Next X360 HDD to be >60GB?

[AlNom]

From Gamespy's Interview with Shane Kim:

GameSpy: We're low on time, so let me quickly address the reports of a redesigned Xbox 360 with increased drive space. With your film and television downloads, storage is a real issue. Any details?

Shane Kim: Nothing has been announced yet, but I've read about it on the Internet, so it must be true. We've added to the complexity of the issue since we've enabled more content to be available. Which is a good thing. So we know that storage is an issue that we have to address, but there's nothing we're announcing right now. Believe me, it's an issue that we're aware of. I will tell you that in general, I think that Sony has a real issue with the 60 GB drive. It's in a weird space, and it's not much more than 20 GB. When you think of all the kinds of content that will become available, when you talk about future-proofing, you really need to be thinking about significant steps. And that's all I'm going to say. So nothing official, but I'll just mention what I've read on the Internet.​

There were certainly rumours of the 120GB HDD, and it seems that 60GB is not what they're going to do. The pricing of the 20GB and the new drive ought to be interesting if it is indeed 120GB. It seems an even bigger rip (to those who bought the 20GB separately) if they introduce the larger drive at the same price point and drop the price of the 20GB significantly. IMO, they'll drop the 20GB price a bit and introduce the larger drive at a slightly higher price than the current 20GB price.

And if that sounds crazy...well... I'm not an analyst for a reason!

 

[DuckThor Evil]

There were certainly rumours of the 120GB HDD, and it seems that 60GB is not what they're going to do. The pricing of the 20GB and the new drive ought to be interesting if it is indeed 120GB. It seems an even bigger rip (to those who bought the 20GB separately) if they introduce the larger drive at the same price point and drop the price of the 20GB significantly. IMO, they'll drop the 20GB price a bit and introduce the larger drive at a slightly higher price than the current 20GB price.

And if that sounds crazy...well... I'm not an analyst for a reason!
[/INDENT]

Yes it's going to be interesting to see how they are going to price this new HDD and what sort of effect it will have on the lesser storage methods... I'm quessing at this point that if it's 120GB it will be over 100$, 150$?

Sony has a real issue with the 60 GB drive. It's in a weird space, and it's not much more than 20 GB

This line caught my eye... I don't think it's really an issue since you can upgrade it quite easily with any off the shelf hard drive, if the extra space is reguired, and on top of that you don't have to pay major premium for it.

 

[AlNom]

Yes it's going to be interesting to see how they are going to price this new HDD and what sort of effect it will have on the lesser storage methods... I'm quessing at this point that if it's 120GB it will be over 100$, 150$?

I just hope it's nowhere near the cost of the HD DVD drive ($199 USD?).

This line caught my eye... I don't think it's really an issue since you can upgrade it quite easily with any off the shelf hard drive, if the extra space is required, and on top of that you don't have to pay major premium for it.

I think it's more important to read between the lines when he made that statement; I took it as a way to say that they aren't going to introduce a 60GB drive.

 

[Nesh]

Also its not like PCs were you install countless of programs and it updates automatically huge chunks of information and the HDD gets filled fast.

 

[DuckThor Evil]

I just hope it's nowhere near the cost of the HD DVD drive ($199 USD?).

Me too although at the moment I really don't have any use for a bigger HDD, well maybe it would be nice not to have the need to delete demos ever, but that certainly isn't worth 150-200$ to me.

I think it's more important to read between the lines when he made that statement; I took it as a way to say that they aren't going to introduce a 60GB drive

Well yes that's given... although It wouldn't necessary be a bad idea to release a multiple HDDs for example 60GB and 120GB.

 

[ERP]

A year+ (might have been 2+) before MS shipped X360, they were talking about the possibilities of other storage media, rather than HD.

Options like use you PC over your home network as a remote storage location.
Plug in USB hard drives or storage centers
Remote network storage on say your live account.

I was always somewhat surprised that none of this actually happened.
They can theoretically add any storage mechanism after the fact and make it backwards compatible with every game, because the system is responsible for all the hard load/save stuff, and the browsing of saved content, not the application.

 

[AlNom]

Also its not like PCs were you install countless of programs and it updates automatically huge chunks of information and the HDD gets filled fast.

No, but HD videos do take up a lot of space fairly quickly, especially when you're looking at downloading episodes of several series. Downloading and deleting will work in principle because they set a flag for your account so you can re-download in the future, but that gets annoying IMO. Of course, I tend to be a collector of videos.

 

[TurnDragoZeroV2G]

How big a deal is 120GB over 60GB given that the 60GB drive is in a 'tough place.'

It's unfortunate that they're 2.5in HDDs. I bought a 320GB drive last year for under a hundred dollars.

And of course, what exactly is MS going to do about saved data? Having to switch between HDDs because your old saves are on the 20GB would just be far too clumsy for MS to seriously expect consumers to accept. At least, that's what I hope.

Maybe MS will just start offering online storage. Gold account gets you nGB of online storage and dedicated servers for any future games that support it.. You can buy more storage from that point.

Edit: Pfft, it's not much of a joke now.

 

[DuckThor Evil]

A year+ (might have been 2+) before MS shipped X360, they were talking about the possibilities of other storage media, rather than HD.

Options like use you PC over your home network as a remote storage location.
Plug in USB hard drives or storage centers
Remote network storage on say your live account.

I was always somewhat surprised that none of this actually happened.
They can theoretically add any storage mechanism after the fact and make it backwards compatible with every game, because the system is responsible for all the hard load/save stuff, and the browsing of saved content, not the application.

Hate to say this, but it's probably due to the fact they'll make more money this way.

 

[AlNom]

And of course, what exactly is MS going to do about saved data? Having to switch between HDDs because your old saves are on the 20GB would just be far too clumsy for MS to seriously expect consumers to accept. At least, that's what I hope.

Maybe MS will just start offering online storage. Gold account gets you nGB of online storage and dedicated servers for any future games that support it.. You can buy more storage from that point.

Edit: Pfft, it's not much of a joke now.

Or perhaps these consumers will then have a reason to get a 512MB memory card.

 

[infinity4]

is it because of security reasons microsoft are not enabling usb hdd to save stuff??? with PS3 because of HDD it might cause huge piracy problems if hackers release PS3 LXXder

 

[FireGoblin]

A year+ (might have been 2+) before MS shipped X360, they were talking about the possibilities of other storage media, rather than HD.

Options like use you PC over your home network as a remote storage location.
Plug in USB hard drives or storage centers
Remote network storage on say your live account.

I was always somewhat surprised that none of this actually happened.
They can theoretically add any storage mechanism after the fact and make it backwards compatible with every game, because the system is responsible for all the hard load/save stuff, and the browsing of saved content, not the application.

I've raised this as a possibility before and in my humble opinion I think it is worth raising again - what about streaming content to/from a 'Windows Home Server'? I'm still convinced MS's strategy is to move content onto a network filestore within this generation and this would be the perfect place - plus they get to sell another software license!

 

[Rangers]

Umm, they already have network storage. It's called, you can re-download your purchases or videos whenever you want.

Seriously, that's essentially network storage. And it sucks.

Now, I guess, if you stick a lot of your own videos and MP3's onto your 360, that's different. But then again, they had to come from your PC anyway, which will get much faster transfer speeds to your 360 than broadband anyway, and you might as well just leave them on your PC and stream them.

The whole 120GB HDD from MS is going to present all kinds of odd sku problems for them. Examples:

You MUST make it an add on. You can pack it with the new premium if you want, but current owners must be able to buy it. So it can be a pack in and an separately available add on, but it must be at least the latter.

Packing it in with the new premium, has advantages of outdoing the PS3 size which could be a selling point, but, you are now talking a HDD that retails for near $100, packed into a 399 box that must be cut to 299 and below soon. Basically it starts to be a cost issue. One can assume a 20GB 2.5" is relatively cheap, but looking at prices on 100GB+ 2.5" drives, one can see that they must be fairly expensive to produce.

And you still have the question of, what do you do with the 20GB HDD if the 120 replaces it in the premium? Still offer it as accessory?

It seems to me the ideal price of the 120GB might be like 129.95, it has to be more expensive than the 20GB, yet it cant be too expensive. But, if it's 129, then buying a core and that HDD becomes more attractive than the current premium.

Honestly, it seems to me probably the only way they can go is, leave the SKU's the way they are now, and introduce the 120GB as an accesory only, and also eliminate the 20GB as an add on sku. Because if you introduce 120GB as the new premium, again it's too much cost burden. Remember, the next price cut is to 299, meaning everything but the HDD would have to cost only $200 to produce to break even.

 

[AzBat]

According to Xbox-Archiv.de you might be seeing the end of the Core package and the moving of the Premium package to $299. This would then open the way for the Zephyr SKU to come in at $399 which sports a 120Gb hard drive.

Click here if you're not able to understand German and want to read Gizmodo's article on the matter.


Tommy McClain

 

[Rangers]

According to Xbox-Archiv.de you might be seeing the end of the Core package and the moving of the Premium package to $299. This would then open the way for the Zephyr SKU to come in at $399 which sports a 120Gb hard drive.

Click here if you're not able to understand German and want to read Gizmodo's article on the matter.


Tommy McClain

That article is proven fake.

Microsoft will never get rid of the core pack. So any article that states that can pretty much be discounted.

Besides, they dont have to "push down" the 20GB pack..big fallacy on gizmodo's part the 20GB pack will just be replaced. In fact, Gizmodo's predictions seemed in inverse order of likelyhood to happen imo.

 

[AzBat]

That article is proven fake.

Microsoft will never get rid of the core pack. So any article that states that can pretty much be discounted.

Besides, they dont have to "push down" the 20GB pack..big fallacy on gizmodo's part the 20GB pack will just be replaced. In fact, Gizmodo's predictions seemed in inverse order of likelyhood to happen imo.

Read again, the source is not from Gizmodo. Plus, "proven fake"? That's a pretty bold claim. Yes, it's a RUMOR, but from a source that has yet to be discounted. If you don't like Gizmodo, here's a few other sites that picked up the same rumor...

http://www.xboxic.com/news/2565
http://www.gadgetell.com/2007/03/xbox-360-upgrades/

Tommy McClain

 

[nintenho]

I heard a rumor that the 120 GB rumored drive will be non-removable (debunked, sorry). And most things that take up a lot of space would be Arcade games or else movies and you can redownload anything you bought onto the same 360. Movies delete after a few days though. Unless they let people buy them when the bigger hard drive comes out.

Demos coiuld take up a lot of space on a 120 GB (if you download every single good thing) but they're free.

 

[Fu3lFr3nzy]

I heard a rumor that the 120 GB rumored drive will be non-removable.

Link please

"hearing" is one thing, seeing is something else

 

[Acert93]

After fragmenting their install base withe the Core they would be absolute idiots to ditch the Core -- especially when its value, low price point, is right around the corner. It could happen, but it would be a sign of utter incompetence and multi-personality disorder and lack of follow through on their vision/business plan. I completely understand MS's moves in regards to creating the Core, even though I thought a HDD should have been standard for online in the least (as I think with DLC it can repay for itself easily), but for them to dump it now would solidify the negatives of no HDD standard and allow them to reap none of the rewards of a cheaper console down the road.

Just the kind of move we expect from the big wigs these days!

 

[Rangers]

I heard a rumor that the 120 GB rumored drive will be non-removable.

That would be completely ridiculous.

Anyway that was a mistranslation of this already shady german website report.