Online distribution is “right horse” to back, says Xbox Europe boss

Again, he’s stupidly optimistic on the time scales for this. It’s just not feasible to deliver all modern-sized games in a networky fashion. Do I want to download 30gigs of PS3 game, or do I want to just click a button and have someone send it to me on a disc in the post?

Until broadband is *very* much better and consoles have a much, much larger on-board storage device, online distribution of console games is going to be confined to smaller, simpler games. Like it is now.

Agreed.

I reckon all this is code for “there’s no drive in the next console”.

This generation we took away your hard drive! Next generation… your disc drive! The generation after that… no joypads! Ha!

Yep, totally with Blerk here. Broadband needs to be much faster and consoles need much more space. Even then, you’ll still get loads of people that like to own something physical to show for their purchase. I can’t see discs completely disappearing for a while yet.

Let’s hope this ’12-18 months’ isn’t a sign as to when MS are considering making their next console.

I think he’s still sore about those scratched Halo 3 discs.

When MS release some of their big games (Halo, GoW2, Fable 2, Ninja Gaiden 2, Something Else 2) as a full downloadable game then I’ll be more inclined to have faith in their sentiment.

Considering this comment comes along with badmouthing Sony – who’ve shouted less but achieved more with with online releases of high-profile games like WarHawk and GT Prologue – I find his claims questionable.

Yes, it’s quite ironic really – Microsoft are the ones crowing about online distribution on one hand, yet they’re the ones limiting their downloadable games to 512mb because they have a HDD-less console that they have to support.

I suspect if time travel was possible at Redmond they’d have been popping back to beat whoever it was who said “hey, let’s have a ‘core’ 360 for less money!” with a cricket bat.

Whoops, sorry – that’s 150mb, isn’t it? Unless they changed it again.

The standard’s 150Mb, yep. They only allow higher numbers on special occasions.

It’ll be a long time before it’s truly feasible. It’s not just that the distribution methods will have to improve (better broadband speeds), but every console is going to have to come fitted with a behemoth of a hard drive.

It’s not just that certain areas need to have fast internet with a lot of bandwidth, it needs to be something that’s available to the vast majority of people. Many areas of the UK have only JUST got basic broadband for the first time.

Agree. If they focus squarely on digital distribution they’ll alienate not only a large proportion of the UK but a huge chunk of the global population itself. Just look at the reaction to MacBook Air and it’s driveless comedy.

People like to buy games – a physical disk, that is – and then sell them when they’re done. Or buy old second hand ones at a bargain price. All of which is impossible with digital distribution.

Yeah. And that’s why they’re so keen on it, obviously.

Does anyone else see a surprising correlation between this and Michael Bay’s comments a while back?

Pah! That’s what I’ve been saying for the last 12-18 months.

I took it he was talking about video distribution.

Basically he said that MS was pumping money into HD-DVD in the hope that it would fail and that they could fly the flag for digital distrubution.

Which is kind of stupid, but there are parallels.

Neil Thompson certainly has great hair, doesn’t he?

He’s definitely not fucking about on the hair front.

Are we looking at the same hair? It seems thinning to me.

He’s still a handsome devil though. Reclining hairline or not. Could do with some grey on the sides…

I think his hair perfectly befits a man in his position. Understated but full of exuberance, a style that shows calmness under pressure and an adequate level of seriousness while being light-hearted enough to be a real part of the entertainment market. Very well cut.