Home Editorial Dumb reasons to hate the Xbox One: Game installations

When news sprung that Xbox One games would have to be installed to the system’s hard drive, console gamers lost their minds. Hell, they lost their minds when the Xbox 360 added the option to install games.

“This isn’t a PC, Microsoft!”

“This is probably a form of DRM!”

Installation haters envisioned the hassle of waiting for game assets to transfer and/or the threat of running out of storage space on their otherwise empty 360 hard drives. 

What they didn’t think about were all the upsides to game installation. Sure, you might wait five whole minutes for the first installation, but you’ll get that time back many, many times over in faster load sequences from that day forward. Hell, some people at CheapAssGamer put together a list of the load time improvements for hundreds of Xbox 360 games. For many titles, you’ll get your installation investment back after just a dozen or so boot-ups. And since this wasn’t even a launch feature for Microsoft’s last console, we can only imagine the improvement will be much greater on the Xbox One.

Installations won’t just save you loading time. With the Xbox One, you won’t actually need the game disc to play, so you can instantly launch anything in your library without hunting down the case. That way, if one of your pals sends you an invite for a round of Assassin’s Creed IV multiplayer, you can jump into the match without hesitation. And if you get your ass handed to you, it’s no problem to ragequit back to whatever title you were playing beforehand… all with fast load times and no disc swaps.

As a small bonus, you also won’t have to worry about a scratched disc making your game unplayable, anymore. Your games will remain in pristine condition since they’ll pretty much never be used. Sure, there might not be an easy way to cash in on their sheen, but that’s a topic for another article.

So… faster load times, nonexistent disc swapping, and less long-term disc damage…. What exactly are the downsides of game installs again?

 

8 replies to this post
  1. The information regarding the benefits for installing seems awfully familiar when thinking back to the PS3. I would have KILLED for a five minute install when my install of Heavy Rain clocked over the thirty minute mark. Hell, that game even provided you an origami tutorial to work your way through the long install time.

  2. You know, I’ve long been pondering the option of getting an… wait, gotta think of a clever pun… Red Circle Of Death Machine (TM) because I honestly consider it superior over what Sony is offering and I always have too much money. Aside from that I don’t have friends with whom to play… would you be mine?

    Anyhow. Now I’m seriously turned off from that option because of all the bullshit they pulled. Some people don’t have a plane hangar for a living room, Microsoft! Hell, some people literally can’t even stand upright for a decent gaming session as the Kinect demands!
    Sad to think, really, because a system like the Kinect could do so many wonderful things for you if only it’s implemented properly and without pressure.

    What? Oh yeah, installation. What’s bad about that…

    You have to admit, it is a convenient way to force DRM onto your players. Since all disks serve only to install media, there won’t be a way to play anything without a special permission slip from Microsoft. Used games and all that; Refer to my comment on the previous article. Until somebody cracks the damn thing a day after, at least.

    That and it’d be incredibly easy for Microsoft to lock you out of certain games if they feel like it for whatever reason.

    Besides that, I suppose there aren’t many reasons that speak against installing, so long as there is sufficient disk space. Knowing the trend modern games seem to take, (my Steam folder alone takes up a third of its HD’s space, and I uninstall games that I don’t play,) that might not be granted.

    Good thing it has other flaws, too. Will you be making a series of good reason to hate the Xbox “, The Ginger” One, too?

    • Then again, reselling games is how a lot of money gets made by companies such as Gamestop, so maybe they’re just trying to help push them out of the market…
      Hmm, talk about being a misunderstood Mitch. All Microsoft, Ubisoft, EA, and basically every company ever want to do is help us get rid of Gamestop!

  3. You ever played Gran Turismo? That optional download was HARDLY a “5 minute download”

    They should just be smart (like in GT5) and give the option to either install now, or install over time in the background. That huge install would’ve taken quite some time, instead, before I knew it, my races were loading up quick as nothing

  4. “What exactly are the downsides of game installs again?”

    Personally if I buy games, I tend to buy PC games because they are generally cheaper* – so bear in mind I tend to fall on the side of “Eh, I don’t mind installing so much” – I am already used to it.

    That said, the major issue as I understand it is with installing, games end up being tied to accounts.

    That means if you are a console gamer, one of the major advantages to consoles going back to when you were a kid playing games in primary school is gone.

    You can no longer lend games to your friends, or borrow them off of your friends.That takes out a fair part of the social side of console gaming, the ability to treat games almost like social currency.

    *While the hardware costs more in general the actual software seems to come in about 25% cheaper than its console counterpart in my experience, and generally the AAA titles that require the top of the range PCs brandished by core gamers often aren’t quite as good as the more interesting titles in the tiers below where the savings become even more marked. This may be a regional effect though.

  5. backwards compatibility and even disk installs isn’t really a problem for me….My problem is their attempt to get rid of the used game market ( When I sell my car do I have to pay Ford a fee?), and the idea of an always on camera and mic in my living room… plus I can always play my 360 games, as long as i have to system and disks… but when the xbox one is is taken offline, none of the games will work… the fact it needs to be connected every 24 hours is also crossing the line in my opinion.

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