and what again was the benefit for this?

krom

I wonder if this would help with texture pop-ins like with Mass Effect or Oblivion. Cause if so, I will very much "install" Fallout 3 in a few months.

Numerous

I would have like to have seen him load up the game and his save file, just to see how much faster it is.

I am looking forward to this. Looks like I'll only be loading one game at a time, but that's ok. I usually only play one game at a time.

Though if the larger hard drives weren't silly expensive, I'd definitely upgrade.

Murph1908

@Eruanno:

The point would be to avoid having it to load up data from the disc during gameplay (i.e. a game like GTAIV), which can be annoying because of the very loud drive.

Requiring the disc to be in the drive seems to make sense (looking at the posts above, it seems clear that if you didn't require the disc to be in to load the game initially, people would use this "install" feature to install games they didn't own).

So I think this is mainly about avoiding spinning up the loud drive, and I suspect it should help with load times/etc. for games as well.

Zadillo

So... if you still need the game disc to load the game, and all this does is give you back a few minutes of your life as well as an overstuffed HDD...
Why the hell would I want to do this?

(Also, I don't have an Xbox. Feel free to give me one for free...)

Eruanno

@That One Guy..: As stated in the article, you need the game disc to load the game.

Mark Wilson

Jeezy Chreezy!!! O_O That's a lot of GBs! I hope they release a bigger HD. I'm already at 3GBs remaining. >_<

Zaxxon Q Blaque

Actually that last bit i said.. wasn't quite right.. my friend Daniel buys it... with his dad's credit card.. I however get it for free!!

yes yes.. more sense..

That One Guy..

Nay word on the copy protection?

I.E. renting a game, and then loading it forever?

Surely this would cause problems..

Example:

i rent a game.. copy it.. then someone else who rents it.. cannot play it due to copy protection on the disk.. :S

or worse.. i buy a game.. copy it.. and all of my friends at college do the same for free??

That One Guy..

The XBox 360 Experience cannot be shortened. Each letter is as important as the letter preceding. Maybe even more important.

I decree that the new name shall be written thusly:

The New XBOX 360 EXPERIENCE!!!

This will convey to the user the awesomeness of the Experience

It's OMG! Ponies! Birthday. He wants LEGOs.

@Swiftor: Don't wait for this to play Mass Effect, play it now, it's a great game!

BostonPimpDaddy2

Just seems like a waste of space. Does it really save that much time? It would be way cooler if they could have some form of copy protection that means I don't have to put in the disc.

Kevin Doyle

It'll be about 15 more minutes before someone from Defcon figures out a hack to play the game without the disk in the machine. Then it'll be a free for all or at least a free for some anyway.

Navin R Johnson

Mass Effect will be my first candidate for install.

Swiftor

Well, as any PC gamer knows.. a no CD crack.. is a relatively easy thing to do.. So if the entire game is loaded onto the drive.. and the only purpose the disc is there for is legality.. then what's to stop someone writing a piece of code, burned onto a disc, to trick the Xbox into thinking it IS in the drive..

But as far as the basic purpose of this.. i think that faster/instant loading times are key.. For example.. many PS3 games need to be Semi-installed to play.. This means that some of the files that take a long time to load are loaded directly onto the drive.. eliminating loading screens.. such as in GTA IV as the entire maps is loaded at all times.. which is why there are no cuts or loading screens when travelling the huge map.

That One Guy..

To further illustrate the awesomeness, may I suggest replacing the ex- in experience with a single x, long known to represent the uber-cool?

The New XBOX 360 XPERIENCE!!!

Gann

@Kevin Doyle: Yes it will save time. Nothing like texture popins and framerate drops, etc. It will make for a better gaming experience.

BostonPimpDaddy2

@That One Guy..: "then what's to stop someone writing a piece of code, burned onto a disc, to trick the Xbox into thinking it IS in the drive.."

The same thing that stops someone from just burning a whole game onto a disc to make the Xbox think that a whole game is in the drive: copy protection.

Anyway, I think it's a cool feature. Someone made a good point about texture pop-in... I get it frequently on GTA:IV. Maybe this would help? I don't have much on my HD anyway, so I wouldn't mind it taking up the space so much.

Brian

KStrike155

MS needs to drop their HD prices. We could definitely use a refresh on the HD size too.
Hey, MS, QUIET THAT DVD TURBINE!!!

SigmundTheSeaMonster

People, you are missing a huge point (that Msoft probably wants you to miss).
They are most likely doing this because multi-dvd 360 games are almost here - by installing you avoid the dreaded disc swap.

I'm both cool and pissed at this situation.
You can blame Msoft for not including a next-gen optical drive in the 360, but at the time the future of both formats was a gamble. If they put an HD-DVD drive in the 360 they'd be f'ed now because all the disc duplication plants went tits-up.

If Msoft is really going to use hdd installs to remedy the multi-dvd-game issue they really need to either dramatically lower the hdd prices, or LET US USE OUR OWN DRIVES. It's really not that hard - sell a shell that we can put any 2.5 sata drive into. Sony lets you do this, why can't Msoft?

pete

Yeah, I second the comments on Mass Effect. I played like 3 hours before the texture pop-in and elevator loading convinced me to wait until this update. I mean come on, there's an elevator in your ship? I'll probably have a much better time once the game works better.

Ajax

@Sexpun Tocome: I would say about a week after launch of this and someone will figure out a cd crack for it.

Mr.SithNinja

@Mr.SithNinja:
sad but true :(

pete

@pete: Microsoft loves money way too much to let people use their own storage. How else do you explain a 120GB hdd for $180, or even a "g" WiFi adapter for $99 (the same model and price since launch)??

Mr.SithNinja

even just having a 20 gig I will put a few games on there.

Especially Ninja Gaiden 2. Damn boss battles making me sit there and reload the same damn scene over and over! Arrgggh!

yashichi8bit

@pete:

All together now: "AND THAT'S WHY BLU RAY IS BETTER"

and responding to your third paragraph: because that's why sony's better

the.schimmi

@Sexpun Tocome:

you still have to put the disc in to prove that you own it

the.schimmi

damn the 360 is loud so there is a plus one for sony onother is that the biggest hardrive you can get is 120gb plus2 for sony. lastly they are still using dvds so using 10 discs for ff13 is gonna be a pain in the ass plaus 3 for sony.

thegriefer

Sucky games compared to the 360......minus 100 for Sony...

davin8r

it appears to me from watching the video that you have to have the disk in to play the game?? whats the point of saving it on your hard drive if you have to insert the disk to play it??

that_guy123