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Report: New Xbox won't use discs, will ship next year

Written by James Delahunty @ 09 Mar 2012 9:17 User comments (21)

Report: New Xbox won't use discs, will ship next year Report suggests Microsoft informed partners that it is dropped a disc drive in its next console.
That's according to MCV, anyway, who also claim to have confirmed a 2013 launch date for the hardware. The revelations come from an MCV source who said the briefings were issued under the "strictest NDA" they have encountered.

The console reportedly will work with some kind of interchangeable solid-state card storage, but its unknown whether it will be proprietary technology or a widely established standard.

MCV suggests that the new Xbox may even show up at E3 this year, which would make sense if a 2013 release target is accurate.

When MCV contacted Microsoft about the report, the company didn't exactly deny it, and just referred to how the Xbox 360 has extended its lifespan.

"Xbox 360 has found new ways to extend its lifecycle like introducing the world to controller-free experiences with Kinect and re-inventing the console with a new dashboard and new entertainment content partnerships. We are always thinking about what is next for our platform and how to continue to defy the lifecycle convention. Beyond that we do not comment on rumors or speculation."

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21 user comments

19.3.2012 22:32

That's not happening, to many people have xbox and xbox 360 games and will not buy it if they can not use their old games as well(especially with Halo 4 coming out( one of MS's biggest games they own). The PSPGO/PSVITA is failing, because not enough people are willing to give up there umd games and have to repurchase them all over again. MS knows they would loose tons of costumers if they made a change from disc to sold state are not that stupid to do it.

29.3.2012 22:42

who cares about playing old ass games you beat 3x. i could give to shits if it didn't play halo 2 the matchmaking is down for it anyways. if you really were worried about backwards compatibility you would have never bought the first system you would still be waiting for an snes that also plays nes.

39.3.2012 23:02

Originally posted by Hopium:
who cares about playing old ass games you beat 3x. i could give to shits if it didn't play halo 2 the matchmaking is down for it anyways. if you really were worried about backwards compatibility you would have never bought the first system you would still be waiting for an snes that also plays nes.
GREAT point... personally cant wait, havent bought a game on hard copy for 2 years or so

49.3.2012 23:14

I bet they release a SEPERATE disc drive for the XBOX720....Gotta milk them consumers, ya know.

510.3.2012 00:14

i think that the new console will come out in two different formats .
1 an arcade type console without a disc drive for the casual gamer at a low price point(say around $199-$229)
2 a pro or elite type console with a optical drive for the hardcore gamer at a steeper price point($299-$349).
there is no way in hell it is cheaper to use a solid state device for games and have it be cheaper than blue-ray or a hd-dvd variant at the same capacity unless it will be reusable and then the cost will be passed on to the consumer. .

610.3.2012 02:23

Originally posted by keebles:
That's not happening, to many people have xbox and xbox 360 games and will not buy it if they can not use their old games as well(especially with Halo 4 coming out( one of MS's biggest games they own). The PSPGO/PSVITA is failing, because not enough people are willing to give up there umd games and have to repurchase them all over again. MS knows they would loose tons of costumers if they made a change from disc to sold state are not that stupid to do it.
The PS Vita is failing because of the udder lack of interesting titles, 2 decent games and the rest is sports garbage.

710.3.2012 08:47

if they want to extend the 360 so bad, then why come out with a new console so soon.

and since you cant play any 360 games on the xbox 720 since there will not be a disc drive, i think that would be a huge no no. I wont buy one for a long time, i have ALOT of games i still need to beat. hell even Play lol.

810.3.2012 12:30

Originally posted by 1nsan3:
if they want to extend the 360 so bad, then why come out with a new console so soon.

and since you cant play any 360 games on the xbox 720 since there will not be a disc drive, i think that would be a huge no no. I wont buy one for a long time, i have ALOT of games i still need to beat. hell even Play lol.
Get to work!!

910.3.2012 13:09

It makes somewhat sense. Go though marketplace and d/l wanted titles. Hell, even keep it in the cloud..... I can see the slowness of the disc based game. Most PC ones are for installing onto the hdd. What would make the xbox any different? Push the speed envelope and leave the competition in the dust. Smart marketing ploy.

1010.3.2012 17:39

if its no disc drive then the hard disk would have to be at least 300 to 500gig. I dont use discs in my 360 i just use iso2god n ftp but my 120 gig hdd fills up quick specially if your playing a game like mass effect 2 or any other game that has a few discs and a lot of dlc content adding up around 30 gig just for the one game. I'm sure the games for the 720 will be even bigger than before and have even bigger dlcs. also when I ftp over my network its going around 10 to 13 megs a second but my net connection only gets up to around 1 to 2. when people say "cloud" I cant help but just laugh.

1111.3.2012 00:35

Back to cartridge based game consoles we go.

1211.3.2012 03:03

I think they will to try and mitigate the risk of a lot of piracy.

1311.3.2012 03:37

Originally posted by TBandit:
I think they will to try and mitigate the risk of a lot of piracy.
and it always end in failure

1412.3.2012 12:43

You can always use an external disc drive on this new failure to play your disc based games
Keeping things in the cloud is the worst idea ever. For those that don't have an internet connection this would make it hard. But since we live in the age where we are capped, downloading our games will not be a smart idea lol

1512.3.2012 13:02

I can see M$ pushing for the cloud. I am one not for anything cloud, but can see it being pushed. I think a different format for games are coming forth on this console. Most gamers do have internet acess of some sort.

1615.3.2012 17:40
Viperz_7
Inactive

I've got a 100Mbit down/5Mbit up connection so the cloud would be fine, problem is I currently have 2TB of Xbox360 games, just how much cloud would they be willing to give ;) Moving to a cloud service would make games much much harder to get around, but not impossible. If there were to be sold on some type of solid state drive that would drive costs up. There's no way you can sell a 10GB drive cheaper then a blank bluray. That would be one thing I wouldn't go for. Now, if you purchased the drive, like the over priced memory cards, then just loaded your new games at the store off some type of kiosk, that would mean no more sold out games.. this could be an idea.

1715.3.2012 21:58

Originally posted by molsen:
It makes somewhat sense. Go though marketplace and d/l wanted titles. Hell, even keep it in the cloud..... I can see the slowness of the disc based game. Most PC ones are for installing onto the hdd. What would make the xbox any different? Push the speed envelope and leave the competition in the dust. Smart marketing ploy.
Really? You think it's smart?

Have you taken in to consideration isp's and their bandwidth limitation?

Have you taken in to consideration the rumor of no more used games sales? Going this "cartridge" route makes it look more believable.

And you still think MS is going the smart route?

1816.3.2012 09:53
Brian1541
Inactive

Originally posted by majo4584:
Back to cartridge based game consoles we go.

Oh how I long for my old Commodore 64 ROM cartridges. YES, I'm that old! Bet the new stuff is alot harder to crack.

Can someone tell me why I went from tape cassettes to cartridges to disk drive (5.25 floppy)?
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 16 Mar 2012 @ 9:59

1916.3.2012 10:05

I don't believe it. They are smarter than that.

Extending the 360...Kinect did not extend the lifespan of the 360 for me. Tried it and returned it. The new dashboard update did not extend the lifespan either. Who cares about dashboard updates really? All it did was make their other crap more available, which leads me to my next thing....

Crackle, Hulu, Facebook, twitter, fios, hbo, ect. also did nothing for me. I bought the 360 to play GAMES. And by games I do not mean Kinectimals.

Just my opinion, btw.

2016.3.2012 11:15

Originally posted by 8686:
I don't believe it. They are smarter than that.

Extending the 360...Kinect did not extend the lifespan of the 360 for me. Tried it and returned it. The new dashboard update did not extend the lifespan either. Who cares about dashboard updates really? All it did was make their other crap more available, which leads me to my next thing....

Crackle, Hulu, Facebook, twitter, fios, hbo, ect. also did nothing for me. I bought the 360 to play GAMES. And by games I do not mean Kinectimals.

Just my opinion, btw.


Understood.

Unfortunately, gamers don't represent the target market for the console manufacturers anymore. They're changing their stance from gaming to home entertainment.

And it's working. They're drawing in the new audience. Myself, I've dropped consoles and went back to pc gaming. I got tired of all the crap the console mfg's were trying to stuff down our throats.

So I spoke with my wallet.

2116.3.2012 13:49

@bhetrick: If only more people spoke with their wallets. Funny, I started again with the pc gaming. Currently running through my Half-life collection.

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