New Xbox360 Game To Require Hard Drive To Play

[ps2xboxcube]

I am glad this is happening. I think all developers should do this if it will benefit gameplay.

We do not usually post packshots here as they really serve no purpose, so unless they are notable we refrain. Well oh boy, is this one notable. Certainly not an a-list game, but Football Manager 2006 will require an HDD unit to play the game in any form. No memory card allowed. We guess this goes against MS's claims that you will not need an HDD to play any game. Oh boy. Click on the news title to see the packshot for yourself.

http://www.gamersreports.com/news/1258/

http://www.gamersreports.com/mediaimage/408/4751/

 

[robofunk]

Must have massive save games, but you think they would also be massively compressible.

 

[mckmas8808]

Helps seperate the market. Good thing this isn't a huge game so it really shouldn't hurt many.

 

[randycat99]

(taking from the "manager" part of the title)...is this like a sports rpg kind of game then?

 

[scooby_dooby]

Helps seperate the market. Good thing this isn't a huge game so it really shouldn't hurt many.

It's 90% HDD right now anyways. It's just added incentive to buy the HDD and will drive adoption, I don't see HDD only games as a bad thing at all. This whole 'splitting of the userbase' doesn't mean much if it's a 90:10 split.

 

[superguy]

To bad the no Hard Drive core system will grow in importance and percentage of sales over time, not diminish. Unless MS simply pulls it from the market soon. Chances of that happening are pretty much zero.

I am a little surprised MS allowed this game, though, if it indeed pans out.

 

[Nicked]

I'm torn as to whether or not I'm surprised by either this, or fans downplaying the significance. I just love the damage control on how this isn't significant or *shock* it may even be smart.

Splitting the userbase = bad no matter how you spin it.

We were assured that all games could be played on the core (with the obvious exception of MMORPGs)....c'est la vie.

 

[superguy]

Scooby do we really know the split?

Seems more like 60-40 or something, just by what stocks I keep hearing stores getting.

Over time I think the HD becomes less important. As the 360 develops it's library backward compatibility drops in importance. Also no more than 50% of owners will ever be on live, which is the other huge reason.

Also it is really the casual gamers who dont care about the HD. Their percentage will grow too.

 

[superguy]

Also the pic looks photoshopped.

The "HD required" icon looks too amateurish. Black and white?

 

[macabre]

Also the pic looks photoshopped.

The "HD required" icon looks too amateurish. Black and white?

Also on the Sega-Europe site there is no icon: http://www.sega-europe.com/en/Game/231.htm

 

[superguy]

But it says it's a HD only game.

Doesn't surprise me..seems a niche title that simply requires a lot of storage for the stats.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Also the pic looks photoshopped. The "HD required" icon looks too amateurish. Black and white?

Looks convincing as a professional icon to me. These need to be simple and AFAIK tend to be B&W. Ordinarily I'd expect them on the back of the box though.

As for the Sega pic, we don't know when that was created, nor when the HDD icon was (supposedly) added. It could be that the decision for HDD only was made after the cover artwork.

As for why it needs to be HDD only...beats me! You just have a roster of player and team stats. I guess you could be saving the stats of every player in the game, but even then a compressed datafile shouldn't be more than a couple of megs (pie-in-the-sky guesswork figure!).

 

[superguy]

I'm not disputing it's HD only now, since that's what it says in the link to Sega's site.


Although I still wonder if they'll change it or something. I am surprised MS is allowing this.

Also what will happen on PS3 or Revolution?

Is not a 64MB memory card enough? Even if it's like Gamecube Madden where it almost takes the whole thing..

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Anh got the game for PC? What are the save-game sizes?

Edit : How on earth did I manage to type 'anh' when I meant 'anyone'?

 

[London Geezer]

Anh got the game for PC? What are the save-game sizes?

Some PC game sizes are ridiculously big, but that's because you always have a HDD with (hopefully) a few GBytes left over...

On consoles it's a different matter and the devs should at least try to optimise their code to make save games more space efficient. Goes to show how much work these people are doing to actually make a console game and not just repackage their PC game and re-sell it at a premium... Easy money.

 

[Farid]

The game requires the HDD probably because it is a direct port of the PC version.
Which one is quite hungry from a HDD space point of view, due to the nature of the databases the game uses.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Some PC game sizes are ridiculously big, but that's because you always have a HDD with (hopefully) a few GBytes left over...

I appreciate that. Just wondering what the PC save sizes were to see how much impact that has. The console sizes aren't likely to be larger...

Of course, FM has been available for consoles for years. I wonder why all of a sudden they can't use memory cards? How many more stats can the record? (Number of burgers eaten a month. Body Fat ratio variance measured every Wednesday. Body Fat ratio variance measured every Sunday. Individual length of every strand of hair...)

 

[Titanio]

I'm not disputing it's HD only now, since that's what it says in the link to Sega's site.


Although I still wonder if they'll change it or something. I am surprised MS is allowing this.

Also what will happen on PS3 or Revolution?

Is not a 64MB memory card enough? Even if it's like Gamecube Madden where it almost takes the whole thing..

The save files are apparently 100MB, or more. A guy on another board mentioned one of the saves on the PC version of the game was 250MB.

I guess on Rev or PS3..well on PS3, the save files might fit on a typical memory stick. But if the game also requires the HDD for caching or whatever, then I guess it might also require the HDD on it too.

 

[London Geezer]

The save files are apparently 100MB, or more. A guy on another board mentioned one of the saves on the PC version of the game was 250MB.

I guess on Rev or PS3..well on PS3, the save files might fit on a typical memory stick. But if the game also requires the HDD for caching or whatever, then I guess it might also require the HDD on it too.

It would have been cool if PS3 had recording capabilities and the save games could just go onto the Bluray disc... Wishful thinking i know but it would be SO cool. No need for memory cards ever again, you can take your game to friends' houses and the saved games would just be on the disc...

 

[Shifty Geezer]

The save files are apparently 100MB, or more. A guy on another board mentioned one of the saves on the PC version of the game was 250MB.

Seriously, what on earth are they recording?! Someone with the game needs to try compressing them and see what happens, too.