Bigger Xbox 360 Hard Drives Are Needed for Games on Demand Service

During its press conference at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), Microsoft revealed that a Games on Demand service would soon hit its Xbox 360 console and that full games, not just arcade ones, would be available for download starting with the end of the year.

This led to some pretty interesting talk amongst Xbox 360 users and gaming industry analysts, as the North American console doesn't boast big storage capabilities, with many users not having a hard drive installed on their device.

This will prove a challenge for Microsoft, as bigger hard drives will be key to successfully implementing the Games on Demand service, at least according to Wedbush Morgan Securities' analyst Michael Pachter, who talked with GamesIndustry about this tough subject.

“I don't see the timing between new release and digital download being a function of anything other than hard drive sizes,” revealed Pachter. “I think as soon as we have large hard drives - think the rumoured Project Natal 'new' Xbox 360 with a terabyte of storage in 2010 - we'll have day-and-date downloads.”

While the Redmond-based company revealed that the Games on Demand service would get older titles first and eventually evolve into receiving day-and-date launches, there has been speculation about retailers boycotting this new service. Such a thing is nonsense according to Pachter, who stated that Apple did the same thing with its iPod business and nobody complained.

“I don't think that the publishers care at all if downloads are day-and-date, and in fact, my guess is that many publishers favour such a model. It's true that retail partners wouldn't like it, but it is not necessarily true that they would have much to say about it,” said Pachter. “I don't see how they could scream too loudly about day-and-date downloads, unless the price for the download was lower than the packaged product price. I don't see any retailers refusing to sell iPods, even though all the content on an iPod is distributed digitally. 

With many Xbox 360 consoles out there having only a small amount of memory or just a 20 GB hard disc, which is already filled with save games, demos or other game data, Microsoft will have a tricky job on its hands making the Games on Demand service popular.