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Xbox 2 To Feature Removeable Hard Drive
More details are emerging on Microsoft's next console, set to release this fall. GamesIndustry.biz has word that the Xbox 2 will have a removable hard drive as part of its feature set. From the article: "It's been assumed for some time that this means that Xbox 2 will be sold in at least two basic configurations - with and without a mass storage unit - and today's report seems to indicate that it will be possible to upgrade between those models by adding the hard drive."
Now the real question is whether this HDD will be the missing link in allowing the XBox's successor to be backwards compatible.
The article didn't mention this, but instead explored the rumours about an 'xPod' and the Xenon's marketing name.
With MSFT acquiring hardware virtualization software not too long ago, there have been plenty of rumours about backwards compatibility in this console, but few facts.
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Why don't MS just stick with a HDD as standard in the next gen Xbox, it's not like they're that expensive is it??
Because HDDs are PC commodity items - and therefore driven by the PC market. Can you walk into Fry's right now and buy an 8GB hard drive? 3 years from now when MS will be expecting to be making huge profit from Xenon, will you be able to walk into Fry's and buy an 80GB hard drive??
My guess is that they will use your home network for these types of tasks (and stream the video/audio/etc). Just think of it - for you to save your maps or whatever, you have to buy a PC running WINDOWS! OMFG what a great idea Bill, we'll screw over our customers by forcing them to have a home network - and then we'll make the map-building software on the PC incompatible with Wine, so we'll simultaneously be fighting Linux too!
You won't have to wait long -- two upcoming Xbox shooters will feature mapmakers: Timesplitters Future Perfect and Pariah. The former looks to have a much expanded version of the mapmaker found in Timesplitters 2 (i.e., tile-based), and will allow you to share maps over Live (apparently through EA's servers) and play user created maps on Live. I assume there are some size contraints, but hopefully Free Radicals will take full advantage of the Xbox hard drive and let you store as many user created maps as you can. Pariah is, I think, by people who worked on Unreal, and from the little I've seen, the map maker works more like a PC map maker (although I think it might only let you modify the pre-existing multiplayer maps, not create your own from scratch.) I believe it, too, lets you play user created maps on Live. In any event, both seem like they'll be worthwhile additions to console shooters, and I hope developers continue putting such features in console games (and, of course, that MS designs the next Xbox to allow these features.)