According to Sony itself, the X1X has a MASSIVE advantage over PS4 Pro everyone is overlooking

Remember when the Xbox 360 launched back in 2005? One of the main charges Sony had against it was that it wasn't next gen because it didn't have a next gen storage drive. Sony said 360 was last gen because it used DVDs and the PS3 would be true next gen using Blu-ray.

Xbox 360 launched in 2005 for $399. The PS3 launched one year later in 2006 for $599. What you got for that extra $200 is a Blu-ray drive. The PS3 was not more powerful than the 360 even though it released one full year later. In fact, in a lot of ways it was less powerful. Evidence of that was most multiplats were inferior on the PS3 even late in it's life cycle.

Sony argued vigorously how important the Blu-ray drive was to make the system more powerful and true next gen vs the outdated and "last gen" DVD in the 360. Cows on this site argued endlessly about how it's impossible for the 360 to match the PS3 due to 360 using DVDs.

Let's fast forward to current gen. The PS4 Pro released and uses a last gen Blu-ray drive. The X1X will be launching later this year and will have a 4K Blu-ray drive.

Why isn't anyone touting this massive advantage that caused Sony to justify the PS3's massive price point of $599 AND THE SAME POWER AS THE YEAR EARLIER 360 but it was next gen only because of the Blu-ray drive? Well, where is the same proclamation now that the situation is reversed?

I mean the X1X only costs $100 more than the PS4 Pro and has a next gen 4K Blu-ray drive, 2 extra teraflops of GPU power, 4 extra gigabytes of GDDR5 RAM and over 100 GB/s extra memory bandwidth. If the PS3 offered a better value at $599, then why isn't this entire forum jumping up in the air with joy at the value the X1X provides? Especially the same cows that were making these arguments last gen.

For the record, last gen I repeatedly stated that anyone who thinks any console is more powerful than another due to only the disk drive they use is a moron.

I dont know anybody that buys 4K bluray movies

Someone should ask MS if they are going to make Special Edition Games on UHD disks with all of the 4K Textures on disk so that XB1X users don't have to DL a 50 Gig update for every game. They could make these SE disks compatible with both XB1X and XB1S. XB1S users won't be able to use the 4K assets but if they ever upgrade to XB1X their SE disk would have the assets on disk.

Because people were still buying discs and streaming wasn't big last gen. 4k bluray won't be as big as the jump from dvd to bluray

when blu ray was new i bet most still bought DVD as well

ROFL is is the year 2000? Who buys movies in physical format any more?

The argument back then was that Blu-rays were better for GAMES. I didn't even factor the movie argument from back then.

According to Sony itself. Yeah something Sony said over a decade ago.

It was bullshit back then too.

Physical media was much more relevant then than it is today. Many people bought a PS3 as a Bluray player. The sales of physical media like Blurays were way higher then than now so it made much more sense then than now.

Fast food just overtook sit-down restaurants.

People dont give a shit about quality, they want easy.

4K streaming will probably be bigger than 4K br sales.

Enjoy your trash quality stream movies / digital downloads.

lol what a comparison.

Stop hiding behind blu-ray movies. I'm talking about Blu-Ray games, not movies.

I prefer my media on physical format so the 4K UHD blu-ray player on the Xbox One X is a very big plus for me.

yeah...sony talked a lot of crap back at the PS3s launch. rumble was a last gen feature. Blu-ray is what makes the PS3 a next gen (at the time) console. the PS3 was going to replace your PC. in fairness they have learned their lesson and have generally talked sense this gen.

i take it X1 games will continue to come on standard blu-ray discs. not UHD discs. i dont think the original model can read UHD discs and it would be a bit mad to release a game on 2 different disc types.

What's the advantage of 4K bluray over regular blu ray? Is there more storage? Because that was the only advantage of Blu Ray last gen.

Yeah no SMH, games on physical discs aren't even really games anymore, it's basically just a digital download on disk that says you own the game. So the storage size is pretty irrelevant, what ever doesn't fit on the disk can just be downloaded when the game install happens.

I doubt I'd really care that much for a UHD Blu ray drive cause I'd only purchase a few movies that would utilize it and it is nice to have. At this point the actual price of the drive is just easier to include to justify the price because removing it and having no drive at all wouldn't make X1X $399. Plus you don't have to listen to the "collectors" whine that they prefer physical and would never purchase a console without a disk drive in it. Less head ache all around.

Aren't all games downloaded to the harddrive this gen? It wouldn't matter what disk they use then. Maybe you should have thought this through.

Even worse, physical media is getting even less relevant for games than for movies. So yes, a mostly irrelevant feature. Microsoft should have left it out to lower the price.

Thread backfire!!

Power is important, but if you asking people to drop another 500$ towards a console, you better have a strong first party line up. Microsoft unfortunately does not and that probably will be the sole reason it don't sell as good as should at release.

I do, but I'm a big film buff who loves commentary tracks and making-of features.

Difference is bluray was used for games on PS3. Eradicated multiple disc, was just too bad PS3 bluray drive had a slow read speed.

@Xplode_games: games please anything I can't play on my Xbox one or Xbox one s

Cause I can name a few games ps3 had at launch I couldnt play on ps2 such as ridge racer 7 resistance mgs4

I have some blu-rays I own and 4K movies as well. I'm swapping out my Xbox One S and picking up an Oppo...lol. Netflix and other subscription services only offer so much in terms of movies for me. I enjoying buying physical copies of movies that I know I'll rewatch again in the future; favorite movies.

Hmm heres your reason why MS wasted money on their 4k drive lol. Next time you should educate yourself before making a thread that makes you look clueless.

Film and TV ​streaming and downloads overtake DVD sales
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/jan/05/film-and-tv-streaming-and-downloads-overtake-dvd-sales-for-first-time-netflix-amazon-uk




Blu-Ray Struggles in the Streaming Age

http://fortune.com/2016/01/08/blu-ray-struggles-in-the-streaming-age/

4k bluray already dead, thanks to Streaming services

https://www.engadget.com/2016/01/20/4k-bluray-already-dead/

Falling DVD & Blu-ray Sales, and an Era Passing

http://www.denofgeek.com/us/movies/blu-ray/263154/falling-dvd-blu-ray-sales-and-an-era-passing

@Xplode_games:

Blu-ray was a NEW format back then against HD-DVD. Technology was expensive back then and that's the reason why PS3 was so expensive at launch. UHD format is just upgraded Blu-ray technology.

well, I don't think the push to 4k and 4k ultra HD blu ray is all that significant at the moment

Also, wasn't the PS3 the cheapest (or at least one of) BluRay players when it released? Don't think that holds true for the Scorpio and 4k bluray

Storage space is great and all, but with streaming and digital downloads gaining more and more prominence, storage space for units isnt as important as one might think it is. As a PC gamer, I havent really noticed my games growing much in size the past decade or so.

I do. Ever hear of blu-ray.com, AVS forum, pretty damn active communities over there. People invest in home theater setups and they want better than a spotty stream with latency and compression artifacts.

Some people got into the 3d stuff. Some people just like getting the standard HD blu rays, others like myself want to stay on the cutting edge of home video and buy the new 4k blu rays.

Streaming quality even with good internet is an unreliable and erratic way to watch a film. If you don't buy the streaming version, Netflix or Hulu or Amazon can it away at any time.

If you do buy it, it can be stuck within a particular site's or service's ecosytem and is not the same level of ownership as owning a physical disc you can playback in any compatible device.

Nevermind the fact that 9 times out of 10, a streaming 1080p movie will simply not have the bitrate of a blu ray disc, and the 4k streams will not have the quality of a 4k disc.

Then there's surround sound mixes, special features, and commentaries. Some people are into collectible packaging such as buying steelbook blu rays. You think the studios would still be releasing new movies on disc, as well as older movies, as old as 70+ years ago, if they weren't making revenue?

I know there are some general trends in physical media decline, but do you have credible figures to support your first point regarding sales then and now?

Easy to make the point that much fewer people even had HDTVs in 2006, Blu rays were just coming out. It was just in 2015 that HDTVs have reached 65% saturation levels, and there's now 1000x more Blu ray content than in the format's early years. Also if you follow the format, you should know many early blu ray releases were botch jobs that were later redone and rereleased as recently as the past 2-4 years.

And the initial prices of blu rays and standalone players was way high back then. These days you can grab tons of titles for 15 and under, it's a hell of a lot better to be into blu rays now than it was then. Some may have moved on to streaming a lot but the value propositions are all there as I described.

I think the big writing on the wall takeaway from the general point of this post, is, if and when MS/Sony start releasing games on UHD blu rays which have that greater capacity, is when we can really start to see bigger games with much more content. MS is in a position with the X1X where they could test the waters before Sony releases a PS5, but I don't know for sure still if they will release some X1X exclusives, where the X1 version would still be on a regular blu ray.

They could still maintain their no XB1X exclusives policy and do this, by releasing the same game for both systems, but the 1X version comes on a UHD and has greater content...this would push people to upgrade beyond just resolution and visual/performance increases.

@Xplode_games: X1X is a good value (I don't give a single **** about a 4k blu-ray player though). If I didn't have a PC I would be all over it. It's kind of pointless to own a PC and Xbox console at this point though.

If one doesn't want the higher rendering abilities of the X, the XB1S is one of, if not the most affordable 4k player on the market, so you could compare it to the PS3 in that way as PS3 was a cheaper blu ray player, except it was also 599.

The DVD library in 1998, as well as the blu ray selection of 2006 were both so ROBUST.

Oh wait, they weren't.

I actually did a year 1 comparison for myself a few weeks back, comparing blu ray output year 1 to UHD releases year 1, and UHD had more releases.

UHD BR's have only been releasing a little over a year. Every major theatrical movie is getting such a release, and catalog releases are slowly making their way out.

I can see the format really building up over the next 5+ years as Blu ray and DVD before it, did.

except the thread is about the X1X

Games will still release on same Blurry discs to not complicate vanilla XB1 compatibility, 4K assets I imagine will come via downloaded updates. As a digital purchaser, disc format doesn't concern me, many games these days are too large for a Blurry disc once they get updates. It will be nice to have this for movies though.

People who want the best quality.

@Xplode_games: I don't know if it matters as much, cause I don't think developers will be using 4K Blu-Ray disc for their games. Does 4K Blu-Ray disc have more storage space? I think the XB1X is more expensive because of the extra memory, better GPU, liquid cooling system and a bunch of other things. The 4K Blu-Ray probably added another $40-50 to the system I think. Micorosoft is probably going to lose $50-$100 on each system I bet, but by the end of next year then will be even.

@Juub1990: I do sometimes, but usually for collectors stuff/clever packaging, etc.

I bet a lot others mentioned this but it is actually very smart decision from Sony.

Sony is thinking ahead, and they are supporting streaming. Streaming is the future, as was blu ray the future back then.

It also helps to keep the console price down.

Good thing Sony isn't still living in 2006 like the OP. A lot has changed in the 11 years since PS3 launched. For one, physical media isn't a thing anymore, most people stream. Bluray sales have fallen off a cliff in the past couple of years. Having a UHD player won't benefit the X1X, outside of a few diehard enthusiasts most people don't give a shit. Devs are also not going to switch from putting their games on standard blurays to UHD blurays as that will cause compatibility issues with the standard Xbone.

Because you didn't have HDD installs, smartphones, or streaming as viable options. Having a BD drive doubled the PS3 as a multimedia device when HD adoption was hitting its stride. 4K adoption will rise but physical media doesn't provide the same lift given the alternatives.

For me, any kind of blu-ray is pretty pointless because the selection is so poor, plus I'm not a collector. Only about 1 in 50 blockbuster films are any good, and going to the cinema is by far the best way to watch them. High quality streaming is perfect for everything else if you have half decent internet.

Unfortunately like a lot of Microsoft products, their 4k uhd player is a piece of shit that doesn't play every 4k disc available. MS SUCKS with hardware. They can have as many promo shots of their jaguar CPU covering major nelson's butthole as they want, but it won't change the fact that for all of its "features" a portion of them will be half baked.

For the record the Xbox one s does not do HDR properly on a lg oled C7. Its garbage.

It's nice, but I don't think it's some huge advantage.

I don't even buy physical video games in most cases let alone movies and such... Im Cool with Content being zeros and ones coupled with a purchased license.

People bought the PS3 because of the Bluray player in 2006, before HD streaming and Netflix. Today far fewer people care about physical media ownership anymore. And you can't tell me plastic disc storage matters at all when games are mostly downloaded even if you pop a disc in.

Anyway, the assumption that Bluray would somehow lead to enhanced game content was flat wrong, and getting ahead of itself as we now see.

Yeah lets ignore that there was a $500 PS3 that was $50 more than a 360 with xbox live.

Oh and according to lemmings blu-ray and 1080p wasn't need it.