Future 360 games to require HDD?

[bingo83]

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f33/chrislowe83/xbox_hard_disk.gif

The rumors that Microsoft has plans to drop the Core system from their line-up has not yet been confirmed but talks about it is slowly gaining ground. Why you may ask? Well, Xbox Family said that Microsoft has plans to make a Hard Disk Drive a requirement to play games. This move is apparently being made to improve the performance of games on the Xbox 360.

If you'd care to recall, the original Xbox actively used its hard drive for playing games. It streamed data off the disc and uncompressed it in the HDD which made for shorter and less frequent loading times. It looks like the same technology will be applied to the Xbox 360 which should theoretically provide a better gaming experience for players.

If this proves to be true, the first batch of games requiring the HDD will have a notice both in the front and back of the game.

Its about time MS addressed this issue, having millions of machines out their that could utilise the HDD to buffer game content and not using it is criminal.

[carocat]

Aren't there already games which require having an HDD? I though SC DA was one of them.

[Wriggy]

Aren't there already games which require having an HDD? I though SC DA was one of them.

The only one I know of is Football Manager 2006!

[gashead]

Final Fantasy XI does doesn't it?

Shouldn't MS also consider making games available on DVD and HD-DVD, what with Blue Dragon having 3 discs!

[Chinster]

They aren't about to alienate the bucketloads of Core owners, so I wouldn't worry about the original post too much.

Using the HD to buffer/pre-load is all well and good, but as a PS3 owner with games that do this (VF5-RR7) the difference is quite negligible with the biggest benefit being shorter load times.

MS should simply do what sony do, give the user the option of caching to the HD. Problem solved.

In short, you aren't going to see any games with a 'HD only' sticker on the box.

[Raff]

I hope GTA IV does this, the developers were saying how it was a problem that the PS3 allowed it but the 360 didn't.

[linkofhyrule]

I don't really see anything wrong with this, discontinue the Core, drop the price of the Premium and Elite, cut the 20GB HDD to $50, the 120GB HDD to $100.. and, erm, I think that's it!

Makes a lot of sense to me, people with Cores could either not buy games that require the HDD or just pick one up for $50, which isn't all that much.

I also agree with what gashead said, they should come out with HD DVD and DVD versions of games that require more space. The drives just went down in price a bit and now have a 5 HDDVD free deal, so making some games on HD DVD would give me the final reason to buy one.

Then again, it might not be worth it with Blu Ray so far ahead..

[Bigcon100]

the 260 does have a HDD cache doesnt it? cos you can clear it if you put in a code. also called "system maintenance".

[ri0tNL]

isnt the core for the people who really want a 360, but cant afford a HDD just yet, and will buy it later?

[Wriggy]

isnt the core for the people who really want a 360, but cant afford a HDD just yet, and will buy it later?

The core is for people who are likely to buy little games, have little money and not have a LIVE connection.

[ri0tNL]

bah, pantsies :)
the main fun of the 360 IS the live connection

[Headshot]

Aren't there already games which require having an HDD? I though SC DA was one of them.

yer a few games do- shadowrun, FFXII, and a few others.