[undeaf]

Originally Posted by insane_cobra

The average consumer may be uninformed now, but won't be after a coulpe of months of anti-Blu-ray propaganda which Microsoft, Toshiba, and maybe even Nintendo certainly won't be shy on. Come on, stop it, we could go on with our guesses forever. It's stupid.

That's assuming that that's what microsoft is going to target in their ads. That's not very likely if microsoft will eventually use an HD-DVD, Blue Ray or dual format add-on drive for games, and/or integrate one in a new xbox 360 version, which IMO is quite likely, since making a new console soon has it's problems. Of course toshiba and sony will bash each other's formats, but I think they'll focus more on hyping their own. As for nintendo, do we even know what their "gamecube optical discs" will be?

Originally Posted by insane_cobra

So even if it was possible to connect multiple read-only devices in a RAID (which I'm still not sure of), your idea would still be ridiculous.

It does not have to be raid specifically. It could be as simple as putting some files on one disc, some on another, and splitting some files in two. Why wouldn't something similar to raid be possible for read only devices?

Originally Posted by insane_cobra

It would increase the costs of both hardware and games AND make them more susceptible to damage.

DVD drives are not very expensive, two DVD drives would be a lot cheaper than a Blue ray or HD DVD drive, and would be comparable to single layer blue ray discs and single and dual layer HD-DVDs.

Multiple discs in the console at once would be less susceptible to damage compared to disc switching with multiple disc games. And game makers wouldn't have to use two discs for each game. Also, with speed improvements from two drives, it would be possible to throtle the speed a bit on the drives which would make them wear out a lot less(and make less noise).

Originally Posted by insane_cobra

It would also increase those power requirements you seem to be so worried about.

Optical drives do not use much power, and power/heat is only really a problem when it's concentrated in one area (heat is the big issue, power usage is just the way to measure it), optical drives do not normally get much airflow to cool them, they rely on conduction to the case and convection moreso than other conponents do.

Originally Posted by insane_cobra

GameCube is not made by Microsoft and neither is PS2.

Doesn't mean that they play by a completely unrelated set of rules. The dreamcast came 4 years after the saturn, and it was said to have killed it early.

Originally Posted by insane_cobra

OMG, this is the last console generation!

No, really, what's your point?

That it will be much harder to make a better console next time! To make a console that'll be close to as much of an improvement, they'll have to wait a lot longer, since the alternative seems very unlikely. To not wait extra, they'll have to use more expensive chips, use a heatsink at least comparable to a scythe ninja on the CPU(and also a better one on the GPU), and either use delta fans or make the console much bigger.

Originally Posted by insane_cobra

I didn't mean funny in that way, though. *checks his chairs... none missing*

No, you see, steve balmer throws chairs in certain situations, such as when his employees quit to work for google, and perhaps also when people laugh at microsoft a lot.