So with Jim's homepage post of absolute truths and theories I believe in, and my time within the unofficial mIRC room, I wanted to get something off my sexy yet manly chest, just to have you guys tell me to shut up and it'll never happen.. go away with your unoriginal ideas. I really need the flaming, so don't be shy. It's about the 360's potential future:

Problems/thingies with my current experience (And others) with the 360:

- Disc spinning is loud

- I am going to assume for this blog that HD-DVD is going to lose it's fight.

- RROD - Over heating, etc.

- Load times

- Disc scratching

After some screwing around on xbox.com, for the first time, I saw the information about their lame memory cards. They suggest that you take these cards to a local retailer and get updates, news, other BS from their onto your memory card and you can take it home. I know.. I giggled too, but I wonder if they can't expand this idea for something more useful.

What am I talking about? After looking at the above list of issues with 360's, including the HD-DVD format (Again assuming just for this blog that it's going to die) issue... MS has a lot to gain from using digital distros. Think about it...

If we used digital downloads only we wouldn't have some of the issues that annoy us.

- No drives in future xbox's.. more room for other things like cooling, power sources, etc.

- No noise coming from the drive, it annoys me as I am sure it's loud enough to annoy you too.

- The format war would be something to not worry about. The loss of HD-DVD sucks for those of us that have the drive (Like me) but the fact that digital downloads exists wouldn't put MS in that bad of a spot.

- Load times would no longer be the issue. Sure you'll have to take the time to install the game, but it's better then thousands (Not literally) of 5-10 wait periods.

- No disc scratching because there would be no discs at all.

- I am not an engineer or an accountant, but I am thinking that not needing the drive would allocate more of the budget on better cooling (And quieter) than what we have now.


Now before the flaming starts.. and hopefully you read everything I have to make mention of.. you say this isn't feasible. Here's my take:

If we can use the memory cards now to get whatever they are trying to tell us about (Updates, some demos, etc) how hard would it be for them to make one large enough to download a game or two? It could come as part of the system.. attaches and detaches with aerodynamic ease.

What about copy protection? Again they are MS.. how hard would it be for them to put copy protection software on it? It won't be full proof, as nothing is, but they could make it as effective as the discs are now, I'm sure. Then again.. it is MS.

What about the wait for the download? Ah now you got me. Downloading a full game from a Retailer HDD to your memory card is not quicker than actually purchasing it. There's no question about this. Downloading it via an internet retailer would take for-fucking-ever. This is one hurdle I wouldn't exactly know how to jump. To be honest, the only issue I see would be this: When a hot game comes out and everyone tries to get it at once. Aside from that.. a kiosk where a cashier isn't needed (Think self checkout) and the download could happen right there shouldn't take THAT long. Most of us have downloaded from one HDD to another. It's not exactly murderous. Then again.. these kiosks would be from MS... ; )

Benefits or screwing us over: As we all know MS does not let us use extrenal drives for gaming itself, just for movies music, etc. Well.. movies you get from downloading can't go on there either. Either MS will allow extrnal drives to be used, as Sony brilliantly let their customers do, or MS will charge the ass raping prices they do now for their drives. This could either benefit both of us (Consumers and MS) or only benefit them should they choose to screw us.

So that's my unoriginal idea to help Xbox move away from HD-DVD, DVD, and discs altogether. At the same time a lot of their other issues would be resolved using this unoriginal idea. Also this unoriginal idea could be used now.. with the 360s. What do you think Dtoiders?