Xbox Live Feature Upgrades Include Online Storage?
Flamingcheeze writes "According to a Reuters article: 'Microsoft Corp. is planning a number of new features for its Xbox Live online gaming service this year, including... something called 'title-managed online storage,' a way for game players to store and share data via Microsoft's network.' The piece goes on to note, without directly drawing a link: 'speculation within the industry that Microsoft may not include a hard drive in the next version of the Xbox console, in favor of network-based storage that would reduce the console's physical size and cost', as recently discussed on Slashdot Games." The article also mentions possible "indications... that Xbox Live would eventually allow players to leave each other brief voice messages", and a story at GameSpot has further, albeit brief details on this 'Tsunami' upgrade.
Why does people even think that the Xbox Next would actually have savegames on a remote location? This is such a ridiculous idea. I mean, games would take a lot longer to load and save, especially around 8 o'clock in the evening when everybody is playing. It would totally kill backward compatibility if there is any. Not only online games couldn't be playable when your Internet connection is down, but offline games too. And you'd definitely need broadband to have a somewhat acceptable performance. Games like KOTOR would be impossible (savegames are over 8 megs!).
People writing these articles really need to get a clue.