To Disk Drive or not to Disk Drive

[Alorxico]

I work in the tech-department of a college book store and I have been seeing a lot of students and faculty turn away from the "latest, greatest, fastest" computers because they don't have disk drives. Students want them, professors need them, but computer makers are not putting them into their new models. Now, in the wake of the latest X-Bone "news", it appears that some video game consoles will be following the computer makers and ditching the disk drives as well.

What do you think? Is now the time to ditch the disk? Are we really at the point where we want everything to be digital? And on that note, is anyone else bothered by the fact that some programs and games are not INSTALLED or downloaded onto our hard-drives after purchase, only a link to a company owned and operated server that determines who can access the information and monitors how it is being used?

Maybe I'm just old, but it seems to me that companies are trying to FORCE people to accept their line of products rather than building products the people want.

~Al~

 

[sneakypenguin]

I've ditched them long ago, such a pita to deal with. The one game I have that requires disc never gets played even though the disc is 18 in. away from the drive. I'll click the icon see the prompt and be like meh not gonna bother.

Digital is just so nice to have all your games, books, movies, and music availible on any pc/xbox/android/apple device is awesome.

 

[Vegosiux]

Well I occasionally want to play one of my olden, golden games which I kind of need to install from discs, so...

 

[hazabaza1]

Until I can get internet that's up 24/7 and runs incredibly fast while also being relatively cheap... I like my discs, thanks.

 

[Supernova1138]

Most of the latest and greatest computers not including an optical drive are ultra thin laptops that are not particularly fast, with battery life and weight being the only advantages they have. Apple is also ditching them on all of their products, probably so they can make more money on their App store and iTunes. You can get external DVD drives that connect via USB if you do need one for one of those computers.

For desktop systems, it's easy enough to add a DVD drive if you want to, they only cost $20 or so, so removing them doesn't save you a ton of money. Price is only really a factor if you are talking about BluRay drives, and only consoles use BluRay discs for software distribution, on computers BluRay is only really useful for watching movies.

They're good to keep around, just in case you need to use the Windows install disc for recovery purposes, or need to load a driver from a CD when you don't have internet access for whatever reason.

Right now my most used optical format is BluRay, which I use because I don't have an internet connection nearly fast enough to stream full HD content at any reasonable speed. For people with slow internet or prohibitively low bandwidth caps, discs are definitely still useful, especially with games that have constantly ballooning space requirements. Some titles are exceeding 30GB, which may take ages to download, and eat through 25+% of your monthly bandwidth cap.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

I keep my disc drives, but for data backup. I don't believe in relying on offsite backup. If I can't get on the 'net, it does me no good. Thats why I double up on backup, and discs are my best tool since unless they get microwaved or snapped or scratched to hell I won't lose the data.

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

I'll always end up using a disk drive, maybe not as often but it's always a bonus to have it with my desktop.

A friend wanted to play a game of Red Alert 3 with me but when he dug out his premier edition (the one I'd bought him back in 2008/2010) he'd then realised he no longer had a disk drive because he went all digital and then we couldn't ever play a game together (no he'll never buy the one from Steam or anywhere online since he has the game and doesn't want to pay twice, I understand those feelings and feel the same about them)

Basically if there's a time you want to ever use a disk, having a disk drive is good, however going all digital and no disk drive can be good but again you're alienating disks entirely if you do so (which of course is totally oblivious to those all digital obsessors).

 

[Hardsuit]

They're doing it backwards, your suppose to add options not remove them...

 

[lacktheknack]

I'll put it this way: I still have a floppy drive.

Many conclusions can be drawn from this, such as "lacktheknack likes discs" and "lacktheknack is a weird person".

 

[SpAc3man]

Don't use them at all these days. I have one in my desktop but it isn't plugged in atm. Everything can be downloaded off the net or you can boot from a USB if installing an OS.

 

[Fishcactus]

I love disk drives. If I want to watch a DVD I own, I just pop it in the drive and off I go.

I'd love to be able to stream movies (shitty internet + no Netflix in my country makes that a no...at least legally), but even if I could stream everything and purchase digital copies, i'd still want a disk drive.

If I had the option of a computer with a disk drive and without, i'd pick the one with. It's nice to have it in case you need it, options, ya know.

 

[Aris Khandr]

I rebuilt my computer in October, and didn't even bother with a DVD drive. The last game I got on a disc of any sort was Mass Effect 3, which was nearly two years ago. It's been even longer than that since I bought a movie, and about three years since I've purchased a CD that didn't come with a digital download as a prerequisite for actually agreeing to buy the plastic thing. I still have my DVD drive on hand to plug in, should I discover a need for it. But so far, it is just gathering dust.

 

[Zakarath]

I have too many old disk games to wholly forsake the disk drive, as well as it convenient when I have a movie/show on DVD (say, Firefly) that I want to port in. Also came in handy right after I built it and I needed to install Win7...

And when I was I student I used my disk drive to burn copies of projects for class.

 

[Raikas]

What do you think? Is now the time to ditch the disk? Are we really at the point where we want everything to be digital?

I'm on the fence. I got a free netbook through work about 5 years ago - no disk drive - and I've never missed having it there. But then again, I have 3 other computers that do, so it's probably not a marker of anything.

Even so, it's been years since I've bought software (game or otherwise) for PC. I still buy some console games on disc, but that's primarily because the games have been cheaper used than via XBL/PSN - that seems to be changing somewhat now, so I can see a market for a disc-free console. I'd be surprised to see it become the only one available, but I do think there's probably a place for it in the market (I'm assuming here that you download your content and aren't just streaming it though).

 

[kilenem]

I think Consumers should wait and see how this net neutrality turns out because if Internet providers start to kill your speed because your downloading to much you might want a disc drive.

 

[skywolfblue]

I would say NO, because of the SIZE of games nowadays. If MS want to slash prices by removing the bluray player, then I think they are shooting themselves in the foot. Plus, its going to be a ***** to market it IMO.

Consoles NEED discs IMO.

/Exactly.

Most Blu-Ray DVDs are ~50GB. A lot of games are reaching that size.

For the 500GB HD that comes with the Xbox One/PS4, that's about 8-9 games (at Best, when you factor in DLC. updates and other things it's more like 6-7 games).

PITIFUL.

I suppose one could dish out for a 2TB and try to replace the console's HDD theirself, but even though HDD's are relatively cheap, 2TB is still going to put you out another $100 bucks, and possibly having to void the warranty sticker to get inside the console to replace it. More then whatever "savings" that would be gained by getting rid of the Blu-Ray player.

I personally despise the move to Online-only games. I like physical disks that will be there if my console fail, or whoever's servers fail, and which I don't have to spend hours downloading (I live in Alaska, fancy high-speed Internet simply does not exist here)

 

[Funyahns]

Even though I rarely use my disc drive I still want to have it just in case. If they want to improve the box there are better ways to go about it. Can Xbox or PS4 use removable hard drives?

 

[Roxas1359]

I suppose you could dish out for a 2TB, but even though HD's are relatively cheap, 2TB is still going to put you out another $100 bucks, and possibly having to void the warranty sticker to get inside the console to replace it. More then whatever "savings" that would be gained by getting rid of the Blu-Ray player.

It'd void the warranty on an Xbox One, but not a PS4 because the PS4 and PS3 have the ability to switch out HDDs of any size without voiding the warranty. Heck, there are some people who just put in an SDD in the PS3s and PS4s as well. Both those consoles only take a standard 2.5" laptop HDD, so it's not too bad.

Although, I don't think that throwing 2 TBs into a console isn't the best idea, especially since I think that all of them can only handle up to 1 TB at the moment. I know that Nintendo listed external HDDs that work on the Wii U well, but none of them are over 1 TB, and I've never heard of anyone slapping a 2 TB HDD in a PS3 because at that point it's more cost effective to throw an SDD in the dang thing.

Either way, it's better for consoles to have discs and run based off them rather than having them have a mandatory install on your console's HDD. Games on the PS3 up until 2009 installed them on the hard drive, but after that it just installs the trophy data for most games and then runs based off the disc. The Wii U also runs based off the discs as well, with updates downloading to the internal flash memory. The Xbox One has mandatory installs right now, and I don't know if the PS4 does, but it'd be stupid for Sony to go back to mandatory full game installations on the PS4 after they dropped it on the PS3.

Even though I rarely use my disc drive I still want to have it just in case. If they want to improve the box there are better ways to go about it. Can Xbox or PS4 use removable hard drives?

PS4 has an upgradable slot to change out the HDD for any other size or and SSD since the PS3 and PS4 use laptop hard drives. The Xbox One does not have interchangeable HDDs, but is supposed to have external HDD support. However, it's launched without it, and I don't know if they've patched it into the system yet. The Wii U uses internal flash memory that's not upgradable, but the Wii U does support external HDDs, they only have to be formatted for the Wii U and can only work on that one system.