Durango Out in 2013, Lacks Optical Drive: Report

[btarunr]

Microsoft's next-generation Xbox game console, codenamed "Durango", will arrive in 2013. More importantly, it is said to completely lack an optical disc drive. The lack of a disc drive could mark a milestone in the evolution of console game distribution. Microsoft already has a high-volume digital distribution platform in Xbox Live, its significance in a post-disc console era will only increase.

This is not to say that Microsoft will completely do away with physical media, an interchangeable NAND flash-based media could also take shape, seeing how prices of NAND flash-storage has come drastically down over the past couple of years. It would be a going back to solid-state game cartridges, for home consoles. Some portable consoles use solid-state media even today.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[btarunr]

Many Thanks to NdMk2o1o for the tip.

 

[dinmaster]

i think that they need to have a disc or cartridge cause internet speed is too low for the high prices we currently have. ideally if i could go to a friends house log onto steam and download a game in 1-5 minutes and then play it then yea no need for that but currently it takes some 30-1hr+ to download an alright sized game but it also goes against your internet cap if you have one. Canadian internet providers gouge us horribly so wont happen for a long time. just my thoughts

 

[Peter1986C]

Guess what will happen? Indeed, MS having to lay boxes in the stores, containing a memory card with a game on it within a year from the release date.

Edit: dimaster was quicker with posting. The reasons he gave are indeed the reasons.

 

[sneekypeet]

Games on USB sticks FTW?

 

[Peter1986C]

Nostalgia, that is. Games from a store, on solid-state media. Those were the days!

 

[MilkyWay]

I dont mind digital distribution on pc's as there is much choice of what service you want to use but with Xbox you will be stuck with only their service and whatever prices are charged. I like to shop around for the best price. Using flash memory will be good in performance but expensive, Xbox games are already expensive at £40 or £35 retail price.

 

[ironwolf]

Increased durability from a cartridge or similar item would be welcome I would hope.

 

[baggpipes]

Back to the days of blowing your games before you played them....

 

[[H]@RD5TUFF]

Games on USB sticks FTW?

One can only hope as I am not paying a cloud gaming service!:shadedshu

 

[hardcore_gamer]

I hope they put a better card than 6670 in the next xbox.

 

[NdMk2o1o]

One can only hope as I am not paying a cloud gaming service!:shadedshu

It's a full blown hardware console so it wouldn't be a cloud gaming service like onlive, if anything you would be downloading your games ala steam/D2D etc

 

[Filiprino]

64 GB Flash ROM cards would be very cool. The thing is that a lot of people used to play their DVD's or Blu-Ray's on the console if it had the possibility (360 can only play DVDs, Wii without Wiibrew can not play nothing, and PS3 can play both DVDs and Blu-rays).

Flash cards would give speedier installs and random read accesses, but of course not anywhere near of SSD speeds.

 

[Delta6326]

I really like the idea of games on Flash Memory, but if they get rid of the OD then how will I and others watch DVD's I use mine as a DVD player.

 

[[H]@RD5TUFF]

it's a full blown hardware console so it wouldn't be a cloud gaming service like onlive, if anything you would be downloading your games ala steam/d2d etc

pass!

 

[NdMk2o1o]

pass!

MS will be deeply saddened by you not buying their next gen console jk

Can't tell if this would work or not tbh on one hand I pretty much buy all my games on the likes of steam etc though on the other hand I have 30Mb download so I can whereas a lot of the population still struggles to get anything close to 5Mb download.

Then there's the talk of using nand/flash rom etc which would work though any kind of solid storage is many many times more expensive than optical media

 

[Delta6326]

MS will be deeply saddened by you not buying their next gen console jk

Can't tell if this would work or not tbh on one hand I pretty much buy all my games on the likes of steam etc though on the other hand I have 30Mb download so I can whereas a lot of the population still struggles to get anything close to 5Mb download.

Then there's the talk of using nand/flash rom etc which would work though any kind of solid storage is many many times more expensive than optical media

You are very lucky to have 30 Mb I have only 256Kb. If they go DL for all games it will be the end of my gaming.

And I don't know if its just me, but I always like to keep my Game cases.

America needs to realize how much we are lacking in the internet speed.

 

[DonInKansas]

And for those of us without uber-internet speeds:

 

[[H]@RD5TUFF]

And for those of us without uber-internet speeds:

http://cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/400x/15940851.jpg

exactlly, I personally have very good internet but after 30 gigs of download they throttle, so I have to reset my modem and router, but you know your internetz is good when friends come over to download games when they launch.

 

[imitation]

All i get is 786k - assuming a game will be at least 20G, the download would take more than two days, taking up all my bandwidth. Let's hope they do offer some kind of cartridge, else the 720 would be a no-go for me.

 

[jbunch07]

I've been thinking this for years...with usb3.0 speeds this would be more than practical! Only issue I see is no Support for blueray...but I'm sure digital copies will take care of that

 

[Recus]

 

[Benetanegia]

Using flash memory will be good in performance but expensive, Xbox games are already expensive at £40 or £35 retail price.

I'm not so sure about that. It wouldn't be too expensive for them, not so expensive that they couldn't handle the additional cost without increasing the price*. Considering that you can often find 8 GB cards for little more than $5 and 16 GB for less than $10 on retail nowadays, the hardware itself cannot cost more than $1. M$ buying flash cards in mass from the fabs through closed deals would cost them a lot less and then there would be no need for all the packaging that current games have, which costs money too.

And I honestly think that digital distribution will take over anyway (in PC it's doing it at amazing rates), so they only need to cover demand in those areas where internet connection is slow, so volume for retail sales should be a fraction of what it is today, shrinking every year until it apporaches zero. IF flash cards do indeed cost more it's probably a cost they could swallow during the first years after which the cost of distributing would approach zero too, due to digital taking over. They save up by not including the optical drive too.

* Does anyone really expect prices to stay like they are anyway? I certainly expect "next-gen" games to cost $5 more than they do know, just because they are "next-gen".

PS: I started using Steam when I had 512 Kb/s connection and I didn't die. It took several hours and sometimes a day to download, but nothing happens, really, you stay alive and all is well. Game is the exact same the next day, I promise.

 

[Mega-Japan]

I really, really hate where we're going with this cloud/streaming crap -_-;

 

[btarunr]

Games on USB sticks FTW?

Games on cartridge that's just a modified 64GB SDHC FTW.

 

[erocker]

Cartridges would be a great idea. There's quite an allure to this with people who grew up using cartridge based consoles. I'm glad that optical drives are being phased out.