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HD-DVD for Xbox 2?

As Sony PS3 will be supporting the Blu Ray, providing the new format with a large number of supporting playback devices, NEC and Toshiba have their eyes at the Microsoft Xbox 2. The fact that PS3 will support Blu-Ray, will give the format significant edge on the market, and therefore this is a clearly a direct counter measure by the HD-DVD camp.

There's been some concern that pricing for systems that make use of these next generation storage formats would be too high given the expected arrival time of Blue Ray and HD-DVD. At CEATEC, NEC revealed that it plans to push HD-DVD as a storage format for the PC by placing HD-DVD drives in its own computers and selling drives to other computer manufacturers. The company aims at making computers with HD-DVD drives available in the latter half of 2005, and aims for drive prices to drop to 300 dollars within half a year of inclusion.

Source: IGN.com

Written by: Lasse Penttinen @ 5 Oct 2004 11:27

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• 13 comments

• Toiletman

  The real question is really whether XBOX 2/XBOX Next games will require that much space. Right now PS2 games usually don't even take up a whole 4.7GB of a DVD. So what's the point of developing something the system doesn't need? Won't the time and money be spent better on developing Halo 2? =P

  5.10.2004 12:45 #1

• BobL

  I think using either Blu-Ray or HD-DVD drives, even if the games don't require the space, will sure put a damper on game copying for a while, as I'm sure affordable Blu-Ray and HD-DVD drives will be a long time coming. But that's what we said about DVD when it first came out, and now even dual-layer DVD writing is becoming affordable (except for the media.. :) )

  5.10.2004 19:12 #2

• volvox6

  Next Gen games WILL be taking up TONS more space then today. Average texture sizes are jumping from 256x256 pixels to 2048x2048 pixels. Stuff is getting way big. Just look at Unreal 3, thats the kind of stuff next gen is packing. We need lots of space.

  7.10.2004 12:09 #3

• Toiletman

  Not THAT much space.
  

  Everyone is entitled to their own true opinion. Either respect that or don't.

  7.10.2004 12:48 #4

• stylis

  the more space - the more game! Love it!

  8.10.2004 05:11 #5

• mrmathers

  r u serious?
  GTA: SA is taking up a FULL dual layer DVD. The standard will have been set, and most games will be using dual layer.
  With PS3 apparently being as close to real as possible (but didn't they say that about PS2?) the textures, and all sorts are going to be enormous. It would be better to have the space there if needed, than to risk it by using DVD which is already being stretched to the limits.
  Look at PS2 games, the first load were all CD based, and very small dvd size barely taking up half. now there are loads of DVD9 and full 5 gig games out there. Sure the first few PS3 games may easily fit on DVD, but what about 3 years in the running?
  They're going to be getting bigger, mor complex, and more graphical requiring more space.
  This Blu-Ray is a brilliant idea. Also theres DVD coming out that can store a Tb on it.

  8.10.2004 07:14 #6

• Toiletman

  Quote: GTA: SA is taking up a FULL dual layer DVD. The standard will have been set Is that standards in "gaming" or in "most space taken by a game."
  

  Everyone is entitled to their own true opinion. Either respect that or don't.

  8.10.2004 09:05 #7

• volvox6

  8.10.2004 16:40 #8

• volvox6

  Ok, honestly, I work for a company that produces next generation game stuff. (for Xbox 2 currently.) Right now, its not the processor, ram or graphics chips that are the bottle neck. Its the time requrired to load the shear ammount of data off the disk fast enough. Things are huge. Currently, more data is stored in 1 character then in an entire level that you see in games today. Its a serious problem/consideration. Don't belive it? Go do a google search for 'Unreal 3' and see what that turns up. We are talking minimum of 9-18 gigs of data for next gen stuff to start with.

  8.10.2004 16:47 #9

• ddrhazy

  If nothing else HD-DVD in xbox 2 would allow to play actual HD-DVD movies which are already in demand in the marketplace right now.
  
  These systems need to reduce loading times, and they just keep increasing the size of data to load, bah.

  8.10.2004 16:56 #10

• mrmathers

  Quote:
  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  GTA: SA is taking up a FULL dual layer DVD. The standard will have been set
  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  
  Is that standards in "gaming" or in "most space taken by a game."
  
  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  
  
  The standards in both really. This topic aint about gaming so i'll leave that part out, but the bar will have been raised as to how much space is needed for the game itself.
  Wait till 2005, i bet that most major games are full dual layer games.

  11.10.2004 09:07 #11

• SGSeries2

  Some of you may not realize this, but most of this stuff is naturally large when they make the game anyways. They (good game makers) always start out with higher texture sizes, and then compress them down to a size that they can actually use in-game. Usually, they keep the origional around so that if they want to use a larger-sized texture, they can get a new one from the origional.
  With faster machines, you can get more on screen, and the more you can get on screen, the more detail you can get, and one of the ways you can get more detail on an object is using a finer texture, which takes up space... You can see where this all is going. Also, the more efficient your game is, the more detail you can give to other aspects of rendering. Some of that may be in texture quality.

  2.11.2004 06:36 #12

• radiomoon

  GTA 3 SA only takes 4.19GB. it would be nice if it was a full dual layer dvd... i would'nt have beat it so soon.

  26.11.2004 01:19 #13