8 Reasons Why Xbox 360 Was Basically The Dreamcast 2

2. Experimental Optical Drives

The Dreamcast used a proprietary format called GD-ROM, jointly developed with Yamaha; they were CD-like discs that could store approximately 1GB of data. The Xbox 360 used DVD offering just shy of 9GB. Sounds like no ground for comparison at first, right? Well, you have to look outside of the games systems themselves to get answers here. The PlayStation 2 launched with a DVD player as standard, marketing itself on the ability to play the burgeoning DVD Video format in 2001 and some believe this hastened the Dreamcast's failure in the face of a superior machine based on technical specifications. Microsoft made a similar mistake with the Xbox 360: choosing a DVD drive for its games meant the PlayStation 3 launched trumpeting a similar marketing angle it had against Dreamcast some five years earlier - and that angle was Blu-Ray. Offering between 25-50GB for storing and delivering high-definition content, games developers had more space for their games, although arguably most used it to avoid compressing their titles. It did carry some benefits, however. Certain games like L.A. Noire, Battlefield 3, Lost Odyssey and the director's cut of Deus Ex: Human Revolution came with two, three and even four discs in Lost Odyssey's case, and these did not require multiple discs for the PlayStation 3 (although you can disregard Lost Odyssey, as it was an Xbox 360 exclusive). Where this matters is through the HD-DVD drive; an ill-fated accessory for the Xbox 360. HD-DVD was created as a competitor format to Blu-Ray, was backed heavily by Toshiba and, for competitive reasons, was the high-definition format Microsoft chose to back with Xbox 360 - though, strangely not as their primary optical drive. It was marketed for film buffs, but the format was canned come 2008; and one wonders whether Microsoft were either incredibly lucky or incredibly far-sighted to stick with "regular" DVD for their games.