.
What I can see, is a development for consoles towards PC functionality. Including harddisk and internet was the last step.
What one could ask is: why should I buy a console, when it has same functionality as a PC? Is just as expensive if we look at it in the long run (games are 25% to 50% more expensive than an exact copy of the same game on the PC). The graphic quality and processor speed (specs) on a console are static, where as PC specs develop all the time. Consoles only catch up when a new is released every 5 years of so.

By the way: newest models of harddisks deliver 150 MB/sec. A CD drive with 56x speed has 150 kB/sec times your 56x = 8.4 MB/sec. Harddrives are then (150 div by 8.4)= approx. 17 times faster than a CD drive with 56x speed.
I don't say all PC games have 17 times faster load time than console games. Not by far. But they ARE faster.
I agree with you that the PC could read directly from the CD/DVD without any problem. You could even get a downloaded patch to work anyway. No problem. Newer PC games today have a button "on screen" for patching. Look at the game "Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends" for that functionality.

Yes!!!! At last. The old and naive argument, that console games are released "error free", has fallen to the ground! For a PC gamer like me, this has been a revelation.....
Still console games will continue to be charged at least 25% more than PC games - very funny indead.
And to "Lou D" I will say that: No, they don't run off the CD/DVD. Why should they? When installed on the harddrive there is much less loading time. I'll guess you have played many console games with annoying loading time inbetween levels. And you never get rid of them. PC games only have this problem (?) first time you install the game.