Originally posted by ddaryl
I hate to say this but the real future of gaming will be no hard drive and constantly streaming data.
The hard drive is just a big band-aid for console gaming. It will be used to load quicker and store large amounts of data but by next generation DVD drives will be blazing fast as will memory. Constantly streaming data will always be the real direction not bigger larger storage devices. The HD in Xbox is their because most programmers are good enough to write streaming code, and its a familiar part of PC game code writing
The only reason Sony is adding a HD is for movies, music and other types of broadband content, other benefits will be downloading demos and extra levels, but this is just the added bonus.
Actually that is only half of the picture. First off, DVD drives will be no where near the speed of a hard drive in five years, especially when you consider that both technologies will continue to advance.
Anyway, there is a lot more to a hard drive than streaming from its cache (larger levels, more textures, less and faster loading). You have add-ons, switching in-game music with your own, a huge space to save changes to the gaming world (Ego is a great example of a game that needs a hard drive) and even though RAM speeds will increase next generation, so will the recourse demands of the games. A hard drive is a great way to increase the speed and scope of a game while also adding extra features (demos for instance) without breaking the bank.
