Poll Time Ladies And Gents...
<div class="IPBDescription">Honestly now...</div> I've had a "disagreement" about wether or not it's time for games to start coming out on DVD format. Not all games, but the next gen ones that are multiple CDs and are still leaving out higher res textures and what not.
To make a long story short, I'm using the Minimum specs of Unreal 2: The Awakening as a measuring stick.
Processor: Pentium III or AMD Athlon 733MHz or higher, 256 MB RAM, 98/2000/Me/XP, DirectX version 8.1 (included) or higher, 32 MB NVIDIA GeForce 2 MX or better, Windows compatible sound card, 8X Speed CD-ROM Drive, 3.0 GB Free Hard Disk Space.
Basically what I need to know is:
If you meet the minimum specs of Unreal 2: Do you have a DVD player in your computer or not?
To make a long story short, I'm using the Minimum specs of Unreal 2: The Awakening as a measuring stick.
Processor: Pentium III or AMD Athlon 733MHz or higher, 256 MB RAM, 98/2000/Me/XP, DirectX version 8.1 (included) or higher, 32 MB NVIDIA GeForce 2 MX or better, Windows compatible sound card, 8X Speed CD-ROM Drive, 3.0 GB Free Hard Disk Space.
Basically what I need to know is:
If you meet the minimum specs of Unreal 2: Do you have a DVD player in your computer or not?
Comments
I agree. In addition to this, many simply won't buy DVD drives because they don't want to or don't need to (some people still use TVs, believe it or not); making games DVD only or "DVD enhanced" could shut potencial consumers out of the market. This would be very bad and hurt sales, and in turn hurt the industry.
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->I agree. In addition to this, many simply won't buy DVD drives because they don't want to or don't need to (some people still use TVs, believe it or not); making games DVD only or "DVD enhanced" could shut potencial consumers out of the market. This would be very bad and hurt sales, and in turn hurt the industry.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I'm guessing it will go down the same as the transition from floppy drives to CD-ROM drives. DVD's will be phased in gradually and CDs phased out. DVD's are already pretty much standard in pre built computers
When was the last time anyone used their floppy drive? I haven't touched mine since boot floppies were removed from XP (and 2000?).
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->$250 for what my CD Rom can do<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
250? You can get a good DVD drive for under $40. On the other hand, DVD burners are about 250 or more, not to mention the expensive blanks, 2-4 dollars a piece compared to like 10 cents a piece for cheap CD-Rs. You could burn 20+ cds for every DVD; bulkiness aside, CDs remain the cheapest and most efficient storage medium.
When my tv broke, my gf and i used to sit on the bed and watch dvd's on my monitor.
A really good dvd player only costs $40-90 its like buying a decent mouse.
Bring on the dvd games.
EVERY ONE has a CD drive (though I still have my floppy drive, and use it for reinstalls and such)
not every one has a DVD drive, for instance some people would rather have a CD burner then a DVD drive and after buying the rest of their killer rig they don't have the $$ for either a combo drive or a second drive.
there is no real point is what I am trying to say, what ever can be done with a DVD can be done with a few CDs.
And unless I am compleatly mistaken PS2 uses DVDs AND there are a few games that still have multiple discs (simply b/c they don't use the DVD to the full cpacity)
oh well, I see no point to switching. And trust me, when the time is right (IE they will make a large profit with it) the game companies will switch to DVDs
Anyway, can you imagine what game developers would do with the space on a DVD? Remember when CDs first came out? Imagine 45minute "cutscenes" as the games developers live out there movie director dreams.
A decent dvd drive here in the uk cost about 50 quid from where i can get one.
however, if you want to see what game devs can do with DVDs, go look at PS2, it isn't anything all that great.
I think that if people don't have one in their computer yet, they should. It's 40 bucks, skip the next game purchase and invest in one. They rule.
I'd REALLY love to see games come on DVD. It's so annoying to flip through 4 cds to install DiabloII and the Xpack... i would love to have it all on one DVD.
I recently got printshop, it was 7 cds. They had a offer to get it on one DVD for 10 bucks. Just like the switch from 5.25" floppy to 3.5 inch.
I heard somewhere that Eidos or Ion Storm is making all new releases on DVD only... not sure if it's true or not. (it seems only Eidos Germany is, for copy protection reasons)
Halo for the Xbox comes with 700 mbs of sounds and music. That doesn't count all the models, textures, coding and what not.
Think about that, just 700 mbs of sounds alone. You're really opening up a door for game developers for put in as much content as they want.
As for "costing more to press". C'mon, the Video game Console industry BLOWS AWAY the PC industry in sales and profits. I really don't think it's hurting them.
It also makes "Warezing" a little more difficult with larger file sizes, like being able to add giant blank spaces to the images so even if they do make an image and send it onto Kazaa you'd get such huge file sizes it'd be impossible to really download without a T1.
Of course FMV videos could be a whole lot sexier and more of them: especially from Blizzard. <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
And yeah, a DVD player costs LESS than some of the new games that are out.
As for "not everyone has a DVD player", not everyone a CD rom when they started switching either.
Right now I'm just asking gamers and etc if they have DVD players, because it's more likely only 'gamers' are going to buy Unreal 2, not Mom and Pa who still use the PC as a neat email system.
As for a DVD costing me a lot, $250 I had mentioned. Not everyone lives in the US you know, a *good* drive costs that much, in Canadian money! <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
As for a DVD costing me a lot, $250 I had mentioned. Not everyone lives in the US you know, a *good* drive costs that much, in Canadian money! <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
I'm Canadian, I got my DVD-Rom drive for $55. All you need is a cheap one, they work fine.