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Toshiba Developing High-Density 1TB SSD
MojoKid writes "A new partnership between Toshiba and Tokyo's Keio University has led to the creation of a new technology that could allow SSDs up to 1TB in size to be made 'with a footprint no larger than a postage stamp.' The report states that the two have been able to integrate 128GB NAND Flash chips and a single controller into a stamp-sized form factor. They've even made it operational with a transfer rates of 2Gbps (or about 250MB/sec) with data transfer that relies on radio communication."
Look at non-CD based systems like the Nintendo DS. The main reason why you couldn't easily boot homebrew software was because of the game cart being hard to make at home. Yes, there were a few checksum based things that needed to be avoided but those were trivial to avoid. Compare that to running your own software on a PS3 (with full hardware based access, not the crappy stripped down version you get when your run Linux on it) its -a lot- harder because they expect everyone and their brother to have Blu-Ray disks.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
People complain about $60 games... you seriously think $200 games would fly?
People complain about $60 games that are short, crappy, buggy and laggy. Look at for example the Halo series, you pay $60 for a campaign mode you can easily finish in a night.
It also seems you are comparing a single purchase game to an online game.
While they are two different models they both have one thing in common: new content that isn't pay-DLC. While, yes you are paying for it, you don't have to pay $15 to get the latest weapon, you pay $15 to play the game.
WoW on a fast chip would still require a game server.
As would almost any simi-multiplayer game out today.
So the comparison of MadeUpGame with a one time purchase vs WoW is far from valid.
Its only invalid because no one has so far made a game like the one I am describing.
The comparason between WoW and the hypothetical game was to prove that people would pay large amounts for a game that was A) constantly updating B) didn't increase hardware requirements much between years and C) was effectively "boundless"
you should compare it to CoD, HL2, etc... a game that you buy once and play for years,
But the problem is, those games are static. Yes, they are fun games but there is really nothing there beyond the game itself. There is very little player customization, the games are very linear, etc. Gordon Freeman is well, Gordon Freeman. He isn't the player, while the player can make Gordon Freeman shoot when they want him to, or throw grenades, or drive recklessly while mowing down antlions the player has no real choices. Such a game can easily be contained in 4 GB of data or so. It really doesn't -need- any updating. But what large capacity SSDs can do is they can make -you- be a citizen of City 17. You -can- make decisions, you can choose what to do, etc.
Also, on the point of Half Life 2, Valve decided rather than update HL2, they released "episodes" where you pay a large sum of money for just a little bit more content even though the engine pretty much remained unchanged and even most if not all the weapons are identical copies.
Linear games are more or less fine with the current system, but for "sandbox" games having a lot of fast, reliable, rewritable space is essential. A prime example is Fable II, the game seems boundless, don't like a citizen? You can kill them. Aside from a few exceptions, you can kill, threaten, help, love or do anything to any person in the game. The main flaws are that it is too short, loading times are -very- evident and there needs to be more content and customization. It is hard to fit that in less than 9 GB, it is even harder with optical media which has very long loading times. Even when put on the 360 HDD loading times still exist. Every second of loading time is a second where you aren't your character and it completely ruins the immersion factor.
$60 vs $200 simply to get faster load times? I'd pay $60 and load from an ISO if I really wanted faster load times.
$60 vs $200 to get faster load times, more content, the ability for complex saves, etc. Plus, the durability of a cartridge compared to fragile optical media? I highly doubt that your DVD will still be readable in 30 years of terrible storage, yet 2600 cartridges play fine after 30 years of being stored in less than ideal conditions.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.