Got a New 4G Xbox Slim? You Can’t Play Halo: Reach Co-op Then
Microsoft’s newer, slimmer Xboxes that don’t come with the 250GB hard drives (but do come with 4GB of internal memory) cannot play certain Halo: Reach gametypes because of an apparent lack of storage available to cache levels and other game code.
Tests by Nukezilla show that the Xbox slim 4GB brings up an error message when attempting to join a co-op campaign mission.
Surprised? Well you should’t be, it’s a known feature (not a bug), as is apparent by the issue being the number one FAQ on Halo: Reach‘s Xbox page.
Q1: The error “One or more players do not have an Xbox 360 Hard Drive. An Xbox 360 Hard Drive is required to play co-op on Xbox LIVE or system link” occurs when I try to play. Why?
A1: One or more players do not have a certified Xbox 360 hard drive attached to their Xbox 360 console. Some multiplayer aspects of Halo: Reach require an Xbox 360 certified hard drive.
This means that console owners who bought the game and have a brand new slim 4GB Xbox have a huge chunk of the game’s functionality missing. A forum post on Bungie.net dated from back in August describes similar problems with Halo 3: ODST, with the issue left unresolved.
So to be clear:
- This only affects the new slim 4GB Xbox 360s.
- Adding extra storage through USB sticks etc. doesn’t seem to fix the problem.
- Standard multiplayer isn’t affected by this issue.
- It’s only a problem on co-op, although we’re currently trying other modes.
- It appears to be a problem on every Halo game. We’ve seen reports saying there’s issues with Reach and ODST.
- If you have a 4GB Xbox Slim and you’re in the UK, you’re going to have to wait until the end of September to the be able to buy the £80 hard drive you need.
- US gamers can get a 250 GB hard drive from Amazon for $129.99 here.
Update: Amusingly the UK retailer Comet are selling an Xbox 360 4GB Slim bundled with Halo: Reach.
Update 2: Brett’s been able to reproduce this on a US Xbox 360 4GB Slim with identical results.
Update 3: Eurogamer contacted Microsoft this morning who responded by saying that “We are aware of the issue and are quickly working to resolve it.” There’s no word when that will happen, but at least they’re doing something.
Good job Sam! Frodo would be proud.
I got a 4GB model and haven’t had any problem doing anything on Halo Reach but saving videos or maps I made.
@darkwhitehair: Props has to go to my brother who called me in to show me and helped with the testing :)
Well now…that sure is stupid.
Good journalisming, Sam!
The balls on Comet…
@Sam ride this story straight to a job in KOTAKU! That’ll teach Wardrox to not write any more articles.
Also I wonder how Microsoft will fix this problem.
@darkwhitehair: By giving you the privilege of overpaying for a hard drive.
I doubt MS will fix it at all. It’s probably documented in some nook of their website where nobody will look, just so they can point complainers to it and say “You should have done your research before purchasing.”
@Hans Wuerflein: I see a bright future for you in Business related shit.
I KNOW! This is what their official response will probably sound like;
“We believe that a very small percentage of Xbox owners are reportedly having issues with their copy of Halo: Reach. This is not a widespread issue, however we are looking into this.
Halo: Reach is the highest selling Xbox 360 game and has sold over 10 million copies in the past 2 hours with a metacritic score of over 99.9″
BUY MORE THINGS, BE HAPPIER.
That is the lesson here.
@darkwhitehair: You forgot to mention that it’s outpacing blockbuster films, while ignoring the fact that your product costs eight times as much as a movie ticket.
@Shendow: It’s just the co-op mode, not multiplayer.
As mentioned in the article, this is a feature, not a bug. If I remember correctly, you needed a hard drive to play Halo 3 online as well, especially since you need to download certain map packs to play in matchmaking.
Now, is the 4GB (I’m assuming less usable space) enough for the game’s caching? Probably. But what if they user has filled up that space with something? That would bring the problem of some people being able to play and others not, or giving you an error message “Hey delete some stuff if you want to play online.”
Short story:
This has been a requirement since Halo 3.
@Hans Wuerflein: “Halo: Reach is the largest entertainment launch since the launch of toilet paper in 1897. The last hurrah for Bungie (Ed. who we don’t give a shit about anymore LOL), Hulko: Reach tells the story of the brave Noble team and their sacrifice to protect the planet Reach from the covenant. (Ed. – Don’t make it sound too much like the terrorist attacks, but talk about how they made sacrifices and shit)
We are very proud to announce that the small percentage of Xbox’s that have been affected by this small insignificant issue will be given a 400 Micosoft Points with their purchase of a hard drive.
Microsoft Hard Drives are the greatest technological launch in the history of human beings since the launch of Doc Brown’s Classic album ‘Marty! Great Scott!’ in 1985. These hard drives have been coated with Uranium to provide the best gaming experience known to man, outpacing anything that our competitors provide”
THE HARD DRIVE IS CIVILIZATION!!!!!!!
This is so f**king win! LOL, this is just cracking me up. MS makes and sells a console that can’t play its premier series and uses it as a ploy to get you to buy an over priced HDD. Nice one Softy.
@darkwhitehair: If this had a like button, I would press it several thousand times.
“The use of Microsoft Hard Drive (Ed.- Patent pending motherfucker) has been shown to boost the semi pixel counts in Halo: Reach, providing the most realistic graphics in Covenant history since the launch of Haunted Mansion on the Atari 2600. Fans of the popular game Halo will no doubt see the increased pixel count as the greatest achievement (Ed.- ZING MOTHERFUCKER!) in human history since President Taft was able to get out of his bathtub by himself.
Our research shows that this minor issue is not present throughout every Xbox (Ed.- If you don’t like it go play some Barbie Horse adventures. Fucking moran!) and a patch will be released soon by the award winning developer Bungie (Ed.- It’s called a ‘Title Update’ retard)
Microsoft has been providing the greatest entertainment experience in the history of modern civilization since the launch of Abacus (Ed.- Trademark by Hasbro, DONT FORGET THAT) in the early 12th century. With the launch of Kinect this is a watershed moment in gaming and human history since the launch of Duke Nukem Forever in 1969 (Ed.- OH YEAH!)”
@Chelsea Thompson: I “like” you too. You wanna hit up a bar and go trollin’ for some gamr gurlzzzzzzzs?
“(Ed.- Listen press release intern, make sure that the title update is padded out to like 100mb and all it does is display the message ‘Please insert Microsoft hard drive you cheapassagamer’ That’s called synergy motherfucker!)
M$ – it only does money grabbing
Someone photoshop this shit http://bit.ly/aHlJlX
I am astounded. Genuinely astounded. I can’t contribute anything useful because I’m far too busy trying to understand what Microsoft’s rationale could possibly be for letting this happen. They’re actually selling consoles that can’t run a large portion of arguably their biggest console-seller. This is magnificant in its stupidity.
@Ace Flibble: The Arcade unit couldn’t do it either. This isn’t a ‘new’ thing. You buy a unit without a hdd, you won’t be able to use features that rely on that hdd. Do they need to add something on the back that says “hey you need a hard drive for the full experience”? Yes. But this is NOT something that is new. The units without hard drives have always been a gimped experience.
The 4gigs of internal flash are treated as a memory card, not as a really small hard drive. And you’ve never been able to cache games to a memory card (mostly because they were always too small until they allowed any usb flash drive, but still, point stands.)
If you bought a 4GB Xbox 360 Slim, you’ll only have to pay £120 extra to play Reach. Bargain.
Lol, like I said I havne’t had any problems.
When I got halo reach I play co-op right away.
Son of a…
@Harry Bandell: If you want to play co-op that is. SADFACE!!!
Another week, another reason I’m not regretting selling my 360…
@Naughton: Unless it had a hard drive. I hear there’s a market for those these days.
@Hans Wuerflein: Dammit, I could have been rich! Rich, I tell ya!
@Naughton: You wanna Turismo my Sackboy while I Clank your Killzone?
@darkwhitehair:
@Hans Wuerflein: Let me Jak your Daxter while you Ico my Colossus.
@Hans Wuerflein:
Is that photoshopped?, if it isnt, steroids much?
@Dohnut74: It is an internets, sir. I have no idea what the origin of this is.
This is nothing new Halo 3 had this.
And who on their right mind buy’s an Xbox 360 S with ONLY 4GB? Get the damn 250GB edition.
@Hans Wuerflein: That is an incredibly troubling photo.
@Sam Jordan:
For all the steriods he/she does, they dont look very happy :(.
\A1: One or more players do not have a certified Xbox 360 hard drive attached to their Xbox 360 console. Some multiplayer aspects of Halo: Reach require an Xbox 360 certified hard drive.\
So…we’re supposed to believe that the 4GB drive inside the new 360 slim is NOT an \Xbox 360 certified hard drive\??? Does it have to be a signed copy from Mr. Gates himself? Personally bitzeroed by CTO Barry Briggs? Does it have to come with a certificate of approval which Steve Ballmer used to wipe his ass?
\This is nothing new Halo 3 had this.\
No, it didn’t. This has to do with the new Slim, which wasn’t out when Halo 3 came out. ODST had a similar problem, yes. But either way, you have to tell gamers before they buy. Microsoft, I’m sure, is going to claim that the fine print on the Reach box covers this. My copy says:
\some features and downloads require additional storage, hardware, and/or fees.\
Which I suppose does cover it. But if you bought the Slim and Reach together on Day 1, there would have been no research you could have done to find the problem before you bought it. Moreover, Bungie HAD to know that there would be uproar over this. Not publicizing this problem is the real issue.
I guess what this means now is that we can no longer assume that any console game will work correctly straight out of the box (even though one of the main original selling points for consoles is that you didn’t have to worry whether the game would work on your system–you could just put it in and go).
Do your homework before you buy, folks. If the info is even out there. Or don’t buy on Day 1 and wait for the problems to surface.
Clowns.
@GunghoIguana: Except this HAS been around since Halo 3. You’ve always required a hard drive to play co-op online (and in the case of Halo 3/ODST, anything online after they added the requirement of certain map packs.) This isn’t an issue unique to the 4gig Slim model, since Arcade units lack hard drives as well. Yet you don’t see mention of that in any of these articles, nor did you see hullabaloo about it back then.
@Tatsuyame: But the difference is that the 4GB model has plenty of space to store a few maps. This shouldn’t have been a problem, but it is.
There is little that Microsoft can do to fix this problem, I am sorry to say. A game like this simply NEEDS a hard drive to save maps upon!
Microsoft does need to stop treating the XBox 360 hard drive as an option anymore. Sony was smart. They said from freaking day 1 that the hard drive was not an option, it is a necessity.
@Hans Wuerflein: Well the free map packs are half a gig, the rest total another gig. Add to that the room it needs to cache campaign maps (no clue how big that is) and you should see why they didn’t allow caching to the memory unit. Some people simply wouldn’t have the space, unless they decided to reserve room for game caches, which again, would cause another shitstorm. Also if they release the amount of maps for reach as they did for Halo 3, more than half the memory unit is gonna be Halo content.
But yeah, all they had to do was put a damn “This title REQUIRES a hard drive for certain features.” That’s a lot more explicit and clear than saying ‘requirements may change’ or whatever they put.
The total game, cut-scenes and all, is a maximum of 8.5 gigs.
You don’t have to have the map packs. It doesn’t have to install all the maps at once.
They could have made it work, they just didn’t.
@Hans Wuerflein: You do have to have some of the maps though, and you have to wonder if there will be another shitstorm when that happens and people complain that they don’t have the space.
I really hope they also patch ODST :/
It worked for me. Either they fixed it or I’m lucky
Hope Microsoft sort this, I don’t want to buy a 250gb HD just for one game, cheek!
Oh boo hoo. Anyone keen on Halo Reach would obviously know about Forge, Theater, etc, and need a HDD. Buying a 4gig system is retarded.
Go the extra distance and get the proper console. Stop making such a fuss over this. MS are bastards, we’ve known this since they released Windows ME. Done and done.
@Pascal Sheen: This is a videogame blog where we talk about current events in the videogame world, regardless of whether we are surprised by them or simply disappointed.
Hi guys. After discussing this issue with Xbox for the last hour, I have come to the conclusion of a Class Action Lawsuit against both, Microsoft and Bungie. We enter an agreement when we purchase the product, at full price, that we will be getting full functionality.
I hope that others will not let major corporations to continue to walk all over loyall customers, such as the GM – 3year car blow out in order to sell more vehicles.
We will win this if we can get enough people.
I will be filing the Class Action Lawsuit within the next few weeks in the Chicago court system, which is good news for us if you are aware of Chicago and politics.
please contact me @ jawilli1s@hotmail.com if you are interested in joining.
@Pascal Sheen: i think you saying th@ is pretty retarded not everyone can afford to buy the 250gb console. I have this same problem i personally got my 4gb console free with my contract phone and im sure alot of others did too dont just assume everyone went out and bought it.
P.S. wish id never got rid of my old 60gb console
I used to be a PS3 fanboy to death, but it broke so i decided to get a 360. i got £140 and got the 4gb slim. I think what some of you spoilt brats need to realise is that not all of us can just ‘Go out and buy something’, we have to save up for it. I regret getting this 360, it’s just been 1 problem after another. I don’t give a shit about not being able to play Reach, the thing that bothers me is i can’t play Xbox originals. It also doesn’t help that Xbox 360 HDD’s require a transfer cable to connect to the slim, as i’m finding it very hard to get hold of one without resorting to the internet which i hate buying things off.
So online mode will work just not the co-op mode? A non situation here for the majority of people.
Correct, you can play matchmaking, just not co-op games i.e campaign firefight ect. But its still pretty fuckin stupid of Microsoft to do this.
first off its not gonna befixed by mircsotf they dont care to please you needs there in it to make money making it so the 4gb xboxs cant play reach co-op live and firefight live is there way to make money because ifu wanna play thos that bad they know youwill by the hard drive
Yah makes me think I wasted 199 on a gimped 4gig doorstop of a a system.
MICROSOFT CAN SUCK MY BALL SACK!
I got a 360 slim this weekend and Reach was running just fine. Then I tried halo 2… nope, need 360 hdd and usb drive will not cut it. Turns out this applies to ALL original xbox games. I knew should have spent $50 more for the shinny slim w/250gb of hdd.
I’ve not bothered reading through all of the other comments but there is a cheap way to solve this problem. Go buy yourself an official 20, 60, 120 GB hard drive, open it (8 screws in total), plug it into your slim (when it’s switched off)! It’s that simple. Just look for a video on youtube.
@bazzakay: “http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JW-ow2GHjvc” It will work, but is VERY risky.
yes, very risky in the same sense that stepping out of your home every day is risky… Sorry, I don’t see the danger.
anyone who buys the 4 gig is an idiot anyway. would you buy a computer with 4 gigs? i think not! why would you buy a supreme gaming system without plenty of storage space? if you are going to buy one anyway, why not save an extra $100 to get the full effect of a 250 gig and pass up the possibility of running out of space? remember when the old white fat one came out? a 20 gig for $300! i am pretty sure 250 gigs for the same price, plus built in WIFI! AND! wait for it…wait for it…! kinect ready!!! woot! lol sorry you guys complain about silly $#!T get a life and get a job, buy the 250 gig and shut the #3ll up..
@schecter187: I have a job; your mother.
@schecter187: You know you can say shit and hell on here, right?
@schecter187: lol, anyone who spends hundreds of dollars on a low grade 2.5″ SATA HDD and then thinks they got a better console is a nincompoop!
I’m the lucky owner of a 360 4gb Slim.
I have Halo : Reach. And I love it, how Microsoft wants our money. They seduce you with a cheap version of one of the top-sold consoles and then tell you : “Haha, it’s not complete though, you still need to buy our over-priced stuff to enjoy it completely.”
I can’t film, take screenshots of my epic kills, play Firefights with my friends, share any kind of data, and the most bothering thing : No co-op.
Why so mean, Softy?
Duuudesss… the freakin space is not the problem, I just put an 16gb usb memory stick, so in theory i have now 20gb of space (including de 4gb of the sutpid fiasco)so they still freakin telling me I need a HDD, so space is not the problem fuckin pascal sheen retarded and shecter as well…. not even money is the problem.. is just this motherfuckers trying to take even more of what you already have……………
and again……………. if the fuckin 4gb doesn’t work or worth even the shame to buy it WHYYYYYYYYYY IN THE FUCKINGGGG HEEELLLLLLLLLLL YOU SELLL ITTTTTTT, Don’t came to this honest people with that bullshit of … “who buy 4gb is an idiot” nah Dude the fucking super idiot here is YOU for thinking that way….. FUCKING RETARDDD
@Saxerio: it is a bit crappy but there is a solution. Get a cheap 2nd hand official M$ hard drive (the original 20 GB will do fine). I bought mine from cex.co.uk. Search youtube with the following key words: Xbox 360 Slim and ORIGINAL 360 Hard Drive
I just broke the case of the M$ hard drive using a knife, screwdriver and some common sense. I had the original hard drive plugged into the new slim xbox360 quicker than you can say FUCK! be careful though, you may break something or die from electrocution.
@meh Thanks man… is really good to know that still we have people in the world with dovotion for help…. My best wishes in this new year might, have a great year!!!!!
@Shendow: I find that REALLY hard to believe, unless you have a 4Gb model AND bought a hard drive for it. As for saving maps you create in Forge, Idk what’s wrong with your game. But it won’t let you play online Co-op Campaign/firefight, save videos, or download other players custom maps without a hard drive.
hi there played halo reach co-op soo microsoft is liying and taking gamers hard earn money and leave gamers with less money for games
I bought a 4GB slim to get into XBox because I wanted to ditch the PS3. My first purchase after signing up was to download Halo.. I wanted to experience the game everyone was talking about, and from the beginning.
Well I never even got started. No refunds on the download either, thanks MS. Back to playing Warhawk, waiting on Starhawk…
hi there your wrong try a soft ware update because i have had my 4 gb flash ssd halo reach on multi-player with 4 players and i have never seen this message soo i can reashure you i have had true multi-player halo reach
hi there even putting hdd in message still remqins but my 4 gb xbox 360 will let me play co-op on halo 3 reach
just had this problem with a fallout 3 add on yea i kno i 3 years late but i never got the chance to play it anyways, looks like gettin broken steel to work is gonna be a kick in the dick
Buy a PS3, N00bs..
Great… so how do I fix it?
there is a really easy way to resolve your issue. Go buy an official MS hard drive. Go for the 20 GB model if you’re on a low budget. Open it up. Be careful not to chop your fingers off. You can youtube: how to open an xbox 360 hard drive (or something like that). I opened mine with brute force cause I didn’t need to keep the original case. Once you have the actual hard drive you can slot it in at the back of the xbox 360. seriously, youtube it. That’s how I found a solution.
@Andrew: copy and psate this into google:
how to open an xbox 360 hard drive site:youtube.com
just be careful not to electrocute yourself. It’s dangerous out there. It’s like a jungle sometimes.