Wtf? My Mac on which I am currently typing has 19TB of external storage attached. But, please, tell me more about how USB, FireWire, and Thunderbolt somehow limit you to the built-in hard drive.

Did anyone even process what I said the first time? Give me a storage-less SKU and I'll attach my own, thankyouverymuch.

Process it? shit, I didn't even read it.

I got lost somewhere along the conversation here and it's probably my fault. All I said was that if Microsoft requires installations, they need to give us bigger, cheaper, and/or open storage. It's pretty simple, I think.

It has nothing to do with DRM, used sales, retailers, or anything else. They're putting an emphasis on storage and they need to not control it so tightly. In my humble opinion as a consumer that has played MS ball for over a decade now, that is.

I agree that they need to have options for massively larger storage. It has been a constant problem for me on the 360.

The problem with allowing you to bring your own hard drive (BYOHD) is the support. They may require SATA6 or even newer tech, that's faster of course. And we all can see Joe Six Pack attaching an old drive and saying that the new Xbox doesn't work or that it's too slow.

I know that they already tried this with the USB storage, they released official USB sticks, that were really expensive of course, or you could your own, but you have to pass some kind of test or something. But that was alternative storage, not sure if they want to risk it with the main storage.

USB2 should be fast enough, but I'm sure they'd support 3. I just don't think it's wise or practical to talk about in-case storage, no matter how much more aesthetically pleasing it may be.

So I was already swaying towards the PS4 and these rumors aren't exactly winning me back to Microsoft.

Couple that with Microsoft's treatment of indie developers:
http://www.shacknews.com/article/782...guacamelee-dev

comments made by indie developer Rami Ismail (creator of Hotline Miami) on a recent podcast:
vs. Sony's:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/1...asutra+News%29

I don't think it would be a problem. Sony allowed you to use your own drive, and it may have been the most trouble-free aspect of their system.

I've never heard of anything requiring SATA 6Gbps just to function. Sure, a 3Gbps drive would be slower, but it wouldn't be a night and day difference.

Yeah, and besides, most people aren't going to try to change out their hard drives unless they somewhat know what they're doing. I would say the percentage of PS3 owners who actually upgraded their hard drives is probably quite small, and I don't know of anyone who had problems with it.

I'd rather have fast internal storage if there are mandatory game installs then existing USB 2/3 external drives using slower mechanical drives

No doubt about that. Ripping Blu-Rays from my external drive to my external hard drives isn't exactly quick, but at least I'm not locked in to a specific hard drive brand or their monopolistic prices.

The PS4 will have USB 3 ports, I can't see how the Xbox won't have them as well.

Microsoft could have very well decided that they are going to be the "Halo/Madden/Call of Duty/Netflix" machine and know they can make a profit doing so. If that's the direction they go, good luck with that, I wish them well. But I'll head back to the Sony platform.

What's the big deal with deleting game content for games you don't play anymore? We lived with a 20GB hard drive for years on the xbox until Rock Band came out. Just delete your old game installs to make room for the new ones. I don't see premium hard drive space being an issue here.

I guess i'm in the minority, but at the end of the day i'll go wherever the games are. Online only or blocking used games don't bother me so much, nor does a lot of the storage options since I never used a lot of drive space on my 360 and PS3. If publishers are the ones pushing for what Microsoft is doing and lean that way, so will I.

Funny I added a hard drive to my Mac without an issue... then again that was the old G5

Yep. She's a thing of beauty:


No problems at all putting in extra drives.

I still say having the "Block Used Games" feature would have ripple effects all over. Sure, places like Gamestop and even Gamefly would be the hardest hit, it would change consumers buying power and patterns.

Instead of buying say five new and four used games a year, they may opt for just four or five new games. However not buying those used games means no DLC or other extras via online. Now if the companys' are upset about not getting their "share" then they can insert "buy a online code" to activate the game. The problem is we pretty much know they'll want something around $10+. That's on top of the used game price which in some cases would be better to get the new game.

If they want to sell more new gmes then the price should drop over the course of time. No-way should games be at $60-$50 6, 8 or 12 months down the road. I fear the only real winners would be the larger and well known games and Devs while the mid and small ones would suffer.

Looks like the announcement is now going to be in May.

Paul Thurrott (the journalist who revealed the April date), now says it is "pushed back a month."

Isn't that what happens now with most games? Some of them drop to 40 within a month (most recent being Tomb Raider and DmC). I guess I still don't get who buys used games these days, when (most) games go on sale all the time, and the niche ones that don't are hard to find used anyway.

I wish, you know, Microsoft would say something. If true, sounds like the Sony announcement caught them off guard.

Apple does this all of the time with their products. You have to keep people guessing as it creates more buzz than anything else.

I honestly do believe Microsoft has something up their sleeve that'll catch Sony off guard. If they delayed it a month, I have a feeling that we'll get a final look at all the hardware, release date, and/or price. If they do that, they'll be able to use E3 to their advantage as they'll have the hardware and software fully playable.

I buy more used games than I used to because of all the industry whining about used games. Especially when the new game includes a multi-player code that I'd never use anyway. I still buy very few of them because the savings are usually too small.

But buying used means you can buy what you want, without waiting for a sale. I just buy whatever is cheapest.

I wonder about the delay. Yes, they needed some time to process everything from the PS4 announcement, and to see all the reactions from all the people. But they had enough time to have everything ready in April.

My thought is that they decided to do one "last minute" minor change, and that's why they needed the additional time.

And I guess it's a given that they are going to show the console and controller.