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Microsoft's Tray And Play Unveiled

Posted by Zonk on from the quik-start dept.

Gamespot has a look at Microsoft's upcoming plans for PC gaming. In addition to a definite gaming perspective for the Longhorn OS and a commitment to the XNA studios package, they have word that someday we may be loading PC games much like console games. From the article: "Tray and Play is exactly what it sounds like - dropping a game disc into an optical drive and loading it up immediately, rather than having to install it to a hard drive. True to form, the game itself cut straight to a start-up screen in less than a minute (including the game's own built-in load time)."

8 of 142 comments (clear)

  1. Re:A truely sad day. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    A few of the very early CD-ROM games basically ran like this, making only a very minimal install to store their save-games in. I remember titles such as Rebel Assault being like that. However, on the CD drives available at the time, this inevitably meant extremely long load times and quite often a good bit of stuttering during play.

  2. Re:Lame by OAB_X · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Always make a backup of your CDs. Alcohol 120% is even able to make (almost) 1:1 backups of SecuRom 4.8+ protected games with a bit of work that are playable on (almost) any system. I rip all my music CDs to my HDD then put them on my bookshelf.

    A CD will not decay if it is handled properly, dont stack your CDs, dont leave them outside the case. if they dont have a case, get one, even just those paper sleeves.

  3. Re:Yes! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Xbox games can have patches and mods

    Can have, perhaps. Do have, certainly not - I've never seen a patch, not even for games that are blatantly as buggy as hell. And I've CERTAINLY never seen a mod.

    The patches and mods are stored on the hard drive

    s/are/would, if Microsoft permitted them to exist, be/

  4. I don't want to have to deal with the disk by glowimperial · · Score: 2, Interesting

    To me, the big advantage of storing games to HD has always been not having to deal with the discs. I don't know what your desk looks like, but mine is a minefield for discs. I want to be able to load a game onto my drive, put the disc back in it's box, and never see it again. I don't want to have to switch discs, look for their little boxes and expose them to dust, moisture, Pepsi, whatever, inbetween gaming sessions.

    I thought we were moving towards a "just purchase the license, now download the game" model. This seems like a small step backwards, or sideways from the inevitable elimination of physical media as a distribution model. One of my favourite gaming experiences recently was playing the Open Beta of WoW, and going to the store to buy my reserved copy, entering in the serial number, not even removing the discs from their case (thanks for the backups, Blizzard) and playing the game. I see the evolution of that model as being a lot more productive in the long run.

  5. The problems as I See them by TJ_Phazerhacki · · Score: 2, Interesting
    1. The only CD's in anything approaching good condition that I currently own are those who were used ONCE, to install the game, and dumped back to the case. My copy of UT2004 is not even readable because when I loaned it to a friend, he dropped the DVD on asphalt - Ouch!! This is a great sceme to get people to replace PC games as often as they replace consoles.

    2. What do we do for Multi CD games? I'd love it if everything were on DVD, but the fact is, publishers have been saying they'[d do this for literally years, and yet they still have the audacity to ship 5-6 cd games without even the OPTION to get them on DVD. Oh, yeah - I want load times like FFIX on the PS again - Please!?!?!?!

    3. I don't care how you optimize the system - my CD drive reads data slower than my HDD, and cant store temp files and config settings. Im guessing that this miracle will use some sort of configured software on the PC - and it will still be slower. Come on, with SATA HDD's getting cheaper, while M$'s solution will clearly take rediculous system resources - whats it going to do, cache it to RAM? - this is for console players who want to use a mouse. Great marketing, poor technology - please remember the Disable button.

    --
    Physics is nothing like religion. If it was, we'd have an easier time trying to raise money!
  6. Uh huh by UES · · Score: 2, Interesting

    To me, this seems like a BAD solution to the technical problem of "how can we get a better loading experience" but a GREAT solution to the problem of "how can we make games less likely to be pirated".

  7. You're forgetting something by Guppy06 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "True to form, the game itself cut straight to a start-up screen in less than a minute"

    It looks like they forgot to include the OS boot time in their calculations. Throw that in and I'm sure it's still up around 3 minutes at least. Real consoles can go from power-on to title screen in less time than it took this tray-and-play to finish throwing up splash screens.

    Of course, more interestingly, considering all the DRM crap we've had snuck on us thanks to AutoRun, why do I forsee myself turning this "feature" off for security reasons?

  8. Re:Patches? by milkman_matt · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Actually, your point brings up a different, interesting point.

    What about expansion packs that PCs are notorious for? Diablo, WC, Starcraft, all of the C&C and RA games.. Consoles don't even bother with these things, but PC games do them quite a bit, how are they going to handle those?