@goochillini: For this to work, you must have the Original game DVD in the DVD-Drive. Much like a key-disk, the game will not play without the DVD.
If your Xbox wont read your current game disc, I doubt it will work as a key disk.

I wonder what this will do to the HD lifespan. Afterall, its only a notebook drive, the DVD did most of the work, caching to the HD,...

Look, If MS would just put in a QUIET DVD drive, I could care less about load times. Gives me a break to pee...grab a beer, see that there is a sun outside...

SigmundTheSeaMonster

How is this piracy people?

You are required to still have the disk in the drive when you play. This is required so Microsoft knows that you aren't downloading the game onto the drive and then selling it (although I don't think any store refunds open-box software).

This feature's only purpose is to decrease load times.

Jon B.

what or how much will the XBOX still need to read from the original disk? i am asking because say if i have a damaged game disk (a scratch and the XBOX won't read) and borrow my buddies copy and install it to the HDD, will i be able to use my damaged disk to still play the game? this would save so much money from having to buy replacement copies.

goochillini

-1 for piracy

Unknown2U

If it works around the dreaded 'Dirty Disc' error I sometimes get on brand new games, I'm all for it.

Denver_80203

How's Oblivion do? I just completed it (the main quest and Shivering Isles, at least), but the load times were starting to get really painful.

kylenalepa

Just get a Samsung DVD-ROM with Kreon 1.0 Update and Rip it and copy it to a Dual layer.

G23inIT

@djheath: I wanna know where you return your games. No store accepts opened software, that I know of.

Xaldian

@FlashSandbox: You still need the game in the DVD drive.

y2julio

The only benefit i see with this ability is the elimination of DVD drive noise, which is the primary cause of loud XBOX's. And for that reason alone, this will be the best feature of the new update, by far.

I wonder if swapping the slower drive in the 20G or 120G cases with a 7200RPM drive will lead to faster load times (obviously should). I might do it just because the drives are cheap, and i can get a 20G shell for really cheap. Installing a drive in it is painless. Just copy a good image of an existing drive to your PC, and write that image to your new drive. I dont think it even matters the brand of drive you have, as long as the original image is stored on it.

diabolusunknownTheSecond

@djheath: To extend that... Person A buys 10 games, rips 'em, returns 'em. Person A makes an image of his XBOX drive and puts it on the web. Person B downloads the image and 'installs' it on his XBOX.

Sounds like a piracy dream.

FlashSandbox

@djheath: Nope, you need to have the disc in the drive anyway to prove you own the disc and didn't steal it. Sorry.

ViewtifulJason

So, will this mean we can buy games, copy them to hard drive, then take games back to the stores for a refund, yet still play the game stored on the hard drive?

Sound great to me!

Now, someone needs to hack using a NAS disk as storage!

djheath

@adifferent_hero: Likely true. But didn't MS release some patches to prevent them from going on LIVE? Cat and mouse...

@goochillini: Hmmm, I don't have an answer, as I don't know WHAT sector/policy the authorization will perform (a sector confirmation, a key, a file(s)...). If it needs to scan the disc and gets a read error...have you tried your discs on other 360's? Curious...is the media physically scratched? A dirty optical could be a problem, or head alignement...

@Jon B.: It's piracy if you copy games to sell, yes? (loading up a drive with titles and then selling the drive). I'm sure that the idea of getting a reader than will allow burning of titles (as backup) to then load on the HD, with re-mastered duped DVDs of the games...well, the idea of just renting or borrowing...it kinda blossoms into piracy. And then there is the DRM and DCMA violations...

I'm on the fence to this idea...intriguing!

SigmundTheSeaMonster

@SigmundTheSeaMonster: i can start the game, load my save file, and then a few minutes after i get the "disk is unreadable message". that is why i wasn't sure how much it needed to read from the original disk.

goochillini

@SigmundTheSeaMonster: I'm sure someone will make a modchip to bypass that security feature

adifferent_hero

This is more about skirting the storage issues of DVDs than anything else. I think soon we'll be seeing many, many multi-disc games for the 360, and this is Msoft's way of minimizing the impact.
Even though including a Blu-Ray drive in the PS3 cost Sony a lot more than just money, you can't deny that having 50gig discs is very attractive feature.

pete

I would like to know which games have taken advantage of the double, triple or quad write method of the ps3 so far as I have researched it is only something that has been considered with no one actually having used it yet hence installed games to the ps3. GTA4 could have used it with a bd50 but it still just installed to the hd.

lilaliendog

I really hope the next gen systems allow for full downloadable games on the HD. After modding my Xbox1, PS2, and having Marketplace and WiiWare on the current systems I *HATE* having to get up to swap a silly dvd whenever I want to play a different game.

You haven't lived until you've had your whole library of games on your console's hard drive.

azzy

A bit ironic, as this feature shows up just when Microsoft is making a big push for the Arcade system, which doesn't have a hard drive, unless you buy the completely overpriced accesso....oh, I get it :D

dogcow

nope. you gotta have the disc in the drive. they have posted that before.

meamgood

I give it about a week after the launch of this before there is a "No Disc" hack comes out that you would burn onto a DVD-R to allow you to play w/o the OG disc.

Mr.SithNinja

@WEGGLES90: Pfft. Thats a tip that should be reserved for Lifehacker :P

Vindicoth

@goochillini:

Do what I did, I go to Wal Mart, ad say I bought this game a couple days ago, but lost the recipt, could I exchange for a new copy. 9 times out of 10 I get a new one. :)

WEGGLES90

has anyone ever had some serious action on there xbox like a huge explosion on cod4 and the screen gets all fuzzy like trying to watch a local channel with no antenna?? my xbox has been doing that recently and the only way to fix it is retstart it, i replaced the hdmi cable and it did it once more but hasnt done it yet again i have a warranty for my 360 ill probably just replace the whole thing remotes headset etc

bong149

maybe they will come out with a mod so you can rent a game, save it to hd, and then be able to play it without a disk

bong149

I hope it will fix some of the texture pop-in issues with games like Oblivion and Mass Effect. I want my Fallout 3 experience to be a thing of beauty. (No, I won't "just get the PC version," that would require buying a new PC.)

That said, my 360 RRODed last night while trying to get online with Castle Crashers. I'm hoping that it will have magically fixed itself when I get home today.

Numerous

@Flash Sandbox
You can just do that with current xbox360

Zomb

Imaging the HDD won't get you anywhere due to the security sector being customized for the drive. Some tools let you fake that, but you can get caught and banned from LIVE.

geowrian

@Xaldian:
Gamestop, EB Games. If you don't like it you can return it within X days for something else. But you can only do that once or twice per initial purchase. After that you are stuck with what you have.

JEmlay

The biggest issue with this is that even the Elite Xbox will hardly have space for a couple full titles to be installed from disk.

The first game I want to try installing is Oblivion. The load times for some areas in that game are horrendous.

michaelportent

@michaelportent

The elite comes with a 120GB hard drive, assuming that you get ~102GB usable out of it. You could store 12 full 8.54GB titles (usable space of a dual-layer single sided DVD).

I personally do not have a rotation of 12 games that I'm constantly playing (neither does probably 95% of the population), so the Elite I'd say it does give me a significant advantage, now if you have a lowly 20GB drive, you can really only have 1-2 games on drive.

InsaneGeek

Reducing game loading times is good and all. What I'm excited about it not having the disk constantly spinning at 50db. Its gonna be nice to hear where the baddies are coming from in my surround sound for a change.

amreason

I'm one of those poor people that can't afford a $128.88 (WalMart)20gb hard drive so I'm stuck with a 256mb media card.

It's all pretty much pointless for me to get the update to install games, unless MS GETS THEIR HEADS OUTTA THEIR ASS AND LET US USE 3RD PARTY HARD DRIVES AND FLASH MEDIA.

Anyone got a cheap 360 HDD they wanna sell me? :D

RockerX

I want to know if I can copy the discs for xbla games (popcap games, etc.) and whether those require the same sort of validation or not.

h0mi

No, you have to have the game in the Drive what this does is provides faster load times and prevents your system from spinning the disk to limit the fan usage to try and prevent the inevitable "Red Rings of Death."

livE3vil

I still on occasion get a message when playing on Xbox Live saying that my disc is unreadable and needs to be wiped with a clean cloth. (ugh, I hate that message...) So at least with regards to that, loading the game from the hard drive will prevent the error from appearing, not to mention a longer disc survival capacity thanks to not scratching it over and over when putting it in and pulling it out so often.

DaiWalka

@bong149: Sorry, that's your GPU dying. I had the same problem on two 360s. My current one has done it twice in 5 months, so I hope it doesn't get worse.

My friend says that the load times on Mercs 2 are horrible. He's hoping that copying to the HDD makes it more bearable. Guess he's out of luck.

Enochrewt

@pete:

It isn't though. Just like how Sony made a hug mistake with the PS2 by gimping the video memory they made a mistake with BluRay since the drive suffers from horrible transfer speeds. You can't make a drive with 5+ times the storage of your competitor but have it have a much slower transfer rate. This is exacerbated since that space is, very often, not used for longer games but lower compressed textures. The net result is that you need constantly need more data but it takes much longer to get it. The result is having to do lengthy, and the case of MGS segmented, installs which totally eliminate most of the advantages over disk swapping.

juriko

YES!!!
I remember when I was playing Demos on the 360 and I thought it was quiet.

Then I played my first retail game.
no so quiet.

gothamdarkknight

With all of the direct to drive technology available I'm surprised we're even buying physical copies of games anymore. Attach product keys to xbox live accounts and let people download whatever games they want. As long as the account has a product key for the game it can run, otherwise it won't load. Account can only be logged in one place at a time so they purchased game isn't copied/pirated and is only being used by one person at a time. The system wouldn't be perfect by any means, but at least game companies would save a ton of money on production costs and shipping.

fate.evermore

@fate.evermore:
Are you insane!?!?!?!?! Do you have any clue what the resulting bandwidth would cost them? What you propose is a major nightmare. The release of a game such a Halo3 would bring anyone's servers to it knees.

No way, what you prose is not possible. Heavenly sword had 10GB in audio alone. The release of Vista RC1 killed MS as it was.

JEmlay