Should Nintendo or Microsoft adopt Blu-ray for their next console?

[LunchBox]

my 2 cents...

I think it will depend on how much a blu-ray drive will cost at the launch of the system, royalties and other things. Personally, I don't think they will. I would rather see that amount of money go towards more ram or a better GPU, or CPU than spend all that money in a disk drive. Plus... comparatively speaking, PC games are still in it's HD infancy, The average gamer can't even play Crysis decently in all it's glory if the resolution is at 1920x1200 or higher...

If the consoles want to target true 1080P games at a constant 60fps, with the scope of graphics to rival the top end PC games, which still use DVDs... Plus streaming it through a disk drive is going to take forever. It seems a storage media such as HDs and or flash memory will be required. It's starting to become a trend where console games need to be installed to play with lesser load times... It will probably be the same on next gen.

Digital distribution seemed feasable before, but since most ISPs are now aggressively starting to put limits on bandwidth, it'll be harder to push. Unless, if game companies would start using kiosks like Japan does...

Honestly, this gen was such a letdown in contrast to the marketing hype it generated. This gen really fell short on a lot of things... It's like the Windows Me or the Pentium Pros of the video gaming indusrty.

I think next gen is going to be the real 1080P gaming goodness that the companies promised this gen was supposed to be.

 

[DeadlyNinja]

Digital distribution seemed feasable before, but since most ISPs are now aggressively starting to put limits on bandwidth, it'll be harder to push. Unless, if game companies would start using kiosks like Japan does...

Yeah, I don't get why everyone has such a hard-on over digital download. Even with my 1 MB DSL speed, it'll take days to download blu-ray size content. I much rather spend a 20 minute walk to Toys R Us than waiting days for my game to download. Plus, it might kill my bandwidth with the ISP restrictions. I just don't think we're there yet, unless games actually reduce in size and goes back to 700 MB.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

If you really have 1MB/s it would take like 14 hours to download 50gb and no game is really going to take a 50gb download. The biggest pc game is probably gt4 with its 16gb or so and if you would compress that for digital distribution I suppose it would be smaller. If your isp can offer you 1MB/s that I doubt 10 times or even 100 times that amount is going to be a big deal.

ISP's starting to rip off customers is a whole other thing. You should go against that because afterall without you their company cant live. No ISP in my country would even thing about capping bandwith as they would get the finger right away.

Personally im a big fan of digital content (as long as it has no DRM at all). I didnt had a optical drive in any of my pc's for over 2 years now. I try to do everything with images as much as possible. Works way better.

The download downside for games is that what your 10 years on and the console isnt produced anymore. Plus you cant sell your game.

 

[BRiT]

Yeah, I don't get why everyone has such a hard-on over digital download. Even with my 1 MB DSL speed

It's because most people have faster speeds. In my area most have 20 mbit/sec speeds. There's talks of upgrades at the end of the year to DOCSIS 3 offering upto 100 mbit/sec. In other really fortunate areas they currently have FIOS offering upto 100 mbit/sec speeds.

 

[Positively Kanyon]

I'd also love to see a non-disc based system next gen as well. I just like the idea of the cart storing the save with it. I'd like to see DS like carts but bigger, maybe 16 gig flash carts. Imagine 10 gigs reserved for games while the 6 gigs reserved for DLC and save files. Now all the patches and whatever garbage can stay exactly with the game it was designed for instead of being shoved into a harddrive.

I actually like this idea, that way when you take the game to a friends house it's not some unpatched or 'wrong' version etc.

As for the disc based systems... Since HD-DVD is considered a dead format, would it be 'dead' enough to say be used as a proprietry format by MS or Nintendo?

 

[MDX]

I actually like this idea, that way when you take the game to a friends house it's not some unpatched or 'wrong' version etc.
/QUOTE]

Yes Im all for carts... but arent they still very expensive compared to discs?

 

[zed]

As for the disc based systems... Since HD-DVD is considered a dead format, would it be 'dead' enough to say be used as a proprietry format by MS or Nintendo?

using hd-dvd would be quite a good idea for MS, nintendo will prolly use there own propriety format
+ yes next generation will still have use discs, in 2 years time fast digital coverage is still not gonna be enuf, perhaps by 2018-2020

edit
broadband rates in the US
2008 25.8
2007 23.4
2006 20.3
2005 16.3

a bit higher in the richer european countries, but still nowhere near enuf
Thats excluding the fact some countries have data caps per month (eg mines 3GB a month)

 

[grandmaster]

An HD-DVD drive would cost more for MS to produce than an off-the-shelf BD drive. Plus it won't play BD movies. Following such a strategy would be an awful decision.

 

[midorigreenwood]

Instead of shunning retailers with full blown digital distribution why not have a combination of both....

set up download stations at retailers and gamers just bring in a removable storage device to load up what they want.

I think Nintendo's first priority is to work out how to thwart the hackers though....

its kinda taking the piss when peeps are playing games off a usb hard drive >,>;;

 

[zed]

An HD-DVD drive would cost more for MS to produce than an off-the-shelf BD drive. Plus it won't play BD movies. Following such a strategy would be an awful decision.

does the most sucessful console this generation play blu-ray or dvd or even cd's (perhaps it does I dont think it does though)
true perhaps it would be cheaper having a standard blu-ray but I assume by then it will be hacked, with blu-ray writers on the market (if it aint so already).
Ok from a customer perspective it wouldnt be as good as blu-ray, but from a business perspective perhaps not

 

[grandmaster]

The most successful console on the market uses a standard optical drive that is dirt cheap to produce. And that is not and never will be HD-DVD. Assuming that Microsoft wants to compete with Sony, it will be using Blu-ray.

The piracy issue is moot too. Xbox 360 wasn't cracked because it uses a DVD drive, it was because the firmware was unencrypted. Sony hasn't made that mistake with PS3, the security is absolutely solid.

 

[DeadlyNinja]

If you really have 1MB/s it would take like 14 hours to download 50gb and no game is really going to take a 50gb download. The biggest pc game is probably gt4 with its 16gb or so and if you would compress that for digital distribution I suppose it would be smaller. If your isp can offer you 1MB/s that I doubt 10 times or even 100 times that amount is going to be a big deal.

I don't know, I'd rather walk 14 minutes than wait 14 hours. BTW, the ISP calls it 1 MB, but the reality is the download speed's just 125 KB. That's fine, mind you, but even with that speed I don't enjoy downloading demo.

Yes Im all for carts... but arent they still very expensive compared to discs?

I believe flash memory is quite different from the traditional carts back in the old days.

 

[zed]

BTW, the ISP calls it 1 MB, but the reality is the download speed's just 125 KB

1 mega BITS equals ~125 kilo BYTES (*)
though u are right, i'm lucky if I get half of the rated download speed

The most successful console on the market uses a standard optical drive

but its not standard AFAIK as it doesnt play blu-ray,dvd,or cd's
true all drives are similar
but I just wanna point out that having a non-standard drive for the wii hasnt exactly harmed sales much

(*)I wish everyone stuck to either bits or bytes accross all mediums storage,bandwidth whatever
couple that with the 1kb = (1000 of 1024) is just murky watering

 

[V3]

Actually 25% coverage is not bad, but what's consider minimum broadband speed ? 256k ? What you need is 25% fibre to home coverage. Then you can get 25-100 Mbits speed with that. Still have to deal with caps though. In some country I've seen some silly plan, like 25 Mbits for 5 GBs for $50. That's $10 per GB. If most people are on that kind of plan, than I don't think HD digital download will ever get off the ground. I just don't see people paying $10 per GB would waste their quota on a single game or movie.

Still though even on 100 Mbits, 50GB is not instant. Then you have to deal with storage. You will need way larger storage without optical drive. So money saved from not having optical drives woul need to pay for larger storage. We are talking about multiple HDDs storage here. Single HDD won't have the density to support all the HD games. movies and musics for next gen.

I belived that no optical drive console is the way of the future, I just don't buy the argument no optical drive console will be cheaper. It will be way more expensive from the get go.

 

[RobertR1]

MS would have no issue with using BD in their next console if they wanted to. The royalties won't be as high and hardware costs will be a lot cheaper. By the time the 360 gets replaced, BD costs won't be anything to worry about. They might choose alternatives for different reasons (technical or business) but cost of BD drives will certainly not be an issue for the next console.

 

[Squilliam]

The most successful console on the market uses a standard optical drive that is dirt cheap to produce. And that is not and never will be HD-DVD. Assuming that Microsoft wants to compete with Sony, it will be using Blu-ray.

The piracy issue is moot too. Xbox 360 wasn't cracked because it uses a DVD drive, it was because the firmware was unencrypted. Sony hasn't made that mistake with PS3, the security is absolutely solid.

Can't they plug that hole? Surely all they would need would be encrypted firmware!

 

[BRiT]

Not without a new mainboard and dvd-rom design.

 

[j^aws]

Yes or No and why?

Well we know Nintendo will eventually go High Def.
We know that Sony, and some developers, claim that DVD 9 limits the Xbox 360.

So what options do those two companies have?

DVD 18?
Holographic Versatile Disc (HVD)?
5D DVD?

Is it even necessary to drop DVD 9?

But there is another reason why Blu-ray might be an option.
If either system adopts Blu-ray wont they take sales away from the PS3 or PS4?

Personally, I miss the robust simplicity and speed of something like a Megadrive or SNES cartridge; I'd really like to see a future return to that kind of model, and games designed around such a model... Speed vs Size vs Robustness; with the emphasis on speed, i.e. minimising any kind of 'waiting' by the player...

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Speed vs Size vs Robustness...

Where does Cost factor into your equations?

 

[j^aws]

Where does Cost factor into your equations?

Cost is ubiquitous. I'd rather stakeholders argue and bicker over how to maximise return-on-investment, and other such metrics that feed their families; and feed their ideas of progress... : )