Rumor: MS replacing 20GB hdd on standard 360 with 60gb

[Zeus]

According to reports, a Microsoft source has said that they will be replacing the 20GB hard drive on the standard Xbox 360 with a 60GB version of the console. Microsoft apparently wants the new model out before Q2. They also say that MS is thinking about introducing a new 360 SKU so that it can include a built-in Blu-ray drive.

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Microsoft WILL be replacing the 20GB hard drive on the standard Xbox 360 with a larger 60GB version. Dates are not nailed down, but my source says Microsoft wants it done and dusted before the end of its financial year which translates as our Q2.

Interestingly the company is also toying with the idea of introducing a new 360 SKU and given that hard drive and connectivity variations are already covered it would seem that the most logical conclusion is a model with a built-in Blu-ray drive. An external drive makes sense too, but with the format war over it wouldn't explain Microsoft's hesitation and while it goes against the company line that the 360 is primarily a games console (verses the PS3's media centre ambitions) the collapse of HD DVD may well mean it at least wishes to give users the option. Tying this all up neatly is news that Microsoft is known to currently be in discussions with Sony.


News Source: <a href="http://www.trustedreviews.com/gaming/news/2008/03/07/EXCLUSIVE-60GB-Xbox-WILL-Replace-20GB-Model/p1" target=_blank">trustedreviews</a>

[killplaystation]

built in blu-ray? sounds expensive

[grapeape]

It sounds goofy but this is likely a cost cutting measure, smaller drives just arent being made anymore and for systems the require them for specific reasons they are selling at a premium. I have a few proprietary devices at a client that have a 20gig drive that uses a specific bootstrap...to get a replacement of the same model its actually more expensive than getting the vendors 160gig model.

[Rinny]

60 gigs makes sense. Bluray does not.

Microsoft is supposedly devoted to the next-next gen of on-demand rentals/downloads. More HDD space means more room to buy movies, download trailers (which are essentially ads), and to buy XBLA games.

Bluray on the other hand would add HUGE cost to the console. Sony would not license Blu-ray cheap and even then I doubt Microsoft would subsidize the cost of the player inside the 360 since they arent in the slightest bit interested in pushing bluray on the world. It would be cool to have a $350 XBOX with a blu-ray player but a $500 XBOX with it makes no sense.

[kcvfr400]

It sounds goofy but this is likely a cost cutting measure, smaller drives just arent being made anymore and for systems the require them for specific reasons they are selling at a premium. I have a few proprietary devices at a client that have a 20gig drive that uses a specific bootstrap...to get a replacement of the same model its actually more expensive than getting the vendors 160gig model.

your reasoning is good and to add they can keep the price higher as they will have added extra value. So can make less of a loss on each console or make a profit to pay for the warranty that they set aside the debt for later.

The blu-ray built in might be a way to combat piracy as it would require new ways to flash the drive as much as movie playback options. Also might be quieter than the helicopter rotator blade sound we have to endure now. The ps3 doesn't seem to make alot of noise with ps2 dual layewr games so lets hope this sorts that problem for 360.

[yourM0M1]

i want a free upgrade for a 60gb or open the damn console to let me put in any size :mad:

[crypysmoker]

what I still cant quite understand is...

The 360 plays games from single layer and mostly dual layer dvds. Giving the total space devs can use is 9Gb for a game if they use a single disc

The 360 and the development kits do not and most likely will not have the ability to make games for blu ray unless MS comes out with a whole new rendetion of the 360.

[panyan1991]

built in blu-ray? sounds expensive

ps3 expensive?;)

[MadonnaProject]

built in blu ray and 60 gb hard drive? why are they giving up to sony already without even being beaten?

but then again maybe the blu ray drive will be hackable....

but seriously microsoft. DONT. stop bringing out more stuff bigger and better right after i have purchased your last big thing. its just not fair.

[danight]

built in blu ray and 60 gb hard drive? why are they giving up to sony already without even being beaten?

but then again maybe the blu ray drive will be hackable....

but seriously microsoft. DONT. stop bringing out more stuff bigger and better right after i have purchased your last big thing. its just not fair.

well its worse if your bought a ps3. in less than 2 years they could be half the price with bigger hdd`s in them. But less BC.
I dont see the need to huge hdd`s. 20 gig is fine on xbox. If i dl a demo. Ill play it 1 or 2 times then i delete it. TV shows i like to keep. But you can always re dl them if you need space. Movies i watch and delete as well. So 20 gigs is fine for what i need. Now if they offered a free exchange id do that. But im not buying a new model anything just for a bigger hdd. I want cheaper not bigger that cost more.

I know the goal is to try and draw in new buyers by adding more. But the blu-ray built in drive would be stupid!. Unless its firmware modded :) then some cool reasons might come out for why its a good idea. But still seems like it would increase the price. Im kinda shocked why Microsoft would even consider it, unless sony paid them to. Microsoft could screw sony with windows drivers to make using blu-ray a pain. It wouldn't be the first time windows had issues with device drivers. I just dont see why all of a sudden microsoft became willing to help sony further blu-ray sales. I know for a fact its not because consumers want it. Big companies dont care what consumers want, they only care about how much money it can make them.

[Soldiers On LSD]

You're trying to sound intelligent but your reasoning is bullshit :(

Well actually hes right and you are the one sounding like a dumbass. GTFO!

There are older networks and clients in many companies that were implemented long ago that just wont accept newer and bigger hdd's. To upgrade will mean to change lots of stuff and more money rather than just change the damaged part and try to get the most out of the initial inversion not to mention resolving the issue quicker and more conveniently.

So yeah, when the 360 came out 20gigs were enough but now with all the extra content avaiable and coming out 60 is needed not to mention that if M$ want the digital movie business to succeed is a good move...

Now what we want is to either lower the price of the bigger drives or allow to put any drive you want. :rolleyes:

[dwrecording]

60 gigs makes sense. Bluray does not.

Microsoft is supposedly devoted to the next-next gen of on-demand rentals/downloads. More HDD space means more room to buy movies, download trailers (which are essentially ads), and to buy XBLA games.

Bluray on the other hand would add HUGE cost to the console. Sony would not license Blu-ray cheap and even then I doubt Microsoft would subsidize the cost of the player inside the 360 since they arent in the slightest bit interested in pushing bluray on the world. It would be cool to have a $350 XBOX with a blu-ray player but a $500 XBOX with it makes no sense.

I would pay $399 for a 360 with 60gig and bluray drive. Then i can play games and movies not just movies like my PS3 does now :D

[sydark]

60 gigs makes sense. Bluray does not.

Microsoft is supposedly devoted to the next-next gen of on-demand rentals/downloads. More HDD space means more room to buy movies, download trailers (which are essentially ads), and to buy XBLA games.

Bluray on the other hand would add HUGE cost to the console. Sony would not license Blu-ray cheap and even then I doubt Microsoft would subsidize the cost of the player inside the 360 since they arent in the slightest bit interested in pushind g bluray on the world. It would be cool to have a $350 XBOX with a blu-ray player but a $500 XBOX with it makes no sense.

Yes but a 5gb hidef download really isn't in the same league as a 50gb blue ray movie is it. Plus you don't own the movie and heaven forbid your 360 gets replaced(can you say DRM).
And actually some people will fork over 450.00 to 500.00 for one.

[btotheg]

I highly doubt that we'll see a blu-ray drive built in to a current generation Xbox. It just doesn't make that much sense, it would not be used for games just like the HD-DVD player wasn't and it would alienate the 10mil+ current owners. I think the most we'll see is a Blu-Ray add-on this gen. Now next, that's a completely different story.

Hopefully, if the 60 gig rumor turns out to be true we'll see some lower prices on the 20 gig so come Arcade owners can get on board and they can finally start requiring HDD for some games.

[o0kojiro0o]

Bigger hard drive: If they are shooting for HD digital distribution.. 60 gig is WAY TOO LOW. Seriously, a 60gig hard drive will hold about 5-6 HD movies, that's just TERRIBLE. I don't see how the people with a 20gig HD manage (I don't have an xbox, but my PS3 80gig drive is down to 40 gigs free already). Total Digital Distribution is a LEAST 5 years away. There's just not enough storage to hold the data at resonable prices. Not to mention the perminent ownership and assurance that optical storage gives you (hard drives fail naturally, Discs last forever as long as you take care of them).

Blu-ray: If the plan is developing games on blue-ray, no developer will jump on that. Considering it would target a very small user base, and haveing two different versions of one game is an added cost that I doubt developers would want to deal with. As for movies, okay fine, if they want to offer that option then go for it. I just have a feeling that it will go the route of the Panasonic Q Gamecube. Ever heard of it? Exactly.

[theglow]

Fuckin lies.
The week after I get a core, they have arcades and all this crap. free wireless, mem cards, and now a bigger hdd.
my friends chipped in as a surprise so they spent more on the individual pieces.
At least i learned how to buy a 120gb hdd on newegg and put it into the 360 enclosure.

[Bugerman]

**** a bigger hard drive. i just want to be able to access it for moving files I've downloaded to my computer and such like I can with a PS3. Give us a built in Media Card reader and wifi assholes. And you don't have the right to even look at using Blu Ray technology. Not after millions of us wasted money supporting your stupid fuckin' HD DVD **** and then dumping it when you lost the war. I want my money back Bill Fuckin' Gates!!!!!!

[bhetrick]

I can't understand why half you guys can't see the SIMPLE reasoning behind a new sku with a Blu-Ray drive. It wouldn't be for games. Sony pushes their PS3 as an inexpensive movie player. Now that the format war is over, it'd only make sence for MS to want a piece of that pie.

And that's a good thing whether you're a PS3 fanboy or a 360 fanboy. The more competition between the companies, the better it benefits the consumer.

[bhetrick]

And you don't have the right to even look at using Blu Ray technology. Not after millions of us wasted money supporting your stupid fuckin' HD DVD **** and then dumping it when you lost the war. I want my money back Bill Fuckin' Gates!!!!!!


And you don't have the right to bich and moan because you adopted a new technology during a format war knowing damn well that one of them was going to be the loser. Suck it up like everyone else and move on.

[btotheg]

I can't understand why half you guys can't see the SIMPLE reasoning behind a new sku with a Blu-Ray drive. It wouldn't be for games. Sony pushes their PS3 as an inexpensive movie player. Now that the format war is over, it'd only make sence for MS to want a piece of that pie.

And that's a good thing whether you're a PS3 fanboy or a 360 fanboy. The more competition between the companies, the better it benefits the consumer.

That all makes sense given that Sony will be reasonable when it comes to licensing costs. Either way they're going to have to pay extra for it. Now are they going to eat the cost and sell it at a loss? That doesn't make sense for them. Are they going to sell it for a ridiculous price? Probably if it comes to that. And once again they're alienating those who already have the system. Now if they want Blu-Ray they need a whole new system. I really think it makes more sense for MS to make it as an add-on if anything.

[o0kojiro0o]

And you don't have the right to bich and moan because you adopted a new technology during a format war knowing damn well that one of them was going to be the loser. Suck it up like everyone else and move on.

Agreed. Honestly though, it's somewhat obvious who was going to win. Sony ushered in CD-rom as a viable media for console platforms, as well as making DVD what it is today. Sony has experience and corporate trust when it comes to mainstream formats. Not to mention the future proofing. The capacity avantage is a huge deal-breaker, it means that companies can stay with the tach for a longer time and avoid having to adjust to the next format sooner.

[danight]

That all makes sense given that Sony will be reasonable when it comes to licensing costs.

bs.... ask china manufacturers if sony is being reasonable. Sony has the market locked down for the time being. hd-dvd and china manufacturers where the 2 main things that could force sonys hand in a price war. Now the only thing left to make sony lower the price is the wii and xbox 360. If they drop the ps3 will have to drop to stay in it. But if microsoft is stupid enough to make a xbox 360 with blu-ray player and charge around what sony is now. This will only allow sony to determine prices for the rest of the year.

Now... there is still no proof that blu-ray is gonna replace dvd. Laser disk looked and sounded cool as well and it flopped. Blu-ray controls a small percent of the market and not enough to make everyone see blue. Only reason i see microsoft doing something with a blu-ray drive is because somebody is paying them to. Many people would have rather seen hd-dvd stick around and force the blu-ray prices down. When the prices become consumer freindly then thats blu-rays best chance at becoming mainstream. Right now blu-ray is a fad. I know a person who owns a movie rental store. They tried everything to get blu-ray movies to rent and nothing worked. I suggested they movie the blu-ray movies next to ps3 games and see what happens. Thats when movies started to rent. They went from 0 renting to about 6 renting a week. But every new release dvd movies rents out in the first 30 mins they open on tuesdays.

People need to undertand that the average consumer hasn't excepted blu-ray and are perfectly happy with reg dvd. So it makes no sense for Microsoft to jump on the blu-ray wagon when ps3 sales have risen to wii levels because of blu-ray. Blu-ray just hasnt impacted the market as much as people think it has. Fact is dvd is still going strong. Its in sonys best interest for Microsoft to back blu-ray so i wouldn't be surprised to see a payment was made to do so.

[DoggStyle]

And then they talk about Sony PS3 and the plenty changes in SKU...
Looks like Microsoft is in some kind of struggle for something.
Dunno why :(

[o0kojiro0o]

bs.... ask china manufacturers if sony is being reasonable. Sony has the market locked down for the time being. hd-dvd and china manufacturers where the 2 main things that could force sonys hand in a price war. Now the only thing left to make sony lower the price is the wii and xbox 360. If they drop the ps3 will have to drop to stay in it. But if microsoft is stupid enough to make a xbox 360 with blu-ray player and charge around what sony is now. This will only allow sony to determine prices for the rest of the year.

Now... there is still no proof that blu-ray is gonna replace dvd. Laser disk looked and sounded cool as well and it flopped. Blu-ray controls a small percent of the market and not enough to make everyone see blue. Only reason i see microsoft doing something with a blu-ray drive is because somebody is paying them to. Many people would have rather seen hd-dvd stick around and force the blu-ray prices down. When the prices become consumer freindly then thats blu-rays best chance at becoming mainstream. Right now blu-ray is a fad. I know a person who owns a movie rental store. They tried everything to get blu-ray movies to rent and nothing worked. I suggested they movie the blu-ray movies next to ps3 games and see what happens. Thats when movies started to rent. They went from 0 renting to about 6 renting a week. But every new release dvd movies rents out in the first 30 mins they open on tuesdays.

People need to undertand that the average consumer hasn't excepted blu-ray and are perfectly happy with reg dvd. So it makes no sense for Microsoft to jump on the blu-ray wagon when ps3 sales have risen to wii levels because of blu-ray. Blu-ray just hasnt impacted the market as much as people think it has. Fact is dvd is still going strong. Its in sonys best interest for Microsoft to back blu-ray so i wouldn't be surprised to see a payment was made to do so.

LMAO, oh my god, seriously. The reason laser disc didn't gain any ground is something blu-ray does not have. It was MASSIVE. The discs were seriously the size of the first DVD..... PLAYERS. They were just way too big to be practical. Blu-ray makes sense, it may not be mainstream now, but with the adoption rate of HDTV running rampant, it's only a matter or time.

And your reasoning is flawed. A fad usually DOES have an effect on markets,if only for a short while. If it doesn't have an effect, then who should care at all? Doesn't make it a fad.

And off topic, but about your siggy: god forbid someone would try to protect their investments. sure they go about it the wrong way, but don't spit in their face for trying to keep people from STEALING from them. If you download illegally, you consciously take that risk. Just because they're a "big bad corporation" doesn't mean it's ok to steal, and they should be dammed for trying to prevent it. And considering that for every 1000 copies of pirated content they stop, they sell a whole 1, it seems to be less about the money and more about the idea of stopping it.

[danight]

OK.. so like any fad it could die out. The fact is blu-ray has not took enough of the market from dvd to even be considered as a replacement. When you combine hd-dvd and blu-ray and get like 10% of the market you should see how small they really are. At CES the blu ray camp bargged that 3.5 million blu-ray players have sold. Thats not bad. But 3 million of those where ps3`s. Now thats not good. Only 500 stand alone players sold. Now whats that say! It says consumers regardless at this point in time dont care or dont see it as being worth it to upgrade to. Now had it been vice versa and 3 million stand alone players sold. Then yes you can say this is looking less like a fad and more like a serious replacement.

Go in any retailer and see how big a section is set for blu-ray. Go look in movie stores. Just like people thought last year that hd-dvd might win the war when paramount went with them. Blu-ray could easly be replaced as well by new tech. better yet blu-ray might just stall out and dvd just keeps going. DvD players cost like 30 dollars. Thats the price of 1 blu-ray movie. You can rent dvd movies cheap. yet a blu-ray player cost 400+. Not to mention a good upscaled dvd on a 1080i tv is very nice as is. It sure doesnt justify the price unless you have extra cash to spend and just wanna brag that you got a new toy.

As far as my siggy goes. RIAA has nothing to do with stealing. Its about suing people to make a easy dollar.

[Bugerman]

And you don't have the right to bich and moan because you adopted a new technology during a format war knowing damn well that one of them was going to be the loser. Suck it up like everyone else and move on.

You're right. I should have known better than to support Microsoft. I should have known they would sale me a format they had no plans of supporting if things didn't go the way they planned. Blow me asshole.

[o0kojiro0o]

You're right. I should have known better than to support Microsoft. I should have known they would sale me a format they had no plans of supporting if things didn't go the way they planned. Blow me asshole.

Now you have come to know what Microsoft really is.

[o0kojiro0o]

OK.. so like any fad it could die out. The fact is blu-ray has not took enough of the market from dvd to even be considered as a replacement. When you combine hd-dvd and blu-ray and get like 10% of the market you should see how small they really are. At CES the blu ray camp bargged that 3.5 million blu-ray players have sold. Thats not bad. But 3 million of those where ps3`s. Now thats not good. Only 500 stand alone players sold. Now whats that say! It says consumers regardless at this point in time dont care or dont see it as being worth it to upgrade to. Now had it been vice versa and 3 million stand alone players sold. Then yes you can say this is looking less like a fad and more like a serious replacement.

Go in any retailer and see how big a section is set for blu-ray. Go look in movie stores. Just like people thought last year that hd-dvd might win the war when paramount went with them. Blu-ray could easly be replaced as well by new tech. better yet blu-ray might just stall out and dvd just keeps going. DvD players cost like 30 dollars. Thats the price of 1 blu-ray movie. You can rent dvd movies cheap. yet a blu-ray player cost 400+. Not to mention a good upscaled dvd on a 1080i tv is very nice as is. It sure doesnt justify the price unless you have extra cash to spend and just wanna brag that you got a new toy.

As far as my siggy goes. RIAA has nothing to do with stealing. Its about suing people to make a easy dollar.

The stance that it's bad for Blu-ray that a vast majority of the players being PS3s are bad is extremely flawed. Are people really naive enough to think that no PS3 owner is buying movies? Unless you think that BD outselling HDDVD 5:1 was a bold face lie, there's an obvious reason why Blu-ray won. And I didn't mean it didn't have an impact enough to call it a fad, I was challenging the fact that you called it a fad and then said it didn't have a big market share. 10% on such a huge market is not bad at all. Sure I think it qualifies as a fad, but I don't think it actually IS one. Considering the company who backed VHS, CD-Rom as a game console medium (which was, prior to this, backed by Sega with sony's help. It was being pushed for a long time before it ever caught on), and DVD are backing Blu-ray, and how future proof the massive storage size potentials are (currently development for a 200GB disc that will run on first generation players), I think Blu-ray will be around for quite some time. I mean I think it's already practical for -standard- definition media. If you take a look at the extended LOTR set, that thing is four disks long. If you want all 3 installments, that's 12 discs for just 3 movies. It's a great convenience, even in 2 disc sets, to have all the special features on one disc.

Sure a new tech could probably smash Blu-ray. Better have more capacity and future potential though, or it's going to get nowhere. Also try convincing studios to reconfigure their manufacturing process -again-. Future proofing is important. Look at the PS3, everyone was saying how badly it was going to fail, but now it's picking up momentum before the big name games are even out. I agree blu-ray is not going to replace DVD any time soon. I mean it took DVD quite some time to do so with VHS. Cheap and easier to record with, it's the same struggle all over again. Once blu-ray's practicality in application becomes necessary, its adoption will pick up quickly. Your opinion seems to be there will never be any reason to upgrade. But that's simply untrue. Technical advances are always necessary. I'm not saying that this is definite, I don't know the future of blu-ray, and no one can. But I'll bet that it's a safe route to go with blu-ray if I want high definition video.

I don't like the RIAA as much as anyone else, but honestly, they wouldn't even exist if it wasn't for theft. We created them, we pissed those companies off. Sure the money they gain isn't going to the right people, the artists and developers, but it's our fault they exist and are doing these things in the first place.

(Don't think I'm trying to be insulting or anything, I just like a good debate)

[bhetrick]

You're right. I should have known better than to support Microsoft. I should have known they would sale me a format they had no plans of supporting if things didn't go the way they planned. Blow me asshole.

What are you... 12? You're going to vent your frustrations at me because obviously MS held a gun to your head and made you purchase a hd-dvd drive? What choice does MS have now that all the movie companies adopted Blu-Ray? You expect them to somehow pull new releases on hd-dvd out of their a$$ for you? MS isn't responsible for hd-dvd, that's Toshibas baby. MS only supported it. MS doesn't have control over the decisions of the movie companies. It was the film industries decision to adopt Blu-Ray as the hd format.

And is that what you were doing... "supporting" MS? I'd say 99.9% of consumers make purchases for their own entertainment... not to "support" a multi-billion dollar company. MS isn't your friend. They're a business and their #1 priority is profit... just like every other business.

HD-DVD failed, and that wasn't MS's fault. So seriously, what sence does it make to blame a company who had no control over the outcome of the format war?

If you need to blame someone for your bad decision, blame Sony and their Blu-Ray technology.

[danight]

o0kojiro0o blu-ray won because wb went with them and wb basically controls the movie business. They control a massive percent of the movie market. Had blu-ray not controlled the massive amount of exclusive studios they could have lost. Had wb went hd-dvd, blu-ray probably would have floundered. But thats all could, woulda, shoulda arguments. The fact is sony did what they needed to do to win. But sony keeps formats around long afte rthe consumer doesnt want it. Like UMD. Find a psp owner who likes umd and ill show you a psp owners who hasn't learned to use a memory card. Id rather see the psp phone have no umd slot and use mem cards for movies. But thats to the point of sony will keep blu-ray around even if it doesn't catch on. Its stuck in the ps3 design like umd is with psp. Its to late to go back and re do it regardless if it doesn't replace dvd. But had hd-dvd had the exclusive studios support and with their price. I doubt blu-ray could compete with that.

But i think it total blows that sony wont let china make blu-ray players. Because sony knows they will make cheaper players. While that would help blu-ray become more consumer excepted as the price gets cheaper. Sony would no longer be able to control the price. Right now sony decides what the consumer will pay for blu-ray. Without hd-dvd or cheap china players, only reason sony will drop price is to compete with wii and the xbox 360. But with out the low price of stand alone players. PS3 is blu-rays main chance at becoming mainstream. I think here is where the issue lies.

What i think we could see is ps3 become the cheap standalone blu-ray player, left on the market just for that reason, while ps4 sneaks out to try and regain the gaming market. Sony cant afford to let Microsoft and Nintendo jump out with new consoles while they worry about the ps3. To get mainstream and be a replacement for dvd, sony needs major retailers to get on board and push blu-ray. At the current price i dont see that happening. When walmart can sell cheap dvd players by the truck load. But like umd price killed it. Sony needs to watch that because it could become a issue with blu-ray.

BTW... laser disk rocked. They where pimped. Yeah they where big but the looked mega cool at the time!