Microsoft was right, I was wrong. No need for media, digital only would have been fine, maybe Kinect.

[MorganX]

The only use I foresee for the Blu-ray player are the 10 movies in my library, and if for some reason I buy used games on media. Having a fiber connection helps, but I really see no reason for the media at this point and I'm always connected. Digital only would have been fine and it's really all I'm doing now anyway. I guess it's human nature to resist change and having something taken away, but It's a pleasure not having to deal with discs. I can't remember the last time I played physical media with streaming 1080p and DD.

 

While I have no desire to play Kinect games, I will be adding a Kinect for the voice commands, particularly for Snap and Recording. Lastly, streaming the Xbox, not just games, to a PC is a beautiful thing. Great stuff.

 

Screwing up so badly on Windows 8 RTM turned a lot of people off to MS and lost a lot of consumer trust. I have a feeling a lot of people are mission out on a great Xbox One/Windows 10 entertainment experience because of it. This is really good ######!

[dipsylalapo Supervisor]

I'm with you for the most part. 

 

I'm finding that I'm swaying more and more towards digital titles and am even rebuying some of the physical titles I bought early on. I stream most of my media from various sources, I do still buy some of my movies on BR, but even then I rip them onto my microserver. 

 

I guess we may see a driveless Xbox One in the future as an option. I think that we have to remember that there are a lot of people who don't have access to good broadband and when they do it could also be capped. I remember when I downloaded all my games onto an external drive, it ate up a few hundred GB in no time at all. 

[Skiver Veteran]

I will never go fully digital until they sort out the pricing model, which at the moment I don't ever see happening as there is never competition on the digital front.

 

Case and point - I could pick-up the Division for £40 right now on pre-order, go onto the Xbox store and I'll pay £55 for it - for what exactly? I don't believe people are lazy enough to truly justify £15 for no other benefit then not having to get off your rear to change a disk. This massive price difference is the same for every new title I've ever come across with prices only dipping months after release when the occasional sale occurs, for some that works but I like to get titles as they release so I'll continue to buy disks where its more cost affective.

[Emn1ty]

On 1/21/2016 at 8:23 AM, Skiver said:

I will never go fully digital until they sort out the pricing model, which at the moment I don't ever see happening as there is never competition on the digital front.

 

Case and point - I could pick-up the Division for £40 right now on pre-order, go onto the Xbox store and I'll pay £55 for it - for what exactly? I don't believe people are lazy enough to truly justify £15 for no other benefit then not having to get off your rear to change a disk. This massive price difference is the same for every new title I've ever come across with prices only dipping months after release when the occasional sale occurs, for some that works but I like to get titles as they release so I'll continue to buy disks where its more cost affective.

Honestly, I'd have been fine going fully digital this gen because if that was the only way to buy on the X1 we'd likely be seeing similar deals and cuts as we do on Steam already. Going digital subsidizes a lot of these sales since you don't have to take the hit on distribution and manufacturing. What prevents me from buy games on my X1 is not prices, but storage space. The initial console released with too little, and I've been too lazy to go out and buy an external drive. Instead I just don't buy games to install because it takes too long to do so and eventually I have to delete them for more space.

[philcruicks]

I went fully digital on PC a while ago as you can use platforms like steam and Origin etc.. which have deals or codes can be bought elsewhere and redeemed, until you can do this with xbox to get games as cheap or cheaper (I mean cmon we're saving them the cost of all the physical production). I'll never go fully digital on Xbox until that's sorted.

[Anibal P]

1 minute ago, philcruicks said:

I went pully digital on PC a while ago as you can use platforms like steam and Origin etc.. which have deals or codes can be bought elsewhere and redeemed, until you can do this with xbox to get games as cheap or cheaper (I mean cmon we're saving them the cost of all the physical production). I'll never go fully digital on Xbox

Yep, last physical game I bought was like Bad Company 2 or something from that time

Don't see the to clutter up the house with more boxes just taking up space doing nothing, and I'm never offline unless the internet is fully down, and that's rare 

[MorganX]

40 minutes ago, Emn1ty said:

Honestly, I'd have been fine going fully digital this gen because if that was the only way to buy on the X1 we'd likely be seeing similar deals and cuts as we do on Steam already. Going digital subsidizes a lot of these sales since you don't have to take the hit on distribution and manufacturing. What prevents me from buy games on my X1 is not prices, but storage space. The initial console released with too little, and I've been too lazy to go out and buy an external drive. Instead I just don't buy games to install because it takes too long to do so and eventually I have to delete them for more space.

I bought this enclosure and couldn't be happier, after putting in a 960GB SSD

[kozukumi]

2 minutes ago, MorganX said:

I bought this enclosure and couldn't be happier, after putting in a 960GB SSD

That is really nicely designed! 

 

As to the OP, I agree digital is fine however I can understand why many people wouldn't be so happy with it. I (and you) live in areas with good internet. I can imagine it being painful on capped internet. Then again even with physical installs the updates are massive these days so that is going to be painful anyway

 

Can't say I agree with the Kinect comment though, the only thing I would ever use it for would be voice activation and that could be done with a mic array which could easily be built into the console anyway. 

[HawkMan]

On 1/21/2016 at 5:23 PM, Skiver said:

I will never go fully digital until they sort out the pricing model, which at the moment I don't ever see happening as there is never competition on the digital front.

 

Case and point - I could pick-up the Division for kr503.23 (£40) right now on pre-order, go onto the Xbox store and I'll pay kr691.94 (£55) for it - for what exactly? I don't believe people are lazy enough to truly justify kr188.71 (£15) for no other benefit then not having to get off your rear to change a disk. This massive price difference is the same for every new title I've ever come across with prices only dipping months after release when the occasional sale occurs, for some that works but I like to get titles as they release so I'll continue to buy disks where its more cost affective.

Not having to juggle disk is worth 15 dollars alone I'd say. I don't really buy physical, then I'll rather wait for a sale on digital. but the ability to just play on another xbox with o fuzz, also great. and when they finally get around to add back the 1 console family/"friend" plan they had going it'l be even better. 

[Emn1ty]

43 minutes ago, MorganX said:

I bought this enclosure and couldn't be happier, after putting in a 960GB SSD

Yeah I've looked at that one before, still considering getting it but not enough money as it stands. What SSD did you get?

[kozukumi]

16 minutes ago, Emn1ty said:

Yeah I've looked at that one before, still considering getting it but not enough money as it stands. What SSD did you get?

Isn't an SSD kind of pointless? I was under the impression the performance gains were less than 5% over an HDD?

[MorganX]

26 minutes ago, Emn1ty said:

Yeah I've looked at that one before, still considering getting it but not enough money as it stands. What SSD did you get?

SanDisk Ultra II

[Doli]

1 hour ago, MorganX said:

I bought this enclosure and couldn't be happier, after putting in a 960GB SSD

Nice.

Now thats how you make a hard drive enclosure for a console.

[MorganX]

13 minutes ago, kozukumi said:

Isn't an SSD kind of pointless? I was under the impression the performance gains were less than 5% over an HDD?

Over USB 2.0. USB 3.0 supports 5Gbs and it is noticeably faster than a physical hard drive but on Xbox, not as fast as a PC. And of course, it's silent.

[kozukumi]

58 minutes ago, MorganX said:

Over USB 2.0. USB 3.0 supports 5Gbs and it is noticeably faster than a physical hard drive but on Xbox, not as fast as a PC. And of course, it's silent.

Yeah but I thought benchmarks done showed the Xbox One doesn't actually support full USB 3.0 speeds, they are only a little faster than USB 2.0. Perhaps that has changed with a system update? Noise and heat are valid reasons although not sure it makes much difference considering the fans are more likely louder than the drive would be?

[MorganX]

58 minutes ago, kozukumi said:

Yeah but I thought benchmarks done showed the Xbox One doesn't actually support full USB 3.0 speeds, they are only a little faster than USB 2.0. Perhaps that has changed with a system update? Noise and heat are valid reasons although not sure it makes much difference considering the fans are more likely louder than the drive would be?

The USB interface is full USB 3.0. The internal HDD interface is Sata II not Sata III which may be what you're referring to. That's why the elite tries to improve performance a bit by using an SSHD but that's mostly because the standard internal is 5400MBs (80MBs?).  The internal max theoretical is 300MBs, while the USB 3.0 is 625MBs. You would not notice an difference between an SSD external and HDD external if you connect an external HDD that can read/write at 500+ MBs. Otherwise, you should see a noticeable performance increase in disk reads and writes, and I do. Gears Ultimate and Rise of the Tomb Raider, and everything else, load extremely fast and the disk activity light isn't on for more than a few seconds, ever.

 

Edit: Just did some quick googling and apparently there was an urban myth that the Xbox One's USB 3.0 went through the internal SATA II interface which isn't true. External drives have the SATA controller in the external case. Just make sure you use a SATA III SSD or HDD in your external if you build your own.

Edited January 22, 2016 by MorganX
USB clarificaiton

[Noir Angel]

Charging people more for less is truly stupid, removing the disc, the packaging, and distribution costs should drop the price of a game, not raise it. That said, Microsoft and Sony are laughably good at ripping console junkies off while making them think they're getting a good deal.

Digital only games are something I am a big fan of, but I'd never pay 25% extra to buy one. Thankfully, PC gamers don't get ripped off in that manner. That said, as long as capped broadband is a thing, so will digital media be a thing.

[kozukumi]

21 minutes ago, MorganX said:

The USB interface is full USB 3.0. The internal HDD interface is Sata II not Sata III which may be what you're referring to. That's why the elite tries to improve performance a bit by using an SSHD but that's mostly because the standard internal is 5400MBs (80MBs?).  The internal max theoretical is 300MBs, while the USB 3.0 is 625MBs. You would not notice an difference between an SSD external and HDD external if you connect an external HDD that can read/write at 500+ MBs. Otherwise, you should see a noticeable performance increase in disk reads and writes, and I do. Gears Ultimate and Rise of the Tomb Raider, and everything else, load extremely fast and the disk activity light isn't on for more than a few seconds, ever.

 

Edit: Just did some quick googling and apparently there was an urban myth that the Xbox One's USB 3.0 went through the internal SATA II interface which isn't true. External drives have the SATA controller in the external case. Just make sure you use a SATA III SSD or HDD in your external if you build your own.

Must be that  Thank you for such a decent reply and not just saying I was hating on the Xbox One!

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Ridiculously stupid to remove an option for the sake of it. Why not have both to benefit everyone? Consoles aren't a me only model, they are supposed to cater to the lower demographics in gaming - Those who cannot afford beastly PCs or those in parts of the world with poor to average Internet. 

 

What about importing games as well, we finally have region free consoles after many years of region locking. There are so many downsides to digital only, while right now you CAN do digital only yourself and leave the discs for those of us who want them. Again summed up simply as why have less options when you currently have both options?

 

If you think MS are far behind Sony now, your digital only console would be eating the dirt of its own grave. We do not all live in America with fiber/cable broadband and pay the most competitive digital prices. Exchange rates for digital in some parts of the world are shocking. So if anyone wants to argue a discless console would be slightly cheaper which is a plus, don't be a hypocrite saying the digital "convenience tax" is a benefit and not a con.

 

Saving $50 on a console without Blu Ray hardly stands up to your library of 30~50 games costing you even just  $10 a piece more each for digital convenience. If a couple of hundred extra for "digital tax" doesn't bother you then who are you kidding that a console being $50 cheaper initially is the deal clincher for yourself? 

[Jack W]

I've gone 100% digital for Xbox One - I own no physical titles. The reasons are as follows:

 

1. Two licenses per game. I can allow someone else to also play the games I buy, at the same time.
2. Ease of use - I buy, it downloads, I play.
3. They follow me - if Xbox Two was to release, along with backwards compatibility for Xbox One... I'd be able to quickly play all my old games.
4. Less clutter - no discs laying everywhere, waiting to be sorted, that will never get done.

[SnoopZ]

On 1/22/2016 at 9:18 PM, HawkMan said:

Not having to juggle disk is worth 15 dollars alone I'd say. I don't really buy physical, then I'll rather wait for a sale on digital. but the ability to just play on another xbox with o fuzz, also great. and when they finally get around to add back the 1 console family/"friend" plan they had going it'l be even better. 

A bit more than $15 as he was talking in £s.

 

I for 1 am digital only in the UK, but i only buy games when they go on offer either via the store or from CDkeys.com as it is far too expensive when a new game costs £55 ($78) here.

 

Another downside if we can't buy used games on the cheap when digital only, i wish there was a way to buy the disc and install and never use the disc again!

 

As for watching a movie with a disc i am digital only on that and have never even picked up a bluray disc in my life.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

27 minutes ago, Jack W said:

I've gone 100% digital for Xbox One - I own no physical titles. The reasons are as follows:

 

1. Two licenses per game. I can allow someone else to also play the games I buy, at the same time.
2. Ease of use - I buy, it downloads, I play.
3. They follow me - if Xbox Two was to release, along with backwards compatibility for Xbox One... I'd be able to quickly play all my old games.
4. Less clutter - no discs laying everywhere, waiting to be sorted, that will never get done.

My point exactly, it is currently viable to go 100% digital only as things stand so why is there any need to take that a step further and force everyone else to go 100% digital with you? It seems like a rather selfish way to view things, for next to no gain considering as users in this topic will prove 100% digital is already achievable.

[JustGeorge]

I'm a fan of owning physical media, but that was back in the day when you bought a "finished game" that wasn"t tied to the net. The purpose of physical media has been rendered useless by "day one" patches and net dependence.

 

People think that they got Microsoft to change its policy with the One, scoring some sort of victory. Truthfully, MS just threw us a bone, but still got most of what they wanted. We're just having to put a useless disc in the drive now.

 

 

 

[HawkMan]

1 hour ago, SnoopZ said:

i wish there was a way to buy the disc and install and never use the disc again!

That's how it was supposed to work before the whiners killed it. 

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

15 minutes ago, HawkMan said:

That's how it was supposed to work before the whiners MS killed it. 

Fixed. Unless of course MS believe the "whiners" to have a point