The more I think about and read about the Xbox One, I feel like the Bluray drive should have been optional. MS is going all out on digital, so why require people to have Bluray? For gaming purposes, it appears discs are going to be no different than download cards and they don't replace the need for internet connectivity. I don't buy physical media movies anymore. The drive is taking up valuable space and serving no purpose to me. People complain about Kinect -- at least it will be functional. The HDDVD add-on for 360 was a good solution for people that wanted a high def movie option. Wish they would have done something like this with One. MS might have hit the $399 mark without Bluray, allowing for some loss knowing all business on the console would be digital and therefore more profitable. It wouldn't surprise me at all to see a future hardware revision without any optical drive.
Why is Bluray built-in?
- Thread starter michfan
- Start date
Mainer82
New member
Two reasons, 1) Not everyone wants all digital (myself included), 2) To have more storage capacity for games.
ncxcstud
New member
This generation is the transition between physical and digital distribution. The next consoles (in like 10 years) probably won't have disc drives...
You can buy a Blu-Ray Drive on Newegg for $50. I'm guessing Microsoft gets them for a LOT less than that since they both buy in bulk and aren't a consumer. Removing the drive wouldn't have saved them $100, because even a Blu-Ray BURNER is under $70. Consoles are not computers, which is why you don't see models with 500GB HDDs, 1TB HDDs, 250GB SSDs, 5 different CPU options, RAM varying form 2 GB to 32 GB, and the like. Consoles don't have the kind of customization that PCs have, and they likely never will. These are supposed to be mostly plug-and-play devices, because you cannot customize the hardware. Say someone got the no-drive model, but wanted a drive later on? They don't sell aftermarket disc drives for consoles like they do PCs, so that person would have to buy a whole new console if he started wanting to watch his movie library?
There are more than enough people who do not want to wait for digital download times to get a game going, and I'd bet the cost difference to add the drive is $20 or less, so it wouldn't have been significant-enough savings to bother with. The interest in the drives is more than enough (between watching disc-based movies and installing games) that they aren't concerned about losing money by giving them away to what I'd bet is less than 20% of the user base that will never use the drive.
Also, the Kinect is no different, just a more expensive situation than the Blu-Ray drive. You say some won't use the drive, but some won't use the Kinect. The drive serves a purpose, as does the Kinect. You can completely ignore using either if you want, though. If I get an Xbox One, my use of the Kinect will be very infrequent.
1. Well, that's why he said "optional," but I am in the same boat of not wanting all-digital (my Internet's too slow for it).
2. What? I assume why you mean they UPGRADED from DVD to Blu-Ray here?
Are games going to be stored on disc? My understanding is that you only put the disc in once, then never use it again.
It would be cool if you could pre-purchase a game and download the final code before it is released. Then at midnight on release day the game is activated and there is no waiting.
stevearsenault
New member
The game is stored on them, but it isn't playable from the disc and instead installs it from the disc. You likely won't use the disc again, unless you trade it in, give it to a friend, or replace the console. The Blu-Ray is important in this regard, since games are going to only get larger, and installing from multiple CDs would be a mess. Ultimately, the a lack of Blu-Ray wouldn't affect the cost of the console so much, as it is really the Kinect that makes the price jump to $500.
This is something that's happened before, and I can give two examples:
1. For Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Steam had a beta. What they did is when the actual game launched, you paid the $15 for the game, and it turned the beta into the actual game, so you didn't have to buy it a second time.
2. With World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, the game updated to the new game before launch. Once the game was officially released, you could start playing the new content (I think it required you to log out and back in--at least, I expect that it did).
Still, that's not a great overarching system to have. As I mentioned in another thread, I have 3Mbps DSL. Even if I can DL the game early, a problem occurs:
Downloading large files on my Internet makes it unusable for many basic tasks (like browsing random pages) until the download is complete. They'd need to add a DL speed cap to prevent the entirety of my bandwidth being allotted to the Xbox, and making general Internet actions very slow and frustrating, at best. If I DID allot the entirety of my Internet bandwidth to the download, it's still going to be 10+ hours to install. That means at least 10 hours in which my connection is crippled, preventing me from playing on Xbox LIVE. An all-digital system just isn't possible in 2013. Too many people have either slow or unreliable Internet, and that's a big problem if you do all game sales digitally. Before that can happen, you need to have something like 98% of Xbox One users able to access reliable, high-speed (I'm thinking 20+ Mbps) Internet.
Even on xbox, there are loads of multi dvd games. As everything moves to 1080p, 3d, and even better visuals, its going to need more storage.
Im not sure the dvd drive held back the 360, but the next gen most definitely needs more storage. If anything bluray will save Microsoft in the long run, with not needing multiple disk games.
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Im not sure the dvd drive held back the 360, but the next gen most definitely needs more storage. If anything bluray will save Microsoft in the long run, with not needing multiple disk games.
Sent from my RM-821_eu_euro1_342 using Board Express
I don't know why is this even a question. Bluray is a must for this generation because of more powerful graphics need more storage for games. Would you want to install a game from one bluray or from seven DVDs?
Mystictrust
New member
Bluray positions the box even better as an entertainment device. Plenty of people have massive Bluray collections. People still rent Bluray discs off Netflix, and buy them in stores. I still get some movies in disc form, and I have friends come over with discs. A few months ago, my then-girlfriend's sister lended her a disc-based season for a show they got us hooked on watching at their house. It wouldn't run on my Xbox, the only big media device in the house, because it was a Bluray disc. Needless to say, we never got to watch it.
I would argue that it is more about the entertainment stuff such as movies and and TV shows over video games, particularly because... as has been mentioned a few times... discs are only used once for install.
I would argue that it is more about the entertainment stuff such as movies and and TV shows over video games, particularly because... as has been mentioned a few times... discs are only used once for install.
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It depends on the standpoint you look at it from. The Blu-Ray drive boosted the PS3 sales among upper-class consumers, I think. It was cheaper than standalone Blu-Ray players at the start (which were sitting near $1,000, in many cases). However, it also hurt the PS3 among many middle-class families at the start, because Blu-Ray was a fledgling technology, the discs were expensive ($35 or so), and the inclusion of the drive in the PS3 pushed it to $100-200 more than the Xbox 360 (depending on the version you got). If Microsoft had included the Blu-Ray drive from the start, I think the Wii would have cleaned up on both consoles for a long time. However, if Microsoft had included a Blu-Ray drive in the slim remake, it might have helped them a little. However, that would have created the logistical nightmare of having DVD and Blu-Ray copies of games, to fit games like L.A. Noire, RAGE, Halo 4, and Forza onto a single disc.
Did you read the first post in its entirety, or take a guess at what the title meant? The person isn't asking why a DVD drive isn't an option, but why drive-less isn't an option. Blu-Ray isn't a must if you ONLY purchase digital copies of games and never use the disc drive whatsoever as a result.
Agree, even though I don't play Xbox, but on PC and download all of my games, I prefer buying and renting physical copies of movies over digital.
ninjaap
New member
Please don't suggest taking away the Bluray player. Bluray is the ONLY reason why I even bought a PS3 - for my Bluray collection. Now that the XB1 will have a ton more multimedia capabilities + controlling my DirecTV + Bluray, I can get rid of all the other devices on my TV stand and have a clean looking set up.
because an all DD console is not ready yet. They obviously can't put another DVD drive in there. They have to put bluray in it.
Still, it would cause frustrations for the consumers. Some games might be too big and take forever to download. Not everyone has fast internet.
That's irrelevant to whether or not the purpose of the post was understood or not. I know why it was made available, and I'm one with slow broadband. I asked something else.
Now we know it was put there so that they could backtrack on the DRM requirements and still have a functional console :smile:
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