On Bits and Bytes
When I first heard about the 250GB hard drive exclusive to certain Xbox 360 bundles I knew that it would only be a matter of time before a stand-alone hard drive would make its way to store shelves, at a ridiculous price. I honestly don’t know who could need a 250GB hard drive for their Xbox 360, is there really that much content available for Rock Band and Guitar Hero? So 250 might be a bit excessive, but I think it is universally accepted that 20GB is not enough space for the average gamer that has purchased only a handful of Arcade games and multiplayer map packs for games like Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. As soon as Microsoft enabled hard drive installation of games storage space soon became a necessity. It is with this perspective on the necessity of hard drive space that we now have rumors surfacing of Microsoft potentially enabling USB storage support through a dashboard update in the spring. While some of you might be leaping for the heavens in celebration, assuming this is true I am not as impressed with Microsoft.
Lucky for you, there’s no additional storage space required for the rest of this text.
Before we get to my thoughts about this rumor, I think it will help to put this potential storage solution in context with its current competition. Let’s start with the Wii, shall we? As it stands, the Wii has an acceptable storage solution with respect to games downloaded from the Wii Shop Console. “The Wii’s 4.0 system firmware will include support for SDHC cards up to 32GB in size, and games from the Wii Shop Channel can be downloaded directly to the SD card. Once downloaded, the game can be launched directly from the SD Card, using a new caching system which allows the Wii to place the game into a temporary memory allocation.” So memory is what you make of it. If Nintendo’s Virtual Console is the greatest thing since sliced bread then the prospect of a 32GB SD card seems more than reasonable. Most of those games do not demand too much space which means the cheapest 32GB you can find on the Internet will have you sent for the life of your Wii. Implementation of an external storage solution was long overdue for Nintendo, but they delivered and quite frankly we haven’t had a reason to complain about that specific aspect of the Wii since. Sure, there are other bullet points worth addressing, just not in this post.
Ultimately my views about the Wii are torn. From the beginning days of the Virtual Console we knew there was going to be an issue with the lack of significant storage but I think we also knew that Nintendo didn’t really care. Nintendo has not been known to take a step forward into the digital age. Despite the sales numbers there still exists a clamoring for true high-definition graphics and games that cannot be simplified to a “wagglefest”, but I guess we should be satisfied with what we are given. Even if that is another round of stand-out first party support and at best, hit-or-miss third-party releases.
And what of the PlayStation 3 in all of its Blu-ray glory? Sony’s storage solution, like Nintendo’s, boils down to cost to the consumer. If for some reason the standard issue 80GB hard drive is not sufficient you can install one with a capacity of your choosing. I’m not sure who in Sony R&D thought about this, but they deserve a raise. The PlayStation 3 was designed to facilitate a hard drive upgrade if the user felt it necessary. When the revised Slim was released we were treated with even easier access to the hard drive and a simplified process to remove and install the new hard drive. I’m not sure if this balances out the lack of cross-game chat throughout the PlayStation Network, but the PlayStation 3 hardware does not restrict or punish users for wanting to make improvements to their gaming experience. As far as the content, trophies sync with the cloud and digitally downloaded goods can be re-downloaded. The only variable when it comes to changing your hard drive is the speed of your Internet connection. Re-downloading digital goods might not be the fastest process, but it exists. Sony does not handcuff consumers to proprietary technology. If you want to put a Terabyte hard drive in your PlayStation 3, it’s just a matter of paying for the new hard drive and having a little patience while your content downloads.
We are all familiar with the so-called storage solution for the Xbox 360. Hard drive capacity is restricted to the proprietary devices made and sold by Microsoft. Because there is no competition, this means that Microsoft can and does charge whatever price they desire and we have no choice but to pay for it. And now that the 250GB hard drive is likely coming as a stand-alone purchase by the end of the year, rumors of USB storage support have surfaced. As reported by Joystiq, USB storage support would arrive by way of a Dashboard update in Spring 2010. “Once the update occurs, Xbox 360 owners will be able to download Xbox Live Arcade games, Xbox Live Indie games, Games on Demand, DLC and Title Updates to the storage device. ‘USB storage devices may, however, have far greater memory capacity than MUs (at the date of writing, the largest MU is 512 MB), and may therefore support previously infeasible operations-such as installation of a full disc-based title.’ That’s right, you can also store disc-based games to the USB device; however, it will require the disc to be in the tray for authentication, identical to the current functionality.”
I find it rather convenient that this option, assuming it is true, would allow for up to 32GB of storage. Even when they relent and implement something their consumers want, they still restrict our choices. Why can’t we have our choice of USB drives with the same content validation? What difference does it make if the limit is 32GB or 500GB? Joystiq hypothesizes that “It should be clear by now that Microsoft is simply pulling out of the Memory Unit business and not the highly lucrative Xbox hard drive business. With an artificial cap of 16 GB – still shy of the 20 GB hard drive that shipped with the original 2005 Xbox Pro and a fraction the size of the currently shipping 120 GB hard drive – USB storage support simply removes the onerous requirement for a Memory Unit on Xbox 360 Arcade units, and brings the Xbox 360 platform a feature that’s been present on the PlayStation 3 since that console’s 2006 launch.”
It feels like Microsoft changes its policies after throwing temper tantrums like a three-year old and refusing to budge on its current system until the demand is too large to ignore. How long did it take for them to implement hard drive installation of their games? And then when they relent and actually listen to consumers they behave as if they have discovered some great gift that no one had previously thought of. I understand taking a reactive approach to iterative improvements to the dashboard, but at least acknowledge the demand instead of putting your head in the sand in a failed attempt at plausible deniability. Yes, this is a step in the way of progress for gamers looking to back up their data without breaking their systems, warranties or bank accounts. But this is a half-step to a legitimate solution. There must be a better way to validate data without the risk of it being pirated to other users. Microsoft is a company with vast resources and some of the most intelligent technical minds the world has seen, and they can’t figure out a way to make this work so everyone win? If that’s true, they should be embarrassed.
This post is hosted at Talking About Games.
