at least with the pc it is optional. I rarely even use my cd/dvd drives anymore and the main reason why i held off buying a blu ray burner. I just Simply don't need it anymore. Backup portable drives and flash drives are the way to go. Especially they are getting bigger yet small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. And also you do realize PC data and console data are two different beast. The reason why game data on the disc for console are huge is that they have to stream on the fly there is no such thing as "extraction" for consoles. PC's in the other hand can be super compressed for easy delivery and once downloaded extract the content and your done. And you do not want precious resources on a console going to decompressing the data on the fly. This will eat up lot of cpu cycles. U want all the resources focused on running the game not unnecessary tasks plus that adds more work for the developers too. Ps3 is already hard as it is already no need to add another unnecessary task. And ultimately the cpu's in these consoles are not really designed for this kind of tasks. A desktop processor in the other hand can handle this and run the game no problems. But decompressing is very unnecessary though just be wasteful for the cpu.
but with steam you can download it on any system. Steam is not tied to your hardware only your account. Sorry but consoles is not ready for this type of setup. People are not going to be quite happy about this. And also i guess people won't be able to watch Movies unless you pay a fee to stream them LOL. yea i see the future now LOL. At least on the PC you can Burn and back up your data. For consoles Optical media is the way to go to deliver HD Content. Especially when the files are Huge. The platform needs to be open in order to handle this type of setup. Which i highly doubt Sony Or MS Especially MS will ever Do. At least PS3 is a bit more open than the 360 but no where near the PC. And you better hope your Hard drive on the next xbox don't crash as it is going to be a big problem gettin all that data back and hopefully MS still has your old games stored at their end. With Steam you can freely back it up no problems.
That might create a problem. And more hardware. They never come out with a system without a optical drive. That means people are going to have to switching back and fourth between the 360 and next gen xbox LOL. Optical drives for consoles is very vital and i highly doubt that is going to get far. Second you have answered your own question and reinforces of what i said. Taking out the drive will be like taking away the gaming experience for consoles. PC's don't have to worry about this as it has many many options. Consoles do not. Good luck with that. Basically its going for the worst setup ever. I don't think the consumer is quite ready to give up retail LOL... Sony even stated that blu ray is going to be around because they want everyone to have the same experience. And to jebbers I can easily enjoy pc gaming kicking back too. I seen setups that works very well. Screw the recliner chair lol. You be amazed how setting up the way its played has improved on the pc. Which really comes down to preference not which one is better than the other.
For the one guy that said "rumors that they will stop selling pc games at retail". Guess what your right.. Apparently Steam is taking its place. So much so that its starting to gain attraction among most gaming companies. In fact they even started to jump on the steam bandwagon. Have a look for yourself. http://store.steampowered.com/ Also not to get confused with EA Store. EA Realized people love steam due to their unlimited downloads once you have bought the game. So no fear of losing your purchased games. Hard drive crashes no problem just download the game again. Lost a 360 or PS3 Game disc???. ummm well your F***ED LOL!!!!!. Haven't your mother told you not to lend games to people that don't take care of their things LOL!!!. Nothing more annoying to get a game back only to have smudges and fingerprints on the disc or worst a Scratch. OMG even EA has put their games up there YES!! i can now Buy Red Alert 3!!! and download this game right away without having to waste any gas going to the store to only fear that it might not be "on stock" Good riddance retail and hello Online PC gaming distribution. PC gaming Dominate The online Space. why not sell Games online. Makes perfect Sense!!. Especially with the ever increasing Bandwith nowadays. My Comcast speed keeps getting faster and faster every 6Months. I get up to 1.2MB/Sec when i download steam games. I have downloaded total of more than 25GB of games already. So don't say "Games are too big to download" because thats has been defeated. Even Fallout 3, Dead Space, Left For Dead, Call of Duty world at war is all on steam. soo many games to choose from. Yup PC gaming is going away and its a sad thing "sarcasm" More like PC Gaming moving away from retail. All i can say is "waves bye to consoler fanboys goodbye.
I don't even buy retail pc's and retail pc games from a retail store. Online distribution is the way to go especially with steam. Sides don't want more plastic discs that collecting dusts anyways. With that said i will not throw in the towel for a console EVER! Furthermore PC gaming does not need no stinking bluray. With optical discs out the way there is no limit other than your hard drive capacity is capable of. I currently have 2 750gb hard drive striped in raid0. To bad you can't do that with your consoles. and must i remind you again that pc gaming is not EXPENSIVE
Its hard to compare to a PC simple fact that the pc hardware is not static. Same goes with the cost. Its really hard to pin point the cost of a pc comparing to a console. PC hardware is so far advanced and readily available that the cost to buy them has drop drastically and possibly to the point a \\\\\\$700 worth of hardware can outperform these consoles IF you did the research correctly and not buying a off the shelf retail pc. Just imagined how powerful a 2k computer will be for 2008 and 2009. More than enough to outperform consoles at least 5x. the Core i7 alone can easily take the on the Cel inside the ps3 and mop the floor with it and still has left over some. Very impressive processor. Brand new spankin cpu architecture. If that wasn't enough a single ATI/AMD 4800 Series graphics card can take on the cel on folding@home no problems. Whats even more amazing it only cost \$240. If you don't believe me see for yourself http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102801 That sports more than enough video ram to crank up the resolutions as high as possible without impacting the frames in games.
You do realize that PC hardware has gotten cheap. You don't really need expensive card to outperform these consoles. PC hardware costs are not static. Heck i am still using my 3870 and i can still play these games max. This card is now 99 bucks. and you don't need the quad extreme either a good decent budget quad core will be more than enough to spank these consoles without leaving a hole in your wallet http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102719 Big difference of what it used to cost to what it costs now. This card used to cost \\$279 now it cost \\$99 and still kicks ass. Furthermore i can easily turn a budget quad core such as the Q6600 2.4ghz into extreme edition by oc up to 3.3ghz lol. I can easily run Fallout3 without problems. Its been 1 year since i ever did a system upgrade when i did this build. My build gave me more performance out of my $. Well worth every penny. Total system cost was 1700. That includes 8gb of ram 2 750gb samsung hard drives striped in raid0. Along with my now overclocked Quad core Q6600
wow very impressive card. People here sure complain way too much. If you don't like it then don't buy it simple as that. Just be happy what you got. I love seeing new Technology coming out. Are you going to buy a newer model of your HD TV right after 6 months when you realized that your hi def is no longer the superior one??. Hope people are not that stupid. This is called decisions. This will only create more competition and mid range cards going much cheaper. Think people. This just sickens me when people can't handle new stuff being released. Whether its a new Hi Def TV, or a new car, or a higher end graphics card than the one you got. And yet you guys get mad at the company for putting something this amazing??.
The good news is that no games will ever utilize this card just yet with the exception of crysis. But even that you can still get away with high quality with a good cheap card. This is just bragging rights for now. And by the time you start seeing games utilizing this card there will be a cheaper version of it or maybe even something better by that time. Best advice is wait for the price to drop and get a 8800gt or 3870 instead. This card is mainly for those super high res monitors. But if you have a 20-22" monitor, Then this card is a overkill. But if you have a monitor thats around 32, then i can see this card being perfect for your 32 monitor.
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