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."

Comments

Doubt this'll sell well

[ThePolkapunk]

I doubt that a HD as an accessory would sell well. Take a look at the PS2 drive. The only reason to buy it is for Final Fantasy XI. If Microsoft isn't including the HD in all of their versions of XBOX 2, developers will be less inclined to utilize it, and it'll be just as useless as the PS2 HD.

Re:Doubt this'll sell well

[superpulpsicle]

The PS2 hard drives did sell well until Sony discontinued it due to the CDloader software. It allowed people to load games permanently on their HD.

1.) You get super fast loading times

2.) you never have to put in a CD, just load from disk

3.) your playstation life span has expanded by many years since you no longer need to spin the CD.

4.) you can just rent any game and OWN it

5.) supposedly you can load some foreign/import games too

Re:Doubt this'll sell well

[Anonymous Coward]

Except FFXI sucked. Hopefully the XBox 2 will have games that make the hard drive worthwhile. There are tons of features that can make a hard drive worth it:

1) Downloadable maps/levels
2) Downloadable new models
3) Downloadable new weapons/items
4) Updatable games - get new features
5) Custom music - upload your MP3s/WMAs and listen to them while gaming
6) Larger save games, allowing more user-created content

There's plenty that could be done with a hard drive. That Sony blew it and FFXI sucked ass is not a reason to write off a console hard drive. Sony basically released the US PS2 hard drive for six months before upgrading the console to a new version that can't use it. And if the thing didn't come with a game that no one in their right mind would want to play, making it $50 cheaper, people might have been willing to shell out for the upgrade. The US release of the PS2 hard drive is a perfect example of how not to release new accessories.

The only problem is that if the hard drive is optional, there's a chance no one will develop for it. But Microsoft should be capable of making it into a compelling addon, so I expect that they'll have much more success with a hard drive addon than Sony has had.

There's plenty a hard drive can do in a console. Sony just blew it with the US PS2 release. Apparently the Japanese release went much better.

Backwards compatibility

[Elledan]

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.

Spintering a market?

[SunFan]

I thought the whole point to consoles was to sell a unified hardware platform. Making a hard drive an option seems like a headache for game developers. It would essentially make unit w/ harddrive a different platform to test with than unit w/o hard drive on top of the other platforms, such as Windows 98/2000/XP, next-gen GameCube, and PS3.

Re:Spintering a market?

[mausmalone]

I think the idea behind this is that everybody would have a portable drive, and you can carry your drive to your friend's house and plug it into their box, etc... like 5 GB memory cards.

Re:Spintering a market?

[SunFan]

If that's the case, I really hope they ruggedize them. Throwing a hard drive into a back pack, followed by throwing it onto the floor of the school bus or onto the floor of a friend's house gives me a chill.

I wonder.....

[RootsLINUX]

Which is going to be heavier. This removable hard drive or the XBox2 controller... ^_^

Re:I wonder.....

[Golias]

Dude, if you think the X-Box controller, even the big meaty original one, is in any way "heavy", you really need to stop playing the PS2 and get some exercise. Little girls can probably beat you senseless right now.

Maybe...

[drewmca]

My gut instinct, or rather hope, is the thing will come with enough mass storage to handle a lot of game saves and fulfill the purpose of the hd in the current xbox as far as streaming and other things are concerned. There are rumors that flash storage will be used, and this kind of makes sense as a smaller, 1-2GB drive in the base unit. That way, you can still use tricks like hd streaming, you can still expect that everyone can save to the HD, you can still (potentially) support backwards compatibility, and you can still expect that everyone can do custom soundtracks (and you have a place built in for settings like live accounts and what not).

Then the HD add-on really only becomes important when you either want to load up a bunch more soundtracks or you want the box to become more of a media server, storing a lot of content or perhaps doing tivo-like stuff. That way, the HD isn't an "option" doomed to failure because of lack of dev support, but actually a real value-add feature that makes you box do entirely new things. Note that both Sony and MS are rabidly pursuing that whole tivo/media center angle in the next generation.

The only question I have about using flash storage in the base unit is the speed of storage. I don't know how fast flash storage is in comparison to a low-end hard drive like the one in the box now. If it's a lot slower, then maybe the base unit is a bit more limited, at least as far as streaming and backwards compatibility are concerned.

Re:Maybe...

[normal_guy]

My 1GB flash keychain reads/writes at ~10MB/sec. Certainly fast enough for caching and savegames.

Re:Maybe...

[Necroman]

One problem they run into is finding a hard-drive manufacturer that still produces low capacity drives. Hard drive makers end of life series of hard drives as time goes on. It costs them money to maintain multiple designs of hard drives, so they tend to only keep a few in production at any given time.

But with the almost guaranteed sales associated with the X-Box, I could see a hard-drive manufacturer bending over backwards for MS.

The 'Killer App'...

[PhoenixOne]

People will buy the harddrive if there is a good reason for all that space. If Microsoft makes the XBox2 a "Home Media Center" then you will want to buy the biggest harddrive you can to record your TV shows and movies.

Memory cards.

[vertinox]

Just consider it a very large memory card.

Re:Bitch Bitch Bitch

[imitier]

Except for caching to reduce load times (e.g., Ninja Gaiden) and DLC for Live games, providing new levels long after a game was released (e.g., various Tom Clancy Live games). The map maker feature on the upcoming Time Splitters Future Perfect, which will allow users to create maps and share them over Live, will also presumably make use of the hard drive to allow Xbox users a lot more save space then the PS2 version will offer. So, all that and Blinx.

Cost cutting

[Momoru]

Well its a good way for them to save money, i know my Xbox hard drive is only 2% full or something...i just hope the removable hard drive doesnt use some proprietary connection, because if its just a standard hard drive this would make it easy for anyone to add an 80GB drive, which cost about as much as an 8MB memory card from Sony these days. Really what Microsoft should do is make the Xbox work with thumbdrives standard, that way i can bring a gig of data from my xbox to a friend's as easily as i would on a memory card...plus it would hold enough for me to store downloaded levels etc...

Re:Cost cutting

[GeckoX]

The only xbox owners I know that have anything significant on their HD have them filled with pirated games. I am entirely unsurprised at this move by MS.

Re:Cost cutting

[Momoru]

the other cool (legitimate) thing to do with the hard drive is rip CD tracks to it...some games allow you to change the in game audio to this music you ripped.

Xbox HDD = Microsoft's iPod killer?

[Hobart]

There's yet to be a followup to the Dreamcast VMU and the Sony PocketStation for the PS/2 / Xbox / Gamecube generation of consoles. There were some rumors going around back in 2000 that Sony's next-gen PocketStation might run PalmOS -- those never panned out, even in Japan I'm not aware of an "enhanced feature" memory card.

But a removeable hard drive iPod clone might be a killer app for the console-accessory market, especially if the high price of a hard-drive music player is offset by bundling it with the console in some configurations... Combined with Xbox Live for a music-store interface ...

</rampantspeculation>

Also totally customizable.

[Anonymous Coward]

That's not all it will have. Kotaku reported this last week, as well as the fact that the whole box will be customizable with snap on skins and even a customizable dashboard. They also reported that it will come in two flavors, have wireless controllers and some other details.

Market Economy

[2bluemike]

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!

Re:One thing Im hoping for the next Xbox...

[imitier]

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.)