If you're a Battlefield fan with an Xbox 360 S 4GB console, you're going to be sorely disappointed with the little regard EA has for you and your console.
Are you an Xbox 360 Slim owner who loves shooters? Chances are you’re right about now getting ready to get a copy of Battlefield 4, and we’re here to tell you that you shouldn’t.
The Xbox 360 copy of the game has a major flaw that will prevent you from playing the game at all, whether it’s multiplayer or the single player campaign. When you first insert Disc 1 (which happens to be multiplayer disc), it says that a 2GB content installation is required for the game to run. If you go through with the installation, the game requires an Xbox 360 Hard Drive to be the destination of the installation. The game WILL NOT install to a USB drive or even the internal 4GB of memory available on the Xbox 360 Slim, as the game does not recognize that as a hard drive.
If you don’t have the Xbox 360 Hard Drive, your only option is to quit, sit in a corner and weep your eyes out for not being able to play, despite having all the requirements. EA has made the hard drive requirement mandatory, also stating that this requirement had been communicated to the “community” through Battlefield 4’s Twitter page. The company also made an official statement:
“The first time you start your game, regardless of which disc you use, you will be asked to perform a required installation of 2 GB worth of game content to your hard drive. Note, the above-required and below-additional installations can only be installed on Xbox 360 hard disk drives, and cannot be installed to USB drives, or other alternative storage devices. Battlefield 4 cannot be installed and played on a 4GB internal flash drive. You will have the option to accept the 2GB install or quit. Quitting will return you to the Xbox dashboard, and you will not be able to play Battlefield 4.”
Call of Duty: Ghosts has a similar issue, requiring a mandatory 3GB texture pack install and while it too does not recognize the Xbox 360 Slim’s internal storage, it will, however, allow you to install the texture pack to a USB drive. Battlefield 4, on the other hand, is very particular that its contents only be installed to an Xbox 360 Hard Drive, which costs Rs. 8,200.
Microsoft had enabled support for USB Flash Drives up to 32GB in size, which allowed users to install games and any extra add-ons a game might require. Even Halo 4, which required the Multiplayer disc be installed completely, allowed the installation to be made to a USB drive, in case you didn’t have an Xbox 360 Hard Drive. CoD: Ghosts also allows the install to take place on a USB drive, but EA locking out all storage options other than the Xbox Hard Drive seems not only discriminatory, but also a cheap trick to force gamers to buy the expensive hard drive.
To add insult to injury, the disclosure about the hard drive requirement came just 21 hours before the game hit store shelves across the world, but by then, many ardent fans had already pre-ordered their copies. EA, in their defense, said that since they had made the requirement public before launch, they are not in the wrong. They also said that the front cover of the game for the Xbox 360 has a “hard drive required” imprint and the back cover does carry a fine print that says “Hard Drive with 2GB available storage space required. Hard drive sold separately for Xbox 360 S 4GB, and original Xbox 306 Arcade, Core consoles.” Yes EA, because every single buyer out there spends a good 10 minutes reading every single thing written on the covers, especially the fine print before we buy our games. And of course, the 4GB of internal storage space on the Xbox 360 Slim is not “good enough.”
The outcome of this fiasco essentially is that EA wants you to either buy the Xbox 360 250GB bundle or at least the Xbox Hard Drive. Essentially, to play this Rs. 3,500 game (or Rs. 4,000 if you got the Deluxe edition), you’re going to HAVE TO spend another Rs. 8,200 at the very least, else you can take your business somewhere else because EA doesn’t give a damn.
The rather vague hard drive requirement logo on the front
The fine print on the back, buried amidst a lot of other text