Any hope of playing 360 games without disc in drive?

[whooleytoo]

Has there been any sign/speculation of Microsoft updating the 360 such that you can run games from the hard drive without the game disc in the drive?

Obviously piracy would be a concern, but perhaps they could try a Steam-esque model, so you can't simply install the game and pass the game onto others who do likewise?

The 360 would offer such a better experience if you could just start it up and select which game you want to play, rather than getting up and switching discs.

 

[-SD-]

There's no way they'd ever allow that. Far too many complications to make it worthwhile.

I assume you can do it with a console that's JTAG hacked, but then you can't go online.

 

[whooleytoo]

That's such a pity.

There's not a huge point in being able to install games onto the hard drive then, IMO - if you play different games. The time you gain in faster loading is lost several times over in getting up, finding the disc, swapping them in the console, starting the new game and going back to your seat.

Surely they could offer some network-based game-id check? Sure, that could possibly be hacked, but then so can any other kind of DRM. The point of it is only to deter casual piracy, not hardcore hacking.

 

[gkarris]

My understanding is that the XB360 does load the game onto the hard drive if it is big enough - but you still need the disc in the machine to authenticate the fact you own it....

 

[-SD-]

Stick to buying games from Live, then they'll be on the HDD anyway Having the disc in the drive really is the easiest way for M$ to determine if that game is actually still in your possession though. I know it sort of defeats the whole purpose of loading the game on the HDD, but they have to protect the interests of all parties involved.

It's very simple to enable a Wii to load games from a USB HDD though....

 

[foiden]

Actually. It doesn't defeat the whole purpose. There's a couple of purposes for it, actually. The first is decreased load times (for most games). The second is less wear and tear on the disk drive. There's also the added benefit of less heat generated as well.

 

[whooleytoo]

Actually. It doesn't defeat the whole purpose. There's a couple of purposes for it, actually. The first is decreased load times (for most games). The second is less wear and tear on the disk drive. There's also the added benefit of less heat generated as well.

The improvement in load-times is welcome, but not huge. And the longest load-time (launching the game) is less impressive if you have to get up to swap the game disk at the start.

You're probably 100% spot-on about wear & tear - the DVD drive on my original 360 failed too. Looking through online reports, I did notice a lot of the drive failures happened in big, open-world games (Crackdown, GTA4, Oblivion); all of which have one thing in common, they're constantly loading as the player is moving around the level which means constant use while the game is being played.

Still, I can dream. It'd be great if the 360 (or PS3!) could do for home consoles what the iPod did for music collections - the ability to have your entire library available on the hard drive and be able to start up the console and select which to play. Copy protection could be handled by a network check of a serial code, rather than check if the disk is in the drive. Wishful thinking, I guess.

 

[Miharu]

Don't forget the Xbox makes about 50% less noise when playing a game from hard drive

 

[Sambo110]

Then you couldn't rent games and the pre-owned market would die, which is how game shops make their money. WAY too much to think about to do it mid-console life, it would have to be planned from the beginning.

 

[alukado]

Once you moded the xbox360 you can do that , just check http://xbox-scene.com

 

[MrBackpack]

Stick to buying games from Live, then they'll be on the HDD anyway Having the disc in the drive really is the easiest way for M$ to determine if that game is actually still in your possession though. I know it sort of defeats the whole purpose of loading the game on the HDD, but they have to protect the interests of all parties involved.

It's very simple to enable a Wii to load games from a USB HDD though....

This is true, but the problem comes in that if you're even in an area without internet or haven't set up internet in a new home, then you can't play the games that you've purchased from Live.

To play any "Game on Demand" you have to be connected to Live

 

[whooleytoo]

Then you couldn't rent games and the pre-owned market would die, which is how game shops make their money. WAY too much to think about to do it mid-console life, it would have to be planned from the beginning.

Not necessarily. You could give gamers the option:

- You can play games off the DVD.
- You can play off the hard drive, with a DVD-check.
- You can play off the hard drive, with a network-check.

Rented/pre-owned games could still be played via the first two options. And - if needed - they could provide a way of transferring game ownership from one XBL account or unique console to another - like they currently allow you to transfer DLC content from one console to another.

A bit of work? Sure. But then consoles have changed more throughout this generation than in any previous one. It would be a massive feature to add, IMO.