Epic's Mark Rein: Buy a Harddrive, Embrace Patches

Vice President of Epic Games, Mark Rein, believes that the ability to patch games after release is a bonus for gamers, and he suggests you get yourself a hard drive.  Rein was speaking to Wired magazine when he expressed irritation at the negative attention given to software patches, "that's not a bad thing, to be able to fix something you didn't get quite right, or create new types of gameplay..."

Rein also urged Xbox 360 basic console owners to get the wallets out and buy a hard drive.  Though most hardcore gamers already have them, Rein believes that more games going forward, particularly Epic's own Unreal Tournament 3, will be optimized for use with the hard drive.  Rein also praised Sony for including a harddrive with both versions of their PS3.

UT3 may not absolutely require a premium 360, but the writing is on the wall.  Rein said, "We will absolutely take advantage of the hard drive...  So if you don't have a hard drive on Xbox 360 and you want to get the most out of your UT purchase, think about getting one."

I always assume everyone owns the $400 version of the Xbox 360, but I might just be an ignorant elitist.  I did wonder how the rest of the world - who are mostly not online - deals with unpatched games.  How many of you play your 360s with a gaping hole where the silvery storage device should be?  (translation:  did you buy a core system and does this announcement bother you?)

[via eurogamer.net]