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Read more.Revealed by a source who “had hands-on time” with the new console.
The future of physical media is that there wont be any... not Blu-Ray.
If that is not obvious to Tom Magrino (which it doesn't seem to be) he needs to consider working in an industry that doesn't move so quickly so that he can actually keep up.
aidanjt (06-03-2013)
Exactly, he was making sense right up until he claimed Blu-ray is the future of physical medium. I think it'd be a bad idea to skip out on one for the whole home entertainment hub perspective. But I can equally see Microsoft wanting to deliver media content over XBL, and they don't mind boning the consumer for profits if they can (and likely would) get away with it.Originally Posted by Biscuit
The future is a long way off. I still have my CD collection and buy CDs. I still have my DVD collection and buy DVDs. I currently have 1 Bluray. Sure I'm not as hip and trendy as the kids with iTunes, but there's still a generation older than me who like a physical medium.
Bit silly really, unless they want to sell cheap high quality downloads/rentals and subsidise 100mbs lines
Sorry, disagree (edit, this was originally a reply to biscuit!) - at least in the kind of timescales we should be using for discussing consoles.
There's still enough people around who like physical media that the market will not disappear in the near future. The 360 lasted 8 years, and if the 720 lasts a similar time we could have a serious discussion about media requirement for its successor - but I really can't see physical media dieing in the kind of timescales required to make bluray playback irrelevant to the 720 (i.e. within the next year or two).
And of course, if physical media did die that quickly, in a couple of years they could release a cheaper version without blu-ray: win win
Blu-Ray means lots of royalties to Sony. I think a lot of people will buy an xbox purely to replace their current one and MS know that, much more likely they will jump in bed with internet streaming services and hopefully integrate decent easy to use home network streaming facilities and force the physical media out of existence. Its the same tactic that Apple tend to use really, 'you will buy it whether it has the I/O /Features/Accessories you need or not... so we will force you to live without it'
We currently have an xbox 360 and a ps3, the ps3 is used almost daily, not for gaming, but for watching dvd's and blurays. To me, why would I buy a 720? Wouldn't I be better off just buying a bluray player and hooking a laptop up to the tv when I wanted to stream anything. This would certainly save me a ton of cash.
Worryingly though, with incresing game sizes, does this not point to an "always on" console requiring the transfer of large amounts of data to play games. Always on is a very large issue for me, especially in low income and rural areas where access to the internet may not be possible. These are the same people that cannot use Steam/origin or any similar services to play games currently. There is also a secondary issue for those with ISP's breaching their "cap" be it 5, 10, 20 or 40GB. Always on media streaming this way is likely to cause significant issues with this.
Are the days honestly behind us where we stick a disk into a console and cannot immediatly start playing, without the need to patch/download/update/stream/validate constantly? Is this not a large step back?
Last edited by big_hairy_rob; 06-03-2013 at 11:22 AM. Reason: reclarrification
That might be the case when we've all got broadband links that can actually deliver films, along with some kind of "cloudy, cloud, cloud" system that lets us aggregate our various "purchases" into one place. In the meantime (like Saracen I guess) I much prefer to have actually physical media that won't suddenly disappear at the whim of the publisher.
Last time I looked there was still a heck of a lot of folks buying DVD's - mainly because they're cheaper, but also because a lot of people still can't see a big difference between the quality of the BD copy and the cheaper DVD one.
So to disagree, I think Microsoft are 100% correct - yes, I DO want an optical drive - but pretty much only so I can play my old XBox360 titles. On the other hand (and yes I do have a good enough connection) if I want to see movies on the 720 then they'll definitely be downloaded ones (or maybe the very occasional DVD). If I'm watching a BluRay then I've got a very usable Sony home theatre system that I'd prefer to use.
Leave BluRay-on-a-console to Sony.
Career status: still enjoying my new career in DevOps, but it's keeping me busy...
I think most people have a large catalogue of DVDs and Blu-Rays that aren't going to disappear, even though you can download the media. What are you going to do? Pay to download a film, or slip the blu-ray/DVD of the same film in your player? DVDs came out into the mainstream about 1999/2000, and people are still buying them. This seems like they're shooting themselves in the foot. Mind you, I guess the option has never been available on X-Box (blu-ray), so previous users may not miss it...
It can’t, with a straight face, continue to make that claim without a Blu-ray player, seeing as that is the future of physical media
The future of physical media.... You mean like the future of slide rules?
throw new ArgumentException (String, String, Exception)
Because if they've been buying bluray disks they will have already got a bluray player. So they aren't going to be "missing out". Also the roumers of not been able to play old games on the hardware, if true, will mean that there is no point having a DVD drive for the previously bought titles.
Making it a much more internet orientated device does appear to be the best idea, you could also sell games on a USB stick, with funky dongle that would provide copy protection. I wouldn't be suprised if in volume you could produce USB sticks with a very low cost, compared to the packing costs of the DVD sized wallet, the royalties for anything bluray. It would also allow game publishers to have funky "art" sticks and such.
throw new ArgumentException (String, String, Exception)
It wouldn't at all surprise me if it doesn't have a Blu-ray drive, but it's still going to need some kind of high-capacity optical format; they can't possibly stick to DVD, every game would end up being spread across multiple discs.
I think the fact that the expected life of the console will be quite long is exactly why MS can start the push to go physical-less. MS can fairly safely assume that people will keep their existing physical media player and start using this for digital distribution, until the physical media drifts away.Sorry, disagree (edit, this was originally a reply to biscuit!) - at least in the kind of timescales we should be using for discussing consoles.
There's still enough people around who like physical media that the market will not disappear in the near future. The 360 lasted 8 years, and if the 720 lasts a similar time we could have a serious discussion about media requirement for its successor - but I really can't see physical media dieing in the kind of timescales required to make bluray playback irrelevant to the 720 (i.e. within the next year or two).
And of course, if physical media did die that quickly, in a couple of years they could release a cheaper version without blu-ray: win win
I dont think this is what will happen, i think it will have a D-L DVD player, but the future is definitely physical-less and anyone would be a fool to doubt that.
Well the way i see it, if they can get away with providing the service to enough people who do have good enough service, and they can make more off them using this service (no manufacturing for physical media and no one able to buy second hand games) then they can probably get away with alienating those people.
You need to be careful by assuming what you like or want is what microsoft will provide, or what is best for them. The two things are often very different.
Well it isnt MS saying that you will want a physical device and the strong rumours are that the new consoles wont be backwards compatible
Im guessing you would have to install the game prior to play?
Last edited by Biscuit; 06-03-2013 at 11:57 AM.
It would amaze me if it didn’t have a BR drive, I can’t see how people think it won’t.
Simply put:
- DVD capacity is no longer enough for this generation never-mind the next.
- The majority of the world doesn’t have a decent enough net infrastructure to support multiple 40GB downloads and all the patches/media etc. that go along with a ‘home theatre’ device
- Creating a new physical medium would be almost impossibly complicated/expensive and niche unless they start selling games/media on USB/memory cards a ’la PS Vita but then why would I buy a movie on a ‘MS brand 32GB memory card’ when it would likely be proprietary and so I couldn’t watch it on any other device?
For what they’d need to give to Sony for BR it would be madness to NOT include it in the 720, I can’t see how they could possibly convince the market to buy a home media device that can’t play the worlds’ main, heavily embedded HD format unless they do it as an add-on, in which case why not just include it and avoid the above issues?
Rob
watercooled (06-03-2013)
I think it will have bluray, but how about a trailblazing pro+ version with a 2TB HDD instead of 500GB+Bluray for markets with the bandwidth? Couldn't give a hood about physical media as long as:
1. The downloaded version==the disc one
2. Prices of downloads follow the steam pattern of prices reducing with money off offers
3. I can install to a couple of consoles without big hastles (even allow 5, but each game can only be played on one at the same time)
I'm happy to wait the 2 hours it takes to download 50GB .. would still be quicker than installing GT5 to my (SSD equiped) PS3.
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