Future of Xbox

[Incognitus]

Kind of expounding on the ongoing discussion here:

Not that any of this post matters to the dedicated console gamer, but you have to consider the long-term.

Stock or not, intrinsically PC technology will surpass the tech within any console pretty quickly due to the constant improvements being made to core components. Expandable storage, upgradable RAM, nextgen processing... you get the idea. There are also more options available from any number of quality manufacturers.

Improvements in the PC industry move at a faster pace than a typical console's lifespan, which is generally what? 4-5 years? PC parts are made to be swappable so there's a greater growth in power over time---power that a console sitting on an entertainment center shelf for half a decade can only dream about having.

Consoles may make bigger jumps in power between generations but PCs make a longer series of shorter jumps that don't plateau somewhere between console releases.

Hell, I'm not even sure you can upgrade the *hard drives* in these next generation consoles, which would worry me if everything needs to be installed from the disc like with the Xbox One. I haven't heard one way or the other on this point. Does anyone know this?

Most console gamers accept these tradeoffs, though. But honestly, consoles are a poor man's PC. This is especially true as the gap in power draws closer between the two.

[Xanatos]

Hell, I'm not even sure you can upgrade the *hard drives* in these next generation consoles, which would worry me if everything needs to be installed from the disc like with the Xbox One. I haven't heard one way or the other on this point. Does anyone know this?

Users are indeed able to upgrade PS4's hard drive, same can't be said for XBox One though.

[Incognitus]

Users are indeed able to upgrade PS4's hard drive, same can't be said for XBox One though.

Here is a linky
Xbox One has non-replaceable hard drive, external storage is supported

Thank you both for the sources. I couldn't do any searching myself while at work yesterday. That's good news! I'm still not purchasing a One/4, but that's good news for the folks that are.

At least there is external support planned for the non-upgradable One. But I wonder what capacity the One recognizes for the external drives? If memory serves, the 360 could only recognize and utilize up to 32GB regardless of the drive's actual capacity. I hope that isn't the case with the Xbox One's operating system(s).

Honestly I worried the Xbox One would treat external storage like it did this generation on the Xbox 360---i.e. properly-formatted thumb drives or limited-capacity USB storage with restrictions on what files could be saved where. (I lost all of my Oblivion and Mass Effect 1/2 data because they stubbornly refused to copy to a thumb drive. That might have been a publisher restriction, though.)

I was always a brand-loyal zombie. My brand just wound up being better, that's all.

When it comes to popular consumer technology, I am not a brand-loyal zombie. I'm much more of a brand-apathetic mercenary. Incidentally I have Square-Enix to thank for that. Before Square inserted the hyphen-Enix I was a blindly-loyal geek! How things change. But I think it was a change for the better. I no longer hobble around the PS4 games section in Best Buy, salivating over Square-Enix games like they're fresh, untainted flesh ready to be eaten.

[Mystyrion]

Thank you both for the sources. I couldn't do any searching myself while at work yesterday. That's good news! I'm still not purchasing a One/4, but that's good news for the folks that are.

At least there is external support planned for the non-upgradable One. But I wonder what capacity the One recognizes for the external drives? If memory serves, the 360 could only recognize and utilize up to 32GB regardless of the drive's actual capacity. I hope that isn't the case with the Xbox One's operating system(s).

Honestly I worried the Xbox One would treat external storage like it did this generation on the Xbox 360---i.e. properly-formatted thumb drives or limited-capacity USB storage with restrictions on what files could be saved where. (I lost all of my Oblivion and Mass Effect 1/2 data because they stubbornly refused to copy to a thumb drive. That might have been a publisher restriction, though.)

The 360 is only USB 2.0 support though right?
With this next generation being 3.0 and the downloads and installation of game I see the capacity being much greater. I do still see that you have to format the device, but with the capability of larger drives I don't see that being a huge problem.

[Incognitus]

The 360 is only USB 2.0 support though right?
With this next generation being 3.0 and the downloads and installation of game I see the capacity being much greater. I do still see that you have to format the device, but with the capability of larger drives I don't see that being a huge problem.

I think the limitation is with the 360's operating system rather than the USB speed. But you're probably right. The Xbox One has something like three operating systems, including Windows 8, right? It should at least support a higher capacity based on that fact alone.