A perfect PS3 storm: Blu-ray hotness and Xbox supply issues

[Daniel ~]

Written by Daniel
Saturday, 16 February 2008

A perfect PS3 storm: Blu-ray hotness and Xbox supply issues

By Ben Kuchera | Published: February 15, 2008 - 11:30AM CT
ARS Tecnica

The monthly NPD Group console sales numbers usually tell the same old story. Nintendo does awesome, there is a sharp drop in sales of the Xbox 360, and the PS3 is always at the bottom of the list. Well, the numbers for January are in...

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[danrok]

Actually, most stores appear have plenty of Microsoft systems in stock, the problem is they seem to be almost exclusively the Arcade model, which lacks a hard drive.

I think MS have messed up with this "arcade" model. They've produced a cut-down version, just so that they have something around the same price as a Wii.

But, few people want a crappy cut-down version of the Xbox 360.

The Wii on the other hand is not a cut-down version, they're all the same. You're not going to buy one and feel you're missing out.

[Gizmo]

Another issue with the XBox360 'arcade' model is that I rather suspect game developers have been operating on the idea that the XBox360 would have SOME hard-drive storage. I don't know if this was a hard requirement of the dev guidelines of the hardware or not, but I've got to suspect there are going to be at least SOME games out there for the XBox360 that won't work on the 'arcade' model precisely because it doesn't have the hard drive.

[danrok]

I think a HD is needed for online play?

[Aedan]

No, the HD is not required for online play (At least, it wasn't when I last checked). Developers were supposed to assume that there was limited mass storage attached to the device (IE, a memory card) from what I can remember.

However, you can't really use the XBox Live Marketplace without something larger than a memory card, which rather kills one of MS's favoured ideas for the system.

[danrok]

Some games won't work online, unless they have a HD:
http://arstechnica.com/journals/thum...or-online-play

[Aedan]

Bit concerning that it's not mentioned on the packaging then!

[danrok]

I think it may be on the box, but you won't see that if buying online.

[Aedan]

I couldn't find it on EA's web site, without explicitly searching their tech support either.