Xbox 360: Play Games From Hard Drive

Major Nelson outlined some of the new features coming to Dashboard and the Xbox 360. Besides the avatar feature, which is cute, we’re going to have the ability to install games directly to the hard drive and play them.

This feature explains the recent press release about the 60GB Xbox 360 and the price drop on the old 20GB box. Once we can install on our hard disk we’re going to be able to watch our disk space fade away just like we can do, today, on our PC.

You’re going to need to keep the disk in the drive, however, to play the Xbox 360 games you’ve purchased. This will continue to be Microsoft’s solution to Digital Rights Management (DRM) with their console. The end goal, however, is a faster load and a much quieter gaming experience as the 360 DVD player is tremendously loud.

Pretty soon this system is going to be no better than a PC if it keeps getting features like this!

0 thoughts on “Xbox 360: Play Games From Hard Drive”

  1. i know that, i will still have the disc in the drive, i just want to load from the HHD so it doesn’t make that loud load sound.

  2. I’d love the ability to play straight from the HDD because my kids are young and keep ruining disks by scratching them as they never put them back in the box. It costs a fortune! It’s a pity game images can’t somehow be coded to each xbox to stop pirate copies going about, but I guess this will never happen. DVDs are a useless format, they’re just not robust enough.
    It’s pretty annoying. If I pay ÂŁ40 for a game ÂŁ39 is for the licence, the other ÂŁ1 is for the disk. Yet if the disk gets damaged I have to pay for the licence again .. that’s not right!

  3. That thought hasn’t even crossed my mind, but so true. Sometimes I open the Xbox 360 and there are TWO disks inside… my son likes to hit eject and stuff things into it.

    The 360 is a bit too low, he can reach it. Playing off the hard disk would solve some of that for me.

  4. We got the update in the UK the other day, works a treat.

    Much better loading from the Hard Drive, soo smooth and much faster.

    Wouldn’t it be possible to just copy a DVD with the ISO file of the game and leave that in the drive whilst loading it from the HD? Obviously I’m not intending this, just curious 🙂

  5. I think Microsoft would frown at pushing ISO’s to the hard disk. I’m sure they’re not making a direct ISO image (mainly for security reasons).

    It’s probably a more proprietary image copy.

  6. It their anyway to play the games without the disk being in the HD, because the game is downloading onto the HD, so i would think there is a way to play it without the disk ? any answers to my theory ?

  7. This disk must be present in the drive for security reasons. This avoids people getting “copies” on their hard disk without purchasing the game. The standard 360 security testing is done somewhere on the CD to validate it’s a real non-pirated copy of the game.

    The point of download-to-disk is to avoid slow loads and the loud whine of the CD player (which is way too loud in my opinion) – not to remove the annoyance of needing the disk.

  8. thats ridiculous cos you would save loads of money just renting the games and coping them to your hard drive, with out putting the disc , but i have been able to cracked it i can play without disc , ha .

  9. Yes, you can save loads of money by renting and stealing games, unfortunately it’s not really the way a non-hacked system is supposed to play.

    There are ways to steal anything; Microsoft is not attempting to build a device that people can freely steal which is why you need to have a legal disc in the drive of a non-hacked console in order for it to function correctly.

  10. the disk is only needed to boot the system, are we going to get a way to not have to boot with the disk…must be some patch like there is on a pc

  11. i dont understand the need for a 60gb hard drive, so i can stick photo’s and music on it?? why do i want 2 do that? my PC and ipod do that, why do i want another copy on my xbox.

    if MS came up with a secure method of storing your games onto the hdd without the disk (eg a one time use validation code which came with the game , similar to a phone top-up voucher) then it would be worth it

  12. Booting from the hd is 100x better. I had to replace my laser in my xbox several times in the past several years and it’s a pain. Booting from the hd is much easier on the laser and hopefully I’ll never need to replace my laser again 😛

  13. Look if you want a cheap way of getting games onto your hard disk then do this…………………………………………………………………….

    ……….. KEEP DREAMING!

  14. listen. the idea of installing the games on the hard drive would have been superb if you didnt need the disk to play them. I am well aware of the situation and i know this idea would decrease profits from games. Soooooo. . . if this is true then who cares if the game is “quieter”?! This feature is just a waste of time and money. Thanks alot microsoft.

    P.S. The update keeps making me lag like a jalepeno on a stick.

  15. How many gigs does the average game come to when playing from the hard drive? Just trying to figure out how many games would fit onto the 20gig drive.

  16. hi all i think there will be a kind of boot up disc out there soon i say this eg: my forza disc has a scuff on it so i used a mates put it on the hd and im able to boot it up with the naff scuffed disc i have. i maybe wrong i dont no but if there is sutch a disc can someone please let me know cheers ps i dont fancy getting banned ether so if it isnt poss let me no on that to thanks pps the email to the link i made up i will look back for the replys thanks

  17. Hi guys i read all your posts and i believe to the fact that the xbox can run a game without a disc. There are two things that prove it:
    1)After you download a game using your microsoft points,the game runs directly from the HDD!!
    2)I have seen many videos in which the games after being installed on the HDD run properly but unfortunately you need the disc to boot the game!! But after the game has been boted, the disc automatically stops within the disc tray that means the game is running on the data inside the HDD.
    Well i have recently got an xbox so can please help me out! I wana play games directly from the HDD without using the disc!! So is that posibile? If yes then please tell me the way?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Post

Episode 587: Ubisoft ForwardEpisode 587: Ubisoft Forward

This week the gang reacts to Ubisoft’s pseudo-E3 presentation showing off their upcoming games, including Watch Dogs Legion, Immortals Fenyx Rising, Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World: The Game: The Remaster, and Riders Republic, and Yves Guillemot’s strange pre-show video.

Other news items include:

  • Bungie emphatically denies Microsoft buyout rumor
  • Former Witcher 3 devs are launching a sci-fi novel-inspired game

Let us know what you think.

Do HD Graphics Matter To Gamers?Do HD Graphics Matter To Gamers?

hdtvThe question of the day, “Do HD graphics matter to gamers?” If you’re currently rolling with a PS3 or Xbox 360 and you’ve got HDMI and or sweet component cables you’re probably saying, “duh, of course they do.” What about everyone else, those Wii consoles for instance, there are so many of those. What about gamers that do not know what HDMI means?

Let’s face it, an estimated 21-million people are still using over the air TV broadcast signal and a large portion of those think that their TV is high definition because it doesn’t have an analog dial anymore. Recent Nielson ratings are showing most gamers are still pushing PS2 hardware, which isn’t high definition.

In the US, HDTV sales only reach 25-30% of the population. Couple this with the fact that one in five HDTV owners can’t tell the difference between standard definition and high definition content and you’ve got roughly 20% of the population utilizing HD. Looking at the number of gaming consoles out there and the rate of uptake, it’s clear that a large majority of gamers are not using HD resolutions for their gaming needs. (loot-ninja)

We’d like to think 1080p looks much different than 480p but some people don’t seem to notice because, honestly, they just don’t care. We’d also like to think a PlayStation 3 buyer would be aware of the HD content and already have equipment at home to take advantage of the system. Although there are no solid facts to state otherwise, there must be a group of individuals that have purchased a PlayStation 3 and are rolling with SDTV (ghetto).

High definition graphics matter to people who want a true HD experience. Wii gamers don’t care about high definition because they’re focused on the game play environment or are just following the wave of hype and desire to own the infamous white box. The Xbox 360 gamers may go either way, a gamer wants to own the system because they can get a lot of cool new games for it secondary to the HD experience. The hot games just don’t get designed on the Xbox classic or PS2 anymore. We’d presume a PS3 gamer really wants to play a high definition game because the cost of the console is more and you’re getting a Blu-ray player all bundled into one.

HD graphics matter to us, we see the difference, respect the detail and use the HD portion of the console as an excuse for paying so much for the technology. The United States, as a whole, isn’t fully ready or equipped (mentally) for a full HD experience. When will they be prepared to experience high definition at its fullest?

My guess, five years after Nintendo makes the transition to 1080p. Nintendo is capitalizing on the “average Joe” and the average consumer is still catching up on the high definition. Hell, many gamers are still playing the dial-up game!

Maybe we need to start a new government funded orgnization: The No HD Left Behind Act. Everyone should be in HD.

Sony’s Software Development Beta ProjectsSony’s Software Development Beta Projects

It seems we’ve seen a lot of great concepts from Sony for their PlayStation 3 product line but very little has managed to hit the software virtual shelves. We’ve heard of Sony’s Afrika for the PS3 back at E3 in 2006 and we’re looking at it for 2008’s holiday lineup.

We’ve heard about Sony Home for years as well, but that’s now in some type of beta. It was supposed to be an open beta but that didn’t seem to work out and now it’s closed beta only. Recently they pushed out a firmware update that bricked PlayStation 3 consoles or at least screwed up many of them in varying levels.

Are they just really bad at software development and road map predictions? As a hardware development company they’ve put out some hardcore products, stone cold stable in terms of design and efficiency from the Walk Man to the PS3. Their products are practical in design, for the most part, fairly pretty, stable and function as designed. Yet they come up short on software time and time again.

One of the contributors at 2old2play had some things to say about Sony’s development efforts:

“Having worked at Sony as a Creative Designer two years ago, it doesn’t surprise me that they have still yet to release Home. While there, I was working on their Station Launcher application which was supposed to be released in late 2006. However, the Launcher app is still only in Beta to this day.” (2old2play.com)

In many ways their the anti-Microsoft in their approach and commitments. While Microsoft ships hardware that has what must be a 60% failure rate Sony ships hardware which works fairly well. On the flip side, Microsoft publishes a large quantity of software for all their products and has done very well in the business. Nobody can say it’s 100% perfect but it tends to get better with age or, at least, grow on you.

(more…)