well, i'm one of the few i suppose who think the hard drive was a waste for msft this generation.

before i thought it was a good idea. this was based on msft being able to do things other consoles couldn't. that could have been huge. ps1 broke out of the race against n64 with final fantasy 7. it was a game that took full advantage of the cd format. a game that couldn't be done on any other console at the time.

now msft has a hdd. the only game that comes to mind which can only be done on xbox due to hdd, is blinx. which is not blockbuster title. so the first problem i see is that msft has yet to release a great hdd based game. do i have any ideas for how to take advantage? no. but i'm not a game developer for msft, or msft management trying to attract gamers. i would have thought they had great ideas before deciding to include a hdd in the console.

second, the uses of hdd we have seen so far are a) not something great that would grab the attention of a random gamer, and b) not well known by a random gamer. how many people who walk into a store to buy a console are aware of being able to download content, rip musics and make custom tracks, not have to buy a memory card. even if these features are all msft saw in their vision of a console with hdd, they should have a) required all developers, especially their own, to make full use of those features and put required tutorials/training levels in all games explaining the features, and b) advertised the features.

but given the state of how msft is treating their console, i think it ultimately turned out to be a waste of money for them. money that could have been spent elsewhere for the xbox.

something like a mmorpg would make good use, but where is a blockbuster mmorpg? they should have had a mmorpg and live launch with xbox itself. or since they had to delay live for 1 year, they should have at least had a big name mmorpg to kick off live. now with current consoles hitting mid-stream and slow talk of next generation consoles starting up, and current race pretty much set (ps2> xbox +gc), it doesn't matter as things won't change.

maybe it would have been more of a neck & neck race between ps2 and xbox, if msft handled things differently

No.

You beat me to it

No f'n memory cards is reason enough to have a hard drive. The custom soundtracks option is gravy, and downloadable content is the icing on the cake.

[homer]mmmm, gravy cake[/homer]

There sure as hell was no reason for it to be 8 GB. But would a smaller hard drive be substantially cheaper? Probably not. I do think it's been a bit of a waste so far but maybe the Media Center will (finally) turn me around.

another "No"

You totally ignore downloadable content which I think is a HUGE advantage of the HDD. It allows you to play new levels of games you've already beaten at (for now) no extra charge. That's a big plus. Also the ability to rip CDs and play your own soundtrack, while not supported fully enough, is a nice feature as well.

In terms of the what was done with it, yeah it probably was a waste. As an impressive feature on the Xbox's spec sheet though it probably sold more than a few consoles. MS did miss out on the profitable memory card maket though. Lucky for them they don't need any more money.

Paying $ for cards and an e-reader to add a cape into Super Mario Advance 4 =

Getting free game content with hard drive =

Not at all. I don't play console games (i'm a PC guy) but personally having a hard drive instead of buying memory cards is a huge plus. I remember reading about how on the Gamecube a season of Madden basically filled up a whole card. Sorry, but spending extra bucks on accessories that are practically required to play the game is stupid. Give me cartridges any day.

Heck no

Yes, same goes for Sony's HD. Not gonna get into why since I enjoy posting here since there aren't any flame wars.

I agree that they aren't doing enough with the HD to warrant such a large one but with all the CDs I have on it I'm all for a bigger.

I almost wish I knew enough to add a second HD to it. I love using my XBOX as a jukebox and I'm about filled up. I suppose I don't need ALL the Jerky Boys CDs on there and it would save space but I enjoy hearing them now and then.

another No


I am loving not having to buy memory cards

I love the HD on XBOX.

I would say no it was not a waste.

Are your thumbs mixed up, or is that how you really feel about it?

I don't think the HD was a waste for reasons already mentioned (game saves, soundtracks, downloadable content), but I do think it's been underutilized. I think the problem is that a lot of games are being designed for more than one console, and developers can't really take advantage of the XBox's HD and still produce similar games on the systems without a HD. It's not a priority for them when the games that would really use it account for a fraction of their sales.

I think what's important about the HD though is that by making it a standard part of the system, MS has set a precedent that hopefully others will follow. When all the systems have HD's and the developers have had more time to get used to working with them, then we'll see what it can do for games.

frak no

8gb, is to small, I have 120gb and mine is filling, I just got my 3rd xbox, today, so I can play PGR2, and Top spin, on live

3 Xboxes? What's the point?

No freakin' way!! I love it. Hell, being able to search the menus in Tiger Woods 2004 without having to listen to that crap music makes it worth it to me. No memory cards rocks too, especially for a sports gamer like me.

1-Modded - for Mame
2-Normal - for live
what's the third for?

Downloadable content, quicker access to things than the optical drive, etc, not needing memory cards, etc are all great things. Should allow for better PC ports (Doom III and HL2). Allows for XBL dashboard updates, etc.


Being able to play your own soundtracks in GTA will kick a$$.

No it was not a waste. It was an extra that cost us nothing compared to the competition (PS2).

The PS2 hard drive strategy is interesting though, it requires the purchase of a network adapter (it is my understanding that you cannot plug in the HD without attaching an NA), and it comes preloaded with a game. The HD & preloaded game are going to MSRP at $99.99, plus you have to buy the NA. It is also my understanding that people will be able to migrate save files over to it, but not directly access them from there unless the game supports it (which many of the older games will not?) I can see the wisdom in not building in something that many people may not use in order to keep costs down, but that savings is not being passed on. It will be interesting to see the numbers on HD sales for Sony and whether they include one by default in the PS3.

I don't think it was wasted. However, I do think it is under-utilized...more games really need to support the customizable soundtrack feature, for instance.

My guess is that in the next generation, all consoles will have HDD...which means that they'll be utilized more often in multiconsole ports and such.

Where would you find hard drives SMALLER than 8 GB? Dig through land fills? Nobody makes them that small anymore, except for the tiny ones meant to go in a PCMCIA card.

This has got to be a joke. For the Xbox to have a hard drive is one big bonus. under the dreamcast and Ps/1 the memory card were alway going corrupt especially if the controller was unplugged by mistake. The cards also had to have their batteries if you wanted to keep them longer than 4 yrs.

I don't know what memory cards you were using, but I never had any corruption problems using official memory cards. Many problems with third party card but people shouldn't complain when Sony's work perfectly fine. Also memory cards at least for the PS1/2 don't use batteries, not sure on the Dreamcast since I didn't own one, but I would imagine it didn't use batteries either.