I came home to see a very interesting article on N4G today. The topic: “MS: Who Needs Blu-Ray?” The title alone was a shock to me, given that there was the European Blu-Ray Disc Association that was telling Microsoft that they were welcome to join the ranks, and publishers like Capcom, Take Two, and Mercury Stream have expressed concerns about the format that the 360 has right now. According to UK Xbox boss Stephen McGill, in an interview to CVG:
I think people may have spoken about [Xbox's lack of a Blu-ray drive] originally, but that's long gone…I think people now recognise [sic] what a smart decision it was to keep the pricing low, and actually Blu-ray is going to be passed by as a format. People have moved through from DVDs to digital downloads and digital streaming, so we offer full HD 1080p Blu-ray quality streaming instantly, no download, no delay. So, who needs Blu-ray?"
Before I go any further, I want to emphasize that lack of space does not necessarily equal a bad game. We’ve seen that some games CAN and DO get away with being able to only use a set amount of space. However, with that being said, it’s becoming a rare instance where one good game on the 360 can fit on one DVD-9. Take Final Fantasy 13, which while not a great game is one that I think provides a good bit of enjoyment, for instance. It’s on three discs on the 360, and the developers said they had to cut so much out of the game that they could’ve made another game out of what they cut. One must wonder why Square Enix continues to bend over backwards for Microsoft and why they continue to be allowed to get away with it by the media, but I digress.
The outcry from developers and publishers over this should be enough for Microsoft to rethink their position. Sadly, though, it is just the opposite. This goes in turn with their XBOX Live service. People would like it to be free (and why shouldn’t it be), or at least have a model like PSN now. Yet, Microsoft raises the price by 10 bucks without any justification given. Then both Square Enix and Valve both express concerns about the closed nature of Xbox live itself. SE wants people to be able to play FF14 without needing Gold to play, while Valve wants cross-platform multiplayer play. Instead of giving either of the two companies, both of which have been extremely friendly to MS, they stand firm to keep Live the “train wreck” that Valve claimed it was.
And now we have come to this. Again, the Blu Ray debate rears its ugly head, and of course MS is going to be as stubborn as ever, and of course the most rabid of fanboys will condone THIS, too (why?). MS claims that this is because they think the future is digital distribution, but if it is, then why is MS only letting us use the hard drives THEY want us to use for the 360. The PS3 is ten times better in this regard, and will always be until MS stops this stubbornness.
I have a theory, however, as to why MS will not adopt Blu-Ray, and this will sound fanboyish of me, so I do apologize in advance, but please indulge with me for just a moment because I believe it’s worth thinking about. If MS adopts Blu-Ray for the 360, then they would give the keys to multiplatform developers to use the PS3’s full power in this regard. The DVD9 can hold about 9 GBs of info, give or take a few decimal points. Nine times three, the three being the amount of discs that we could assume one developer can use for a game before running into royalty fees, is 27, so 27 GBs of data total for a game dev to use for the 360 without it being a pain in the arse. Compare that to 50GB for a dual-layer PS3 game like MGS4 was. It’s not even a contest. So, in order to make a great multiplatform game that will sell on both platforms, you would need to develop up to 27 GBs of data (again, give or take a few), because if you want to use the full 50GBs that the PS3 gives you and still keep the two versions equal (because we all KNOW MS will bitch if the PS3 version is better than theirs), they would need to pay up. This means that to avoid royalty fees and to please MS, they would need to cut stuff out of BOTH versions. Furthermore, the hardware specs of the 360 could easily handle the DVD9. Now, imagine if they were to adopt Blu-Ray. The full specs for the PS3 would be allowed to be used since all 50GBs can be used. There is no guarantee that the 360 hardware can handle the Blu-Ray format without at least some problems (but please don’t use that as an excuse for why MS is off the hook here, because we don’t know either way), so there could clearly be cases for the PS3 to be the system of choice for multiplatform games, something MS cannot allow to have happen right now since they got little to show out of their first parties (what little of them there ARE, anyway).
So not adopting any other format would incidentally tie developer’s hands up in the details. Because some people still view the 360 as the console of choice for multiplatform games (though the amount of people who still think that are dwindling), developers will be quick to do what MS wants them to do.
In other words, this is another perfect way for MS to screw over the other two game platforms for their own benefit (something in which MS has proven to us by past actions that they have no problem doing).
However, with how Capcom and Take-Two are beginning to show MS that they aren’t too happy about them biting the hand that feeds them (and MS seems all willing to bite many hands, as they have with SE and Valve), and with how EA seems to really like supporting the PS3 over the 360, it seems like MS is starting to side with the minority here, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this would be MS “jumping the shark” (thank you, Sean J. Connolly, for giving us THAT overused, clichéd line, by the way) in the eyes of other devs.
And if my theory is completely false, as I undoubtedly will get from people who won’t like that theory, then please inform me and everyone else just what the reason actually IS. Because I, and so many other gamers, am really sick and tired of this line (or any variation of it). How many more times will we hear the same old same old out of MS when it comes to them providing anything that people are actually asking for. They’ve ignored us when we asked for something else other than Live and Achievements that’s their own innovation, they’ve ignored us when we asked for more first party games and enough with the buying out of DLC and third party exclusives, they’ve ignored us when we asked them to make Live more accessible and more competitive with PSN (face it, folks, it ISN’T competitive with PSN right now, as Live only has a bunch of features that are pretty much useless to the core gamer), and now they’re ignoring us (AGAIN) about adopting SOMETHING to give these developers a bit of a BREAK with creating their games.
Someone on another message board said a line that I will never forget about Blu-Ray about two years ago, and though I believe he was just flame baiting me, I think it’s perfect to bring up for this blog. He said, and I swear I’m not making this up, “Blu-Ray isn’t necessary. Developers are lazy.” I will never know where he came up with that backwards logic or how he came to that conclusion, but perhaps MS seemed to listen to him and not everyone else. Or perhaps they are listening to the most rabid of their fanboys and no one else. I don’t know if my theory is actually correct or not (but seriously, how else can we explain this issue at this point since they seem to be ignoring EVERYONE and ignoring all the evidence that says that Blu-Ray IS necessary). Blu-Ray IS necessary and developers are NOT lazy at ALL for wanting to use a higher capacity format to make a bigger game for all of us to enjoy. Seriously, do you really think a developer WANTS to cut out huge portions of their games? I believe they think that if not wanting to cut stuff out of their games is being “lazy”, then they would rather be the laziest
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