With the giant Fall update of the Xbox Live Dashboard (nicknamed ‘Xbox Live Experience‘ at this point) looming, some folks with early access are starting to look at the new features coming in that update.
To recap the hotness that is the “Xbox Live Experience” update, it’s more or less every major feature you’ve ever wanted in Xbox Live, delivered in the form of a complete Dashboard redo with features galore (as opposed to the Sony model of “promise the world, and deliver nothing for years on end” with Home).
- Netflix Streaming
- XNA Community Games
- Avatars
- Xbox Live Marketplace on the Web
- Updated Games Marketplace
- Plus a complete redesign of the Dashboard Layout
… this list is missing one of the major new features that a lot of gamers are jazzed about: Hard Drive installs of full titles.
Some comparison videos of Gears of War and Fable 2 have surfaced showing the load time differences between the two titles. On average performance boosts look to be 10-12 seconds faster; that’s pretty major.
Gears of War Comparison Video
Fable 2 Comparison Video
The Down Side
Not too shabby at all. The one unfortunate (but intentional) side-effect of this update is to get people to buy the $140, 120GB Xbox 360 Hard Drive. In what is typically seen as a Sony move (with the proprietary hardware), Microsoft has locked gamers into a $1.16/GB hard drive solution while existing SATA/IDE-based hard drive technology (like what the PS3 uses) is $0.10/GB.
By utilizing a proprietary connection technology, Microsoft has bent gamers over the nearest table with an 1160% markup on the only hard drive storage device available for the Xbox 360 and naturally dangles the idea of a faster load time infront of it.
I’m all for paying a premium for better service, but you are telling me an 1160% markup is a necessary part of this? I think Microsoft has found a way to recoup the cost of the Red Ring of Death fiasco.
It’s very reminicent of the monopolistic position printer companies have put consumers in with $100 printers that do everything, but then charging then $4000/gallon for black ink to recoup the costs.
Let’s see how long we can hold out from upgrading our 20GB Xbox 360 launch units before the basic functioning of the Xbox Live Experience update requires us to upgrade. Don’t forget, the Xbox 360 Arcade folks out there have to upgrade to get the full features of the Xbox Live Experience.
Nice call there Microsoft, you really predicted the no-HDD-device well when you made an entire product line out of them.
Jackasses.
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1. November 2008 at 11:11 am
I’ve been putting off getting a 120 GB HDD for the 360 because of the price. My 20 GB that I’ve had since I got my 360 has about 4 GB free so I can get a few demos at a time, but that is about it.
I just can’t justify that price for the 120 GB HDD or I’d have it already. I realize there will be some markup vs a standard notebook drive, but the amounts they mark up are pretty ridiculous.
1. November 2008 at 11:15 am
Totally agree, I’m in the same boat as well (always have to delete 1 demo before getting another).
I have a friend that just had his Xbox RRoD and wanted to go ahead and pickup the 120GB drive after he got it back because he grabs all the Xbox Live Arcade games and has to juggle as well, until he went shopping and realized how absolutely ridiculous the price was.
I don’t think any of us would be too mad about a 3-4x markup for a proprietary device… it’s just the 11.6x markup that is so unholy.
I’m almost certain that Microsoft had every intention of lowering the price of the Hard Drive before the $2.2 billion RRoD issue came up, at that point they *had* to lower the cost of the device to get it into more living rooms and get people “on the platform”, but they no longer had the luxury of lowering the peripheral costs to help balance the enormous repair costs that were coming in.
Ahh well… we can only vote with our dollars, and so far I’m voting no.