26th March 2006, 1:51 AM
Right, it's not possible at all and yet it's being done. Gotcha. :D
1.) SD cards can hold a few gigs of info, this is great for retro gaming and even last gen gaming, but not really curent gen. When you think of next gen, it becomes rediculous. However, Revolution uses DVD's, that's about 7, 8 gigs of info. a 50 gig HDD would allow you to download around 10 games depending on their total size. if you run out of room, you delete it, but because the Nintendo network knows that you purchased it, you can d/l again when ever you want 9i-tunes does the same thing). after all, I play games alot, probably more than anyone else on this board and i cant devote myself to more than 5 games at a time anyway until i beat one/get bored of it, so this should be more than enough for most people. By the time you want to d/l a 11th game, one of those 10 are going to be played to death or boring and will need the boot.
2.) using one of the USB ports in the back for an external HDD means that HDD is going to be used ONLY for storing games; Not operating systems and various computer programs. The internal 512 can probably hold every NES game ever made, but if you took all your favorites out of that mix, then add your SNES favorites and even your N64 favorites, i think you'll find 512 to be comfortable. the external HDD would be for people who want d/l the Revolution games or have huge libraries of games and if 50 gigs + 512 MB isn't enough for you - there's 2 USB ports which means you could have two HDD's and of course Nintendo and other third parties can make HDD's up to whatever it is now, like 100 gigs or so - keep in mind the largest game we're talking about is around 8 gigs, that's th largest Revolution game (unless it's a two disk game). The internal 512 for retro gaming and an external for current gen. Makes perfect sense. I'm giving you an example that shows more room than most people would ever want and most of it would go to waste for the majority of gameplayers, but i just want to make it clear that storage is not an issue.
3.) By d/l the games, the developer does not need a publisher, does not need to market commercials or work through an ad agency, does not need to worry about manufacturing, release dates, shortages or anything that goes along with getting a product in to a store. All they would do is upload a game and put some banner ads on Nintendo's network service or have an updated list of released games with games marked as new and whoosh, you've just told ALL your potentiol market about your product; You could never even hope for that in magazine, print ads TV commercials, radio etc. And that entire business can now be handled by one guy and cost millions upon millions of dollars less and be thousands of times more fruitful.
4.) people say "d/l isn't the same, people want to OWN the actual DISK!" and to those people, i laugh very hard and point to MP3's, emulators, ROMS. etc. People love their MP3 collections and organize them, baby them, make sure their bitrates are high and their title is correct, putting them in folders arranged by artist, band, composer, or even mood or based on the day of the week. And all MP3's are is a line of text telling you what it is and an icon that tells you what program plays it. People will not 'want' the actual disk more than d/l them. Unless of course there are benefits to owning the disk; with mp3's you get better quality sample rates and art work, lyrics and the like. With owning the actual games and systems as opposed to ROMs you get a smoother experience and the specialized controller made for that system, both of these ideas are non-issues with d/l games to a console which can even include special art, wallpapers, avatars, sound bytes - whatever you want and the quality will be the same as if you are playing the real disk.
like it or not, believe or not, this is the shape of things to come. While PS3 and 360 have an obvious disadvantage with having 50 gig games if they release a 50 gig HDD with their system they can participate in the new market. Logic tells me that if the market is viable, they will cater to its demands and release larger storage devices, allowing users to d/l two or three PS3/360 games (though i dont see Sony going this route, they are after all trying very hard to push Blu-Ray).
Right now, at this very second, you can buy games online that you cant buy in stores - games that will never be in stores, yet recieve critical acclaim and are deemed as must-plays. At this very moment, developers are planning future titles to release in the next 6 months, larger games with more graphical prowess or deeper gameplay in a myriad of genres that again, will only be available for download over a network and nowhere else. It's only a matter of time before all video games go this route. The same ccan be said about films, where DVD players have the same type of i-tunes setup. But the real test is going to be if the companies who make the actual disks will want this evolution to happen, or will they get bitter and demand that we stay with their ideals.
1.) SD cards can hold a few gigs of info, this is great for retro gaming and even last gen gaming, but not really curent gen. When you think of next gen, it becomes rediculous. However, Revolution uses DVD's, that's about 7, 8 gigs of info. a 50 gig HDD would allow you to download around 10 games depending on their total size. if you run out of room, you delete it, but because the Nintendo network knows that you purchased it, you can d/l again when ever you want 9i-tunes does the same thing). after all, I play games alot, probably more than anyone else on this board and i cant devote myself to more than 5 games at a time anyway until i beat one/get bored of it, so this should be more than enough for most people. By the time you want to d/l a 11th game, one of those 10 are going to be played to death or boring and will need the boot.
2.) using one of the USB ports in the back for an external HDD means that HDD is going to be used ONLY for storing games; Not operating systems and various computer programs. The internal 512 can probably hold every NES game ever made, but if you took all your favorites out of that mix, then add your SNES favorites and even your N64 favorites, i think you'll find 512 to be comfortable. the external HDD would be for people who want d/l the Revolution games or have huge libraries of games and if 50 gigs + 512 MB isn't enough for you - there's 2 USB ports which means you could have two HDD's and of course Nintendo and other third parties can make HDD's up to whatever it is now, like 100 gigs or so - keep in mind the largest game we're talking about is around 8 gigs, that's th largest Revolution game (unless it's a two disk game). The internal 512 for retro gaming and an external for current gen. Makes perfect sense. I'm giving you an example that shows more room than most people would ever want and most of it would go to waste for the majority of gameplayers, but i just want to make it clear that storage is not an issue.
3.) By d/l the games, the developer does not need a publisher, does not need to market commercials or work through an ad agency, does not need to worry about manufacturing, release dates, shortages or anything that goes along with getting a product in to a store. All they would do is upload a game and put some banner ads on Nintendo's network service or have an updated list of released games with games marked as new and whoosh, you've just told ALL your potentiol market about your product; You could never even hope for that in magazine, print ads TV commercials, radio etc. And that entire business can now be handled by one guy and cost millions upon millions of dollars less and be thousands of times more fruitful.
4.) people say "d/l isn't the same, people want to OWN the actual DISK!" and to those people, i laugh very hard and point to MP3's, emulators, ROMS. etc. People love their MP3 collections and organize them, baby them, make sure their bitrates are high and their title is correct, putting them in folders arranged by artist, band, composer, or even mood or based on the day of the week. And all MP3's are is a line of text telling you what it is and an icon that tells you what program plays it. People will not 'want' the actual disk more than d/l them. Unless of course there are benefits to owning the disk; with mp3's you get better quality sample rates and art work, lyrics and the like. With owning the actual games and systems as opposed to ROMs you get a smoother experience and the specialized controller made for that system, both of these ideas are non-issues with d/l games to a console which can even include special art, wallpapers, avatars, sound bytes - whatever you want and the quality will be the same as if you are playing the real disk.
like it or not, believe or not, this is the shape of things to come. While PS3 and 360 have an obvious disadvantage with having 50 gig games if they release a 50 gig HDD with their system they can participate in the new market. Logic tells me that if the market is viable, they will cater to its demands and release larger storage devices, allowing users to d/l two or three PS3/360 games (though i dont see Sony going this route, they are after all trying very hard to push Blu-Ray).
Right now, at this very second, you can buy games online that you cant buy in stores - games that will never be in stores, yet recieve critical acclaim and are deemed as must-plays. At this very moment, developers are planning future titles to release in the next 6 months, larger games with more graphical prowess or deeper gameplay in a myriad of genres that again, will only be available for download over a network and nowhere else. It's only a matter of time before all video games go this route. The same ccan be said about films, where DVD players have the same type of i-tunes setup. But the real test is going to be if the companies who make the actual disks will want this evolution to happen, or will they get bitter and demand that we stay with their ideals.