well, lets get back to the topic for a second. I think Sony not including the hard drive is a big mistake. Why? It will never recieve the mass implementation and functional use as the xbox 1's HD did, or the 360's will. Yeah sure, PS3 devs can include a line of code that checks for a hd and a directory on it for maps and stuff, but what they CAN't do is design their games to use the hard drive to cache files, possible adding performance benefits. What's more, is that they can't really take off with whatever online option they WERE planning because you won't be able to download content, unless Sony somehow makes 2 GB memory cards. Now of course, they could make the hard drive mandatory, but that would be shooting themselves in the foot, as I doubt people would want to pay $80 for the hard drive ON TOP of the console price, which we've heard could be over $450.
Generally, in order for something to be used to its fullest extent and not just be a wasted feature, it has to be implemented in every incarnation of the system. Just look at the PS2 online feature for example. A lot of people bought the network adapter when it came out, but how many of them actually use it? The small girth of games that supported it, and the smaller amount of them that actually had good performance online contributed to the fact that although the PS2 trumps the xbox in numbers sold in north america by almost 2:1, the xbox undisputedly has more online users than the PS2 by a ratio probably even larger than that because xbox live was propriety, secure, and had good performance. With xbox live, everyone has broadband, most people have a headset, so you know that the performance is almost always good. Same thing with the harddrive. Not only did the PS2 hard drive get screwed over by the second iteration of the PS2, it only had an actual important role with one title, FFXI. Whereas, every xbox has a hard drive, every game uses it, every live title uses it, and it not only adds performance benefits, but completely solves the storage problems of consoles.
This is something that MS learned with the last generation, and so they are making sure that the 360 comes complete with everything nessecary to be able to take advantage of all the features of the console. Meanwhile, Sony is going off and implementing all these useless features half-assedly, which most likely are not going to be very popular with most casual and dedicated gamers alike-simply for the reason that it costs money, and since its not something that developers can count on every person owning, they can't really develop their game in such a way as to take advantage of it in the right way, because otherwise their game would only be available to a small amount of people. This makes a sort of paradox. People won't pay for the hard drive because it probably wont be used much. Devs wont use it much because people probably won't buy it.
Whereas with the xbox, this problem is sovled because EVERYONE has a hard drive, therefore the devs can use it just like any other piece of hardware.
