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Molyneux would prefer to have HDD News

Xbox 360 News by Tom Bramwell

21 February, 2008

Peter Molyneux says that while he would prefer to have a hard disk to work with as standard, he believes that backing low-price console hardware is "really important".

"Given the choice, I'd obviously choose a hard drive every day of the week," he told Eurogamer in an interview published today.

"But the balance to that is you're supporting a system which is an awful lot cheaper.

"What I'm trying to address with Fable 2 is say 'Look, anybody can play this game.' That's what I really want. So supporting the cheaper price is really important."

Molyneux's Lionhead Studios was bought by Microsoft in 2006, and is currently working on action-RPG Fable 2, which was given centre stage in Microsoft's GDC keynote.

The game - which is designed to be accessible as well as rewarding for core players - will be among the first to benefit from a shared reward system that allows certain Xbox Live Arcade games to hand out virtual currency that can be spent in the world of Fable 2.

"I think it was my seed of an idea... Was it my idea? I don't know. It was a cumulative effort really," he told Eurogamer when asked about how this came about.

His colleague in the demonstration added that he remembered it as having been Molyneux's idea "to start talking about how we could use the infrastructure".

"Yes, then they went off and designed the games," said Molyneux.

For more on Fable 2, check out our Fable 2 GDC preview, unveiling co-operative play, or for more from Molyneux on other subjects, including the Wii and PC gaming, head through the blue-word doorway for the rest of our Peter Molyneux interview.

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Comments: 1-25 of 25 in total

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bad09
21/02/08 @ 11:52
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It's a difficult one. While the Core 360 alway seemed a waste of time to me as the premium was good value and most consoles have always been released around the £299 mark anyway, there is no doubt that it did (and still does) benefit many people on a tight budget. Indeed as the Wii shows the cheaper your hardware is the bigger your user base gets.
Edited 1 times, most recently on 21/02/08 @ 11:53
TheWretched
21/02/08 @ 11:55
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> actual cost of the hdd is probably so negligible these days.

Yes, but tell this to Microsoft, who wants 100€ for 20GB or 180€ for 120GB

This is where I have to give it to Sony, where you can just put in a 2.5'' SATA drive of your choice and not being forced to pay a premium to do so.
kangarootoo
21/02/08 @ 11:57
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Is this really worth a second article?

Its like its there to cater for readers who don't actually read the articles and need the sentient points handed to them on a platter / fired from a cannon.
bad09
21/02/08 @ 12:00
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@ TheWretched

A good point but here's a question, You obviously have to open the PS3 if you upgrade you HDD so do you void your warranty or will Sony still fix it if it does become faulty?
SeesThroughAll
21/02/08 @ 12:01
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It's explicitly mentioned in the instruction manual: replacing the HDD does NOT void your warranty.
Bloodkult
21/02/08 @ 12:02
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We need the cheap core to replace our buggered premium ones.
Turambar
21/02/08 @ 12:02
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Also the "opening" of your PS3 involves removing a plastic flap from the back.
BoffBoff
21/02/08 @ 12:12
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Fucking Retarded Umbrella?
bad09
21/02/08 @ 12:16
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Frilly Red Underwear?
Penguinzoot
21/02/08 @ 12:22
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Always amazes me that after 2 years the Core (and now the Arcade) 360 are still around. So, someone must be buying them ....

EDIT:
Perhaps Bloodkult is right: We need the cheap core to replace our buggered premium ones. :D
Edited 1 times, most recently on 21/02/08 @ 12:24
kangarootoo
21/02/08 @ 12:42
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Frighteningly Red Under-garments

They were a gift from Italy OK!
tinderbox
21/02/08 @ 12:51
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Well, he's just stating the obvious here. I think every 360 dev would prefer to have a standard hdd.
peteb
21/02/08 @ 12:52
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why is everyone still pretending that not almost everyone already has the HDD!
viper_h
21/02/08 @ 13:09
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It'd be nice to be able to use an external USB hard drive on the 360. Is there any reason why M$ won't let you do this?
bad09
21/02/08 @ 13:11
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@ viper_h

Yeah there's a reason, see the post from TheWretched
kangarootoo
21/02/08 @ 13:48
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Agreed. Sony made a choice to let you use any storage medium you want (and any inpur device for that matter) and make money elsewhere. Peripherals are a form of income, and MS clearly still want to create revenue from that area.

Not an inherrently a bad thing I suppose, its just a company making revenue from a product. I guess it just leaves more of a bitter taste these days when someone else starts giving you an alternative that is considerably cheaper and let you make your own choices.
Nithron
21/02/08 @ 14:14
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On the other hand, not having a HDD as standard means that nobody's tried pulling a Capcom and forcing you to use up a vast chunk of your limited harddrive space to install their damn game before you can play it.
hana_fubuki
21/02/08 @ 14:32
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Molyneux would prefer to have HDD? He and everybody else except the 12 people who bought the Core/Arcade.

I understand that you can't sell an HDD-less console and then force the HDD on the unsuspecting buyer (well, Burnout Paradise kinda does, if you want to play online...) but I wish more games had the option to install the game, if it means better cache loading and reduced disk access (and thus reduced noise - I still haven't got used to it after 2 years of gaming on the 360).

Microsoft should have used the Elite's release and revamping of their SKU offer as an opportunity to phase out the Core model altogether, and make the 20GB cheap enough that Core users would want to upgrade.
That would have been in the interest of gamers (and developers, who complained about the lack of mandatory HDD on more than one occasion), but not necessarily in MS's interest -- so here we are today with a gimped version of an otherwise nifty (albeit flawed) system.

[Edit: I'm my own grammar nazi...]
Edited 2 times, most recently on 21/02/08 @ 14:47
reality_cheque
21/02/08 @ 15:11
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Even if they had dropped all SKUs that don't come with a HDD, they still couldn't insist on it - because there will be people out there who don't have one.
agparrot
21/02/08 @ 16:14
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Recently, Burnout Paradise requires you to have an HDD... to play online.

Let's hope more titles follow in this vein - perhaps GTA IV will require you to have one for online play, as well as, naturally, an HDD being prerequisite to DLC.

more TLA?
Triggerhappytel
21/02/08 @ 17:22
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kangarootoo - "Is this really worth a second article?

Its like its there to cater for readers who don't actually read the articles and need the sentient points handed to them on a platter / fired from a cannon."


Like me. I can't stomach reading a whole article about Peter Molyneux, but I can just about manage these bitesize tidbits of news ;)
monkie_king
21/02/08 @ 17:26
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reality_cheque: there is a precedent, Nintendo sold Expansion Pak-only games. The trick would be to bundle the HDD with a big high-profile game that needed it. It'd have to be MS-published gameof course. Since those 20GB HDs probably cost MS about £10 they could easily do it.

Can't see much need for it at the moment though, unless you want to do huge persistent offline worlds.
bad09
21/02/08 @ 17:28
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Ah but the difference there was you could still play those games without the expansion pack monkie_king
skillian
21/02/08 @ 17:40
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I'm pretty sure Perfect Dark and Donkey Kong required the Expansion Pak to play...
Nithron
21/02/08 @ 21:01
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Donkey Kong definitely did, I still have the "pak" that came with it.

Comments: 1-25 of 25 in total

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