Why does Xbox One have a Bluray player?

[Silent_Buddha]

Can I download to my PS3, take that download copy to a friends, and play it then and there? Nope. Best case is I can go round his house and download a copy, which isn't what I'd call convenient.

Both systems have pros and cons that consumers value. As long as that's true, there'll be a market for both

With the previous Microsoft Xbox One method (all games must be online verified) you could theoretically do that no matter how you purchased the game. Even now, in theory, you might be able to do it. Just install to a USB based storage device and take that with you to a friends. It has to be online verified to run (being DD), so no problems in theory.

Of course, there isn't a possibility of that for the current generation as DD wasn't well planned (if at all) for the current generation of consoles.

Regards,
SB

 

[Silent_Buddha]

So you are saying store all your games on a external hard drive? Or harddrives? Very convenient to drag your hard drive to your friends if you want to play instead of a 12cm disc

You could also just stick it on a USB stick. Some of those are absolutely tiny in size. Even a large one would be significantly smaller than an optical disk. If you want speed then just make sure it has a high quality USB 3.0 device and you'll likely get faster loading speed with the game than your internal console HDD.

So, now you have a smaller portable size than Optical. Significantly faster speed than Optical (unless you use a particularly crappy USB 2.0 device). No requirement to install the game when you get to your friends house, which then clutters up his HDD with content he cannot access unless you leave your disk there. Even a halfway decent 2.5" USB HDD/SSD can fit into your pants pocket as they are the size of a mobile phone.

So, 2.5" HDD/SSD and USB stick can all be significantly more portable than an optical disk (fairly hard to just stick in your pants pocket). That 12 cm disk is suddenly quite huge.

And that's not to mention you have to bring one optical disk for each game you might want to play. You can on the other hand stick multiple games on a USB storage device that is smaller than an optical disk.

Regards,
SB

 

[-tkf-]

You could also just stick it on a USB stick. Some of those are absolutely tiny in size. Even a large one would be significantly smaller than an optical disk. If you want speed then just make sure it has a high quality USB 3.0 device and you'll likely get faster loading speed with the game than your internal console HDD.

So, now you have a smaller portable size than Optical. Significantly faster speed than Optical (unless you use a particularly crappy USB 2.0 device). No requirement to install the game when you get to your friends house, which then clutters up his HDD with content he cannot access unless you leave your disk there. Even a halfway decent 2.5" USB HDD/SSD can fit into your pants pocket as they are the size of a mobile phone.

So, 2.5" HDD/SSD and USB stick can all be significantly more portable than an optical disk (fairly hard to just stick in your pants pocket). That 12 cm disk is suddenly quite huge.

And that's not to mention you have to bring one optical disk for each game you might want to play. You can on the other hand stick multiple games on a USB storage device that is smaller than an optical disk.

Regards,
SB

It's not like there is a world of difference between taking 5 games on discs to a friend or a USB Drive. But you suggest that i buy a USB stick that is big enough, lets say 128GB and then i copy(?) the games from my internal harddrive to the USB stick and then i take that along.

It might seem very convenient for you, but i fail to see the advantage of taking my discs to a friends place.

 

[AlphaWolf]

So you are saying store all your games on a external hard drive? Or harddrives? Very convenient to drag your hard drive to your friends if you want to play instead of a 12cm disc

No I don't drag my games anywhere. But an external hdd isn't much bigger than a disc box and can hold dozens of games if you wanted. A thumb drive could also hold a few games and takes of a fraction of the space of your 12cm disc.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

It's not like there is a world of difference between taking 5 games on discs to a friend or a USB Drive. But you suggest that i buy a USB stick that is big enough, lets say 128GB and then i copy(?) the games from my internal harddrive to the USB stick and then i take that along.

It might seem very convenient for you, but i fail to see the advantage of taking my discs to a friends place.

Hell, buy a 2.5" `1 TB HDD for 60-100 USD (depending on if you find one on sale or not). It's smaller and more portable than even a single optical disk. Holds significantly more games and is at the very least the same speed as your consoles internal HDD.

Why copy the game to the USB stick or USB HDD/SSD? Oh wait, that's right PS4. On Xbox One, you just install the game to external media. You play it on that device just as you would on your internal drive. No need to "copy it". It's already there.

Have cash to spare? Install it to an external 2.5" SSD. Want something even more portable, then sure you can buy an expensive per GB USB Stick.

The point being the only option that is less portable would be a 3.5" external HDD. It costs more, but there's also the added convenience in expanding the storage on your console.

And in the case of a good external flash based device (USB 3 thumbstick or USB 3 SSD) it also increases you game loading speed.

After all your original post that I responded to was only complaining about the...portability of a USB drive. Which just so happens to be even more portable than an optical disk.

Regards,
SB

 

[Blazkowicz]

eh, a 8cm Bluray disc could be fun , too bad blank recordable discs are bloody expensive.
It sucks that 8cm discs (CD and onwards) were not common and sold in casings (optional) similar to Minidisc, so you then use them directly in small dedicated drives (3.5" bay, USB or mobile) or remove the disc from caddie and stick it in a regular drive.

It would have been like those movies from the 90s where the terrorists, spies, good guys fought for that Minidisc or magneto-optic prop. The format always looked very cool and convenient.

 

[Blazkowicz]

Have cash to spare? Install it to an external 2.5" SSD. Want something even more portable, then sure you can buy an expensive per GB USB Stick.

Better is the "chocolate bar" SSD if you want portability

After all your original post that I responded to was only complaining about the...portability of a USB drive. Which just so happens to be even more portable than an optical disk.

Regards,
SB

The issue with a USB stick is you can't leave it at your friend's house, as you usually use it to carry whatever crap (music, data etc.) and it is a valuable item.
I know, DRM, accounts, installs make the thing more complicated but a CD/DVD/BR is easier to give or lend.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

With the previous Microsoft Xbox One method (all games must be online verified) you could theoretically do that no matter how you purchased the game. Even now, in theory, you might be able to do it. Just install to a USB based storage device and take that with you to a friends. It has to be online verified to run (being DD), so no problems in theory.

That's a step in the right direction. The final issue would be, ignoring BW issues some have, whether downloads are priced competitively or not. Although there are sales, these tend to be much later than release, whereas discs can be pretty heavily discounted even weeks after launch. And for those that resell, of course, there's that benefit to the cost consideration.

 

[-tkf-]

Hell, buy a 2.5" `1 TB HDD for 60-100 USD (depending on if you find one on sale or not). It's smaller and more portable than even a single optical disk. Holds significantly more games and is at the very least the same speed as your consoles internal HDD.

Why copy the game to the USB stick or USB HDD/SSD? Oh wait, that's right PS4. On Xbox One, you just install the game to external media. You play it on that device just as you would on your internal drive. No need to "copy it". It's already there.

Have cash to spare? Install it to an external 2.5" SSD. Want something even more portable, then sure you can buy an expensive per GB USB Stick.

The point being the only option that is less portable would be a 3.5" external HDD. It costs more, but there's also the added convenience in expanding the storage on your console.

And in the case of a good external flash based device (USB 3 thumbstick or USB 3 SSD) it also increases you game loading speed.

After all your original post that I responded to was only complaining about the...portability of a USB drive. Which just so happens to be even more portable than an optical disk.

Regards,
SB

Well the idea is that DD is convenient. Easier to handle than a disc.
All i have to do is to install the game on the right portable device of my choice in case i want to carry the game to a friend and play it there. So i buy a USB stick for every one of my game, because if i install everything on a external hard drive my XBOX 1 is essentially useless for the rest of the family because i took all the games with me.

Nope not convenient.

EDIT: I am not even sure you can copy games to external devices on the PS3 or PS4 and play them at a friends place?

 

[AlphaWolf]

Well the idea is that DD is convenient. Easier to handle than a disc.
All i have to do is to install the game on the right portable device of my choice in case i want to carry the game to a friend and play it there. So i buy a USB stick for every one of my game, because if i install everything on a external hard drive my XBOX 1 is essentially useless for the rest of the family because i took all the games with me.

Nope not convenient.

EDIT: I am not even sure you can copy games to external devices on the PS3 or PS4 and play them at a friends place?

You're trying really hard to make a USB drive sound like a complicated procedure. You could install the games on many drives if you really wanted to do so.

As for the issue with Sony not supporting it, that would seem to be an unfortunate shortcoming of their device.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

You're trying really hard to make a USB drive sound like a complicated procedure. You could install the games on many drives if you really wanted to do so.

Although I agree with your sentiment, you'd be requiring a separate 64GB USB device for every game. I don't have a problem with an external HDD - 2.55 drives are less cumbersome than a DVD case, although isn't performance going to suffer? Or is the USB3 used to load the game to HDD for play

As for the issue with Sony not supporting it, that would seem to be an unfortunate shortcoming of their device.

Sony seem to be going with a virtual library, where you can download (or stream?) your games to as many consoles as you like. Not as convenient and immediate as a disc in the drive, but for frequent visits to the same friends, more convenient as they can have the game installed and ready to go.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Although I agree with your sentiment, you'd be requiring a separate 64GB USB device for every game. I don't have a problem with an external HDD - 2.55 drives are less cumbersome than a DVD case, although isn't performance going to suffer? Or is the USB3 used to load the game to HDD for play

Not really, you could just have USB storage device (home) USB storage device (on the go). Unless you regularly leave multiple games with multiple different people. If that's the case, it'd be easier just to then either install the DD to the friends console or copy the game from your external media to the internal/external media of a friends console (so same benefit as optical, but with faster copying/installing speed).

But, leaving it at a friends house isn't going to be convenient with the new Xbox One method however as there is no "family" sharing of titles currently. It's something you could do with the previous method, but not the new one. In that case optical is probably a better option currently as you could leave that at a friend's house, with the caveat being that you then can't play it at your house.

But in the case where say you're going to a friends house to have a bit of a gaming party you could bring along games that your friend may not have (fighters, for example) which they have fun playing with other people but aren't interested in buying themselves. One 2.5" portable drive or a thumbstick and off you go. No disk swapping during the "party." No need to install anything. Well perhaps have to install some kind of stub(?) so the new machine knows what is available on the external device. Or perhaps it just auto-scans external devices to see what is on there and then cross-checks it with the online verification of any logged in profiles to see if play is allowed.

So yes, there are things that optical is better for currently and there are things that installing to external media is better for.

Regards,
SB

 

[AlphaWolf]

Although I agree with your sentiment, you'd be requiring a separate 64GB USB device for every game. I don't have a problem with an external HDD - 2.55 drives are less cumbersome than a DVD case, although isn't performance going to suffer? Or is the USB3 used to load the game to HDD for play

Sony seem to be going with a virtual library, where you can download (or stream?) your games to as many consoles as you like. Not as convenient and immediate as a disc in the drive, but for frequent visits to the same friends, more convenient as they can have the game installed and ready to go.

I'd be willing to bet a 64GB thumbstick will hold more than 1 game with only a few exceptions. You don't need to install 30 language voice tracks unless you're taking your game to the UN to play.

A disc in the drive isn't immediate. There will be mandatory installs.

 

[Bigduo209]

An external HDD is smaller and more portable than an optical disc? No it's not.

An external HDD is more convenient for storing multiple games? Yes it is.



Problems:

1. An external HDD and/or flash storage is still expensive compared to optical discs.

2. Optical discs still hold large amounts of data for their cost.

3. Physical distribution is 99.9% certain, no matter the quality of your internet connection.

4. I accidentally drop a game case with a disc on the ground? It's still good.

5. I accidentally drop a standard external HDD or SSD on the ground? I'm more than likely fucked.

6. Get a durable/ruggedized external HDD or an SSD? See number 1 and number 4.

7. Your going into a new generation with even bigger data requirements for games, so discs is still a better middle-ground for almost every use case.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

An external HDD is smaller and more portable than an optical disc? No it's not.

It is smaller than the DVD case the disc comes in though, so unless you transport your discs caseless or transfer them to a slim jewel case so you can squeeze them into your bag/glove compartment, an external HDD is smaller (it'll even fit in my pocket).

 

[Shifty Geezer]

...or copy the game from your external media to the internal/external media of a friends console.

Does any console support arbitrary copying of games from external storage to consoles?

 

[-tkf-]

You're trying really hard to make a USB drive sound like a complicated procedure. You could install the games on many drives if you really wanted to do so.

As for the issue with Sony not supporting it, that would seem to be an unfortunate shortcoming of their device.

Personally i wouldn't have a problem with copying games to an external device if i wanted to take it to a friend (is that even possible?).

But imho compared to taking a disc to a friend the above thread proves to me that DD is not more convenient in this case, "just buy a external device" "just copy the game to a USB Stick" "one game pr USB Stick" compared to just bring the disc?.

DD wins when it comes to keeping your arse on couch when you play, no need to raise it to change discs, buy the games you want from the couch. Have them ready at midnight on release date. No shelf space needed just hard drive space.

 

[orangpelupa]

cant they works like steam game? on steam i can transport a game i install on external drive to be played on pc or on laptop.

i just symlink the folder.
when i login to steam, i verify game local cache and it works.

so, for game installed on usb,
make The verification is not on the offline installed file. But on gamertag online.

 

[fbomber]

No, but not everyone wants to run to the store to buy it when they can just click download instead. And they can have it downloaded and ready to go when the game launches.



DD has a substantial convenience incentive over physical media, that's what's killing optical right now.

In PC games, the incentive for DD is the MUCH lower price. Whenever I pay full price for a game, be it PC or console, I buy the disc. That holds true for all of my friends. And no, we don´t lend games. We just like to own the games to play years from now, not relying on "company´s goodwill" to let me download and play the games I paid plenty of cash for.

That and the fact we buy lots of games. It´s impossibile for the console´s HDD to store all of my dozens of games. I would need to redownload at a regular base. I prefer to just insert the disc and install, because its much faster, even with my 50mbit internet connection. That´s a problem I don´t face at my PC: all my steam, origin and gamersgate low price content is downloaded at my 14tb HDD array. Convenience is personal.

 

[AlphaWolf]

In PC games, the incentive for DD is the MUCH lower price. Whenever I pay full price for a game, be it PC or console, I buy the disc. That holds true for all of my friends. And no, we don´t lend games. We just like to own the games to play years from now, not relying on "company´s goodwill" to let me download and play the games I paid plenty of cash for.

That and the fact we buy lots of games. It´s impossibile for the console´s HDD to store all of my dozens of games. I would need to redownload at a regular base. I prefer to just insert the disc and install, because its much faster, even with my 50mbit internet connection. That´s a problem I don´t face at my PC: all my steam, origin and gamersgate low price content is downloaded at my 14tb HDD array. Convenience is personal.

Even on release day games like diablo are selling most of the copies digitially, it's not the price.